New rifle course aims for good fighters, not good marksmen

  • Published
  • By Shawn J. Jones
  • 514th Air Mobility Wing public affairs
JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. --  In the chaos of a real firefight, it is not realistic to expect every Airman to calmly align a rifle sight on a single stationary target, maintain controlled breathing and steadily squeeze the trigger.

And that's why the Air Force has ended its decades-long practice of sending Airmen into combat zones with little more than basic marksmanship skills and has revamped its rifle qualification course to emphasize the weapon skills needed for engaging an enemy combatant.

"Airmen can expect better training and more realistic scenarios," said Tech. Sgt. Michael Zigarelli, a combat arms instructor.

The new course began here in March, but has been active at some locations since January. If the lessons learned at those locations hold true here, then combat arms instructors of the 514 Security Forces Squadron can expect many more Airmen who need extra attempts to pass the test than what was common with the old course. Fortunately, Airmen must only retest on the portions in which they failed to qualify, and combat arms instructors will provide more personal attention to those who are retesting.

But the increased difficulty comes with an obvious benefit.

"Airmen will be more equipped for a situation where they have to use their firearm," Zigarelli said.

The major changes in the qualification course are intended to add duress to the training.
They include more stringent time constraints, target discrimination and verbal commands that are more typical of a fire fight.

For instance, Airmen won't hear the combat arms instructors say anything like, "Ready... Aim...Fire." Instead, they may hear the commands such as "contact left" or "contact front" which indicate which target the shooters should engage.

The new course will also address some common bad habits. For example, Airmen who only use their weapon at a firing range may develop tunnel vision in a real firefight.

Combat arms instructors will discourage the typical Airman from concentrating on a single threat and emphasize situational awareness to recognize emerging threats or the need to render assistance to a fellow servicemember.

Zigarelli said he doesn't expect the course to make all Airmen into weapons experts, but it will get them practicing and thinking about the right way of doing things.

The new course requires more time, both on the range and in the classroom. Overall, the typical Airmen can now expect to dedicate to two full days to learning their weapon.