Firing line

Regardless of Josh’s ultimate Military Occupational Specialty – saxophonist with the 1st Marine Division Band at Camp Pendleton – the Corps expects him to be first and foremost a rifleman.

While Josh has shot thousands of rounds, perhaps even tens of thousands, before he went to boot camp, I don’t believe he has ever picked up a weapon that could do serious damage. Not counting his air gun, every shot he took before July 19 was with a video game controller.

So while “Call of Duty,” “Ghost Recon” and “Socom” may have given him a taste of battlefield strategy, the last several training days in the field at Pendleton have developed his skills with a real M16 service rifle. On Friday, Training Day 34, Josh and the other recruits in his platoon will put their skills to the test.

Up to this point, they’ve learned four shooting positions (standing, kneeling, sitting and prone), and have been taught how to take weather conditions and other variables into account when shooting. They have been aiming and firing targets that are 200, 300 and 500 yards away. Now they’ll be scored on how well they’ve developed as riflemen.

There are three levels: marksman, sharpshooter and expert. I’m not sure of the latest numbers on how each level is scored, but I do know that Josh’s pre-boot camp goal was to be considered “expert.”

Regardless of whether he achieves that or not, Josh will have the opportunity to re-qualify every year and can wear the corresponding rifle marksmanship badge. Of the three, the expert badge really is the coolest looking, so says Josh.

There’s no telling how far he wants to take this training, but I think it’s interesting to note that six soldiers with the US Army Marksmanship Unit were on the US Olympic Team two years ago in Beijing. One of them, Maj. Michael E. Anti, was competing in his fourth Olympics. He won a silver medal in the men’s three position rifle event at the Athens Games in 2004.

From this corner, an Olympic medal looks pretty cool, too.