All cadets attended Power Point lectures given by CMP Director Gary Anderson. These short presentations were used to present the basic information the cadets were then expected to apply during their firing sessions on the range.

June 11-15 was a big week at Camp Perry for more than 150 Navy JROTC cadets from high schools in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and West Virginia. The cadets were selected to attend for a NJROTC Basic Leadership Training Course at Camp Perry, Ohio. Their intensive training program during the week included drill and ceremonies, a leadership challenge course, rubber raft training, physical fitness testing, orienteering and air rifle marksmanship. The marksmanship program was provided by the CMP using a temporary 40-point air rifle range set up on Camp Perry’s Petrarca Range.

All cadets participated in daily two-hour marksmanship sessions that were conducted by a team of CMP Master Instructors who were led by CMP Director Gary Anderson. The CMP volunteers came to Camp Perry from as far away as Florida and Rhode Island. They all have had extensive training as CMP Master Instructors as well as many other types of experience as rifle competitors, coaches, instructors and range officers. The volunteer instructors for the NJROTC Basic Leadership Course were William Corgnell, Florida; Keith Custard, Pennsylvania; Dan Hoey, Maryland; Ray Harvey, Tennessee; Grant Lewis, Virginia; Clint Lovell, Rhode Island; Rob Sherer, Ohio; Ray Vaughn, Maryland and Michelle Woods, Ohio. The NJROTC BLT Commander was Capt. Tom Lennon, Senior Naval Science Instructor at Franklin Heights High School in Columbus, Ohio.

Everyday the cadets woke up at the break of dawn and began their days with physical training shortly after 5:00 A.M. The cadets were divided into eight platoons. Every two hours during each of the four training days, two platoons arrived at the air rifle range for marksmanship training. On the first day the cadets received a safety presentation and then were required to take, and pass, a detailed safety examination. Once the examination was passed they were permitted to move on to the exciting part, shooting rifles.

In addition to safety and range procedures, the first day’s instruction covered basic techniques for firing the shot, sight alignment, breath control, trigger control and sight picture. Initial firing was done in the supported position, with firing first on blank targets and then on bull’s-eye targets. By the second day the cadets moved on to the standing position. Everyone was eager to learn, which meant it was not only exciting for the CMP instructors, but also for the cadets because they mastered the material so quickly.

After short instructional sessions, the cadets followed a range firing sequence that began with dry and live firing on blank targets followed by dry and live firing on bull’s-eye targets. Initial firing was on the BMC target, although by the third day, all cadets were shooting small enough groups to warrant advancing to the AR-10 target for their supported position firing. One platoon of cadets were rifle team members in their home schools; they received instruction in the standing and kneeling positions and did their range firing on the AR-10 competition target. All cadets were very responsive to the instructional program and worked hard on applying what they were taught even during dry fire sessions. And anytime there was a question about anything, it only took a couple of seconds and a CMP instructor was at their side to assist.

By the third day, each group of cadets fired in one-shot “Schützenfest” competitions in the standing position to determine the day’s “Top Gun” for their group. Cadets who fired tens stayed in the competition until just one was left. The shoot-offs were extremely intense and close for every group and it was difficult to determine winners.

On the fourth and final day of marksmanship training, all cadets participated in a 20-shot competition where they aimed at their final targets to test the skills they learned earlier in the week. Most cadets fired 10 shots on the AR-10 target from the supported position and 10-shots on the BMC target from the standing position. Advanced cadets fired 10-shots kneeling and 10-shots standing on AR-10 targets. Individual winners in each group received awards at the Basic Leadership Course graduation. Every cadet who completed the four-day CMP marksmanship training course and competition received a Certificate of Achievement. Platoon marksmanship rankings based on the average competition scores for all cadets in each platoon were factored into the selection of an honor platoon for the course.

CMP Director Gary Anderson said, “It is amazing how much marksmanship training can be accomplished in just eight hours, but this was an outstanding group of young people. The CMP is always happy to work with JROTC cadets because they are organized, disciplined and motivated. It makes achieving our objectives of teaching gun safety and basic marksmanship skills easy. We had a great week working with these NJROTC cadets.”