MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO -- During boot camp, the M-16A2 service rifle becomes like a recruit’s best friend. They do everything together including eating and sleeping. Recruits can not literally be friends with a piece of metal and plastic, but the relationship helps recruits understand their rifles inside and out.
Like friends would, the rifle also helps protect the recruits. During Field Week, Company I recruits completed the Table 2 Basic Combat Marksmanship Course at Edson Range, Camp Pendleton, Calif., March 20, to learn to be an effective threat to the enemy.
“Table 2 firing prepares recruits for what they (would) face in (combat),” said Cpl. Jonathan Neal, range coach, Weapons and Field Training Battalion. “This type of shooting is the closest we can get recruits to combat shooting without actually having people shoot at them.”
Unlike the Table 1 firing course that focuses on basic marksmanship, Table 2 applies fundamentals for combat shooting and is also a graduation requirement.
Recruits are given 220 rounds for practice and testing on rifle presentation, moving targets, head shots, failure to fire drills and failure to stop the enemy drills on targets 15 to 100 yards away.
“The course is designed to make (recruits) respond to threats instinctively by building their muscle memory through repetition,” said Neal, a Chicago native.
Neal said the proper techniques are uncomfortable but they “definitely” work because they are designed to instill a combat mindset in the recruits.
Hitting the target gives recruits one point, while hitting designated areas award two points. The designated areas are on the chest, groin and the T-box area on the head.
“The areas are based on the primary nerve and (hydrostatic) areas of the body,” said Neal, a former infantryman. “If the enemy is shot in the (hydrostatic) areas they will lose enough blood to be taken out of the fight, and when shot in the nerve areas, their bodies quit working. The T-box area on the head is where the medulla oblongata is and acts like a light switch when shot. The enemy will be dead before they hit the floor.”
Recruits must hit a designated area with every shot to receive a maximum score of 100 points during qualification. Recruits’ points are added with their Table 1 score to determine their overall rifle qualification.
“I got a better understanding of what to expect in combat with Table 2 rather than with Table 1,” said Recruit Jonathan Moore, Platoon 3201, Co. I. “This training is important because every Marine is a rifleman—the reason why most of us joined.”