CAMP HANSEN, OKINAWA, Japan --
The Okinawa sun hangs high in the sky and glints off of
brass from deployed rounds are scattered across the firing line as service
members engage targets at high speed during a three-gun shooting competition
Feb. 17-19 at Camp Hansen.
Instructing
these prestigious shooters are Marines from the U.S. Marine Corps’ own Combat
Shooting Team, who traveled from Quantico, Virginia to share their knowledge
and shooting techniques with the competing service members.
“We
teach the Marines how to be more effective in combat with their standard issued
weapons systems,” said Sgt. Martin Lucero, and instructor and competitor for
the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Shooting Team. “We travel, we learn new tactics
and we give that knowledge back to the Marines through traveling to different
Marine Corps hosted competitions to instruct.”
The
team’s duty is to gather information on how to improve themselves as combative
shooters, practice their tactics and share their knowledge to service members.
“We
travel to civilian competitions around the U.S. to observe tactics, procedures
and weapons that are used, and we mold it and adapt it to combat,” said Lucero,
a Denver, Colorado native. “Our goal as instructors is to do what we can to
teach the Marines to stay combat effective instead of just shooting stationary
targets.”
When
the team is not instructing, they are practicing their shooting, firing
approximately 16,700 rounds per week individually or competing in military and
non-military matches.
“There
is a major competition once per month, we compete in local matches in Virginia where
we are stationed and we shoot with the Quantico shooting club,” said Staff Sgt.
James M. Fehr, a competitor, instructor and staff non-commissioned officer in charge for the team.
Competitive
combat shooting is beneficial to the service members by putting them under
pressure and making them apply the tactics taught to them, according to Lucero.
“The
competition today makes the service members shoot wearing flak jacket, kevlar
helmet and use armory issued rifles they would carry on deployments,” said
Lucero.
To
be offered a spot on the team, Marines have to prove that they are qualified
shooters by winning a medal in a Marine Corps hosted shooting competition, according
to Fehr, a San Manuel, Arizona native. Winners will be invited to join the team
as a ‘summer shooter,’ which is a five-month billet. If they perform well after
the five months as a summer shooter, they can be selected to join the team for
a three-year billet.
Following
this match, the team will travel to Hawaii to instruct service members before a
similar shooting competition.
“Our
goal is to make the Marines into better warfighters,” said Fehr. “Everyone
benefits from going out and training in their weapon systems.”