Marksmanship Fundamentals

"I wrote things, only to have it deleted because someone temporarily in charge did not understand them. Some of the people doing the deleting knew nothing about shooting and could not write - at all."

The following is from a Soldier involved in U.S. Army publications who helped write the current Army Training Circulars.

What is a “Fundamental” of Marksmanship?

When the writers of the Army’s small arms Training Circulars (released FY2016) went through all the ADPs and ADRPs and FMs and TCs at one point during the great quest for a new .9 and the IWTS, in the midst of the “Great Benning Word Wars”, they pulled out all the lists of “fundamentals” and “principles”.

• “Fundamentals” were verbs, most of the time.

• “Principles” were adjectives and adverbs, most of the time.

Some manuals mention “principle fundamentals” and some “fundamental principle” but there are some manuals with both those phrases in them. If there’s a “fundamental principle” are there principles that are not fundamental? If there are “principle fundamentals” then are there fundamentals that aren’t principles?

I don’t think the people who wrote those phrases put much thought into them.

Why do we need checklists and to pigeonhole things so much? Most of the time, in an Army book, it is due to Taylorism and the institutionalization of Taylorism. It is possible, and I’d argue preferable, in a small Army of volunteers, called upon to do complex things, to have true understanding rather than the Taylorist ability to quote and repeat things like parrots but not really understand them.

So, when does a checklist make sense? Well, there are a couple of places where it makes sense; one of these is the Shot Process because we know that the brain can only focus on one thing at a time. One can’t argue with an Olympian who says “I use my highly refined Shot Process to keep my focus where it needs to be during a competition.” One can’t argue with a sports performance dude who says to have a mental checklist for performance under stress. Checklists make sense on a pilot’s kneeboard or in an emergency room. Another place is for a minimal list of items describing a simplified Shot Process for new and novice shooters – say, about four – completing routine, entry-level Army small arms qualification… But these are lists of checks and procedures, not “fundamentals.”

One can argue with that same Olympian when he says HIS shot process from HIS sport should be The Fundamentals Of All Marksmanship For The Entire US Army At All Times Under All Conditions, which is sort of what one is doing when one codifies THE Fundamentals Of All Marksmanship in an Army manual.

Similarly, one can also argue with a doctrine writer whose idea of “Army Marksmanship” is only what is codified in the path to qualification when said path does not include any other shooting Army personnel might do beyond what is in that minimalist, basic qualification. This is how we got nonsense like “breathing” as a “fundamental.”

Dudes had one job: Get Joe through qualification in basic training on an M16A1 with iron sights. If they had said “We want Joe to pause his breath while aiming and pressing the trigger during zero and qual” it would not have been a big deal, but instead, they published a manual that decreed “breathing” as being a primary “Fundamental Of All Marksmanship” and fully 25% of the entire thing!

The more training, engagements, and experiences looked at, the more things didn’t fit the dictionary definition of a “fundamental” and/or were not always true, all of the time. The more we read everyone’s preferred checklist of “fundamentals” the easier it became to find combat engagements that did not include or were not adequately summarized by someone else’s checklist.

When a bullet goes to the right place, there is always some kind of Stability. The barrel of the weapon was oriented correctly in space at the instant the bullet left, so it was Aimed, at least rudimentary. Someone, somehow, was exhibiting some sort of Control over that weapon. I’m still not 100% convinced about “Movement” as a Functional Element, but whatever… I’ll go read it again.

I remember writing things, then moving to another job… then coming back to the .9 manual draft and asking where all my things went. They were deleted because someone who was temporarily in charge did not like them, or understand them… or had no vision of how things could be.

Some of the people doing the deleting knew almost nothing about shooting. Some of them could not write, at all. Yet there they were, writers in charge of the US Army rifle manual…