Civilians Teach Army at Camp Bullis

[Hrumph]

"In early March this year, a group of Texans gathered at a hotel in San Antonio. They included a John Deere employee, a Dallas Motorcycle Policeman, a TXU chemist, a retired Chief Warrant Officer, a photographer, the owner of an insurance company, and others. At
the request of the US Army, these men had taken two weeks of unpaid
vacation away from their jobs and families to teach the first-ever class
of what would become known as Squad Designated Marksmen (SDM)
in the US Army."

"The men who gathered were an ordinary group in many ways. They looked like the guy down the street, or your neighbor, or the fellow at church. The Army sought them and selected them for a precise reason: they were all highly skilled and accomplished NRA Highpower Rifle shooters. Most of the faculty for SDM were rated High Master or Master by the NRA. Most wore the Distinguished Rifleman’s badge, an award issued to less than 1700 civilian shooters in the last 100 years. Some owned a Presidents 100 pin, being one of the 100 best shooters at the annual NRA National Matches. Many of them had won state championships, regional, or national awards. Almost all of them were on the TSRA National Match Service Rifle team that represents Texas and our organization at Camp Perry every year. In short, these ordinary guys from ordinary Texas towns were some of the best service rifle shooters
in the country."

"The soldiers loved it. “This is more shooting than I have ever done in my whole Army career,” said one First Cavalry trooper. “I want to learn more about shooting,” said another. “I went through a sniper course and they didn’t teach half of this stuff,” one of the Cpls said. Several of the soldiers want to shoot highpower matches when they return."


Yep! We sure will be doing the nation a favor when we get those "killing machines" out of civilian hands.

Compltete story can be found at http://www.tsrapac.org/Vol_36_3.pdf The cover story starts on page 10.

[JayS]

1. "get those "killing machines" out of civilian hands"

We are already having problems getting snipers for the military. That story a couple of weeks ago about sending the snipers off to Iraq before being fully trained was not very promising.

[Hrumph]

2. Snipers have always been "bastard stepkids"

At the end of every conflict, the art of precision shooting falls out of favor. People see snipers as, somehow, being without honor because they don't go running across the battlefield, screaming at the top of their lungs. Instead, they sit and wait - carefully stalking their target and engaging when the time is right.

Sniper training involves no huge huge government contracts, no pork barrel projects, etc. It always gets neglected in peacetime. Then when the country finds itself in a shooting war again, they eventually come around to the realization that their training has been inadequate. Somehow, the war planners never find themselves fighting the war they were expecting.

[JayS]

3. "the art of precision shooting falls out of favor"

I have heard this before and I am sure that it is true. I am surprised at how few soldiers were found that could shoot well enough to be called fully trained. If the civilian marksmanship program is still around we need to promote it.

[TexasMexican]

4. Civilian Marksmanship Program

http://www.odcmp.com/

I wish I knew more about them, and had some money. I hear you can get some pretty decent WWII Surplus M1 Garands for a decent price if you are in the program or something.

Its too bad that M-14, or even those evil M-16s and the like arent recycled back into civillian ownership in the same way they did with the M1s.

Instead they are just destroyed or sold to foreign governments.

[FrontPorchPhilosophr]

5. In Order to Qualify for a Garand.....

You must participate in a CERTIFIED high power rifle match, and put x number of rounds "down range" - hitting the target is not required - and the sites on my Mini-14 were GROSSLY misaligned and I didn't (still haven't had the time to fix that dammit!).

From this you will get a certification of participation in the Civilian Marksmanship Program that is good for 5 years.

With THAT, you are authorized to buy an ODCMP Garand. I got mine for about $400 - a Danish post WWII return in decent shape.

Prices and quality vary. Springfield 03's occasionally turn up.

30 years ago a .45 was under $50, and rifles were under $200, and both rifles and carbines were available.

;-)

[TexasMexican]

7. Thanks for the info...

I will try to look more into it in the future.

[FrontPorchPhilosophr]

8. Most Izaak Walton League chapters

host high power rifle matches periodically.

Membership is not required to participate, although if you don't KNOW someone who is, you won't know about the match.

Here in the Peoples Republic of Maryland, it is one of the few places where you CAN shoot....

B-)

[Romulus]

11. howdy fellow PRMD'er

:hi:

Edited to add:

I was heavily biased against moving here from VA last year (you know the story), but I have to say that MD isn't as bad as I first thought (except for the firearms transportation and CCW laws).

If MD ever gets those fixed, this could be the best state in the country (supplanting Virginia)!!!!!

[Hrumph]

6. I'm fascinated by the fact

that NONE of the "guns are only for the police and military" crowd has weighed in on this piece. Surely there must be some out there ready with a disparaging comment or two.

[DonP]

9. Have 2 Garands and an '03A3 from CMP

All very nice condition and steeped in history. By tracing serial numbers I discovered that one of my Garands was issued to the Marines in 1942 for the South Pacific campaign the other went to the Big Red One in Europe in February of '44.

If only those scratched and stained old wooden stocks could talk.

But I'm amazed that there isn't a big hue and cry, since they deliver the rifles directly to offices and homes via direct sale.

They do the NICS check at CMP but "evil" battle rifles being shipped by FedEx is the kind of thing that usually gets anti-gun folks dander up.

[Hrumph]

10. Yeah, well, that's the govt. for ya.

They don't have to go by the same rulebook the rest of us do.

[FrontPorchPhilosophr]

12. The Battle Rifles in Question....

Don't have removable magazines.

Don't have pistol grips.

Are used VERY visibly my Army and Marine Corps drill teams in VERY public displays.

It is therefore difficult to demonize them and make them seem "evil."

During the Clinton years this stopped being a Federal activity and became a self-financing quasi-private venture, because the "lefties" cut off the funding, under the assumption that without funding it would die.

WRONG!

B-)

[Hrumph]

13. Actually, I was referring to

the sending the guns through the mail to the purchaser part.