Things that don't make sense...

[MeierT]

Thanks for the responses.


I'm not trying to belittle anyone and apologize if I've offended some of you by asking these questions. I just considered these to be legit questions that I hoped senior and experienced Marines could explain.

Marksmanship training definitely helps you to shoot better. It explained the basic aspects of shooting better than my dad probably ever could have. I am undoubtedly a better shooter because of it.

A lot of responses suggest that Drill is good for Esprit-De-Corps. It's probably just my generation, but I gathered that the vast majority of Marines in my boot company either disliked it or flat out hated it. At the same time though I realize that you should march crisply. I was very annoyed at how sloppy we marched after boot camp.

The thing that confuses me most about the emphasis on close order Drill is that it is close order. We were constantly trained in combat training to maintain a significant distance between Marines in order to avoid multiple casualties to grenades or IEDs.

[Zulu 36]

The study of the human body's reaction to high load psychological stress (i.e., combat) has discovered that even if one is in superb physical condition, well trained in carrying combat loads, etc, when the old fight-or-flight syndrome kicks in - all bets are off.

Those who have BTDT know what I am saying. Especially in one's very first combat experience when suddenly your boots feel like they're made of lead and your rifle weighs 50lbs. That's just your body shunting blood away from the extremities to make sure the core is well supplied.

Physical fitness testing can only go so far. However, being in superb physical condition does help mitigate the effect of an adrenaline dump. The PFT and CRT only exist to test for a minimum of physical conditioning. Grunts train harder (but differently) with their long humps with all of their gear, plus combat exercises with combat loads (e.g., Mohave Viper, etc).

SEALS, Delta, Green Beanies, Recon, etc, all have extremely physically demanding selection programs. But they are only partially testing physical fitness. They are primarily testing mental toughness. To a lesser degree, so does Marine boot camp.

Rifle qualification on a KD range. Why? As a previous poster wrote: it's all about FUNDAMENTALS. Don't pro baseball teams practice the fundamentals daily? Football teams? It all comes down to the basics. If you can't do the basics, how can you do the advanced work?

Close order drill. Not only does COD teach Marines to move efficiently as a unit from A to B, and it teaches instant obedience to orders. However, one very important thing COD engenders is TEAMWORK.

Yes, COD is based on combat formations of days past. Be glad ours is now a simplified version, even from when I went to boot camp.

Go to You Tube and look up Trooping the Colour and see the complex drill movements the British Foot Guards have to be able to perform and they are still fully qualified infantrymen and they do deploy.

[WXSgt]

Yes, the way basic marksmanship is taught will improve your shooting. But why is there such a huge emphasis on 'hollywood' shooting over learning to deliver, rapid, accurate fire at moving targets from short distances?

there is trainning on how to "to deliver, rapid, accurate fire at moving targets from short distances" its table 2 and further on in the fleet again as ive said before you get table 3 & 4 hell i did it a couple of months ago for predeployment trainning while out in the field. we engage moving targets out to 100yds i believe that you did that in boot as well.

[Beltayn]

SEALS, Delta, Green Beanies, Recon, etc, all have extremely physically demanding selection programs. But they are only partially testing physical fitness. They are primarily testing mental toughness. To a lesser degree, so does Marine boot camp.

Definitely THIS.

Most combat exercises and humps (the extent of my own experience, not being a combat veteran) are 90% ballsack and only 10% physical strength.
I have seen big ripped gymn-addicts that can bench 3 times my weight crumple in the heat when you put a combat load on them and ask them to walk a roving post for 6 hours, and little scrawny guys like myself happily run the same while carrying the 240.

There's a reason why the core value is COMMITMENT, and not Strength.

There's an anonymous quote I read once that I really liked as well about courage. It went something to the effect of "courage is finding the will to endure... for just one moment longer. To take just that one more step. And then to do it again."

[Marine84]

HAHAHAHA!

Everybody wants to question WHY. If you had stayed in longer Grasshoppa, you would have learned WHY.

[Sgt Leprechaun]

Beltayn and others nail it. 90 percent mental.