The Iraqi people are famous for the hospitality, sense of humor and inability to shoot straight.  But the shooting jokes may be coming to an end soon. 

The Marines of the Multi-National Forces West Training Center have taken on what would seem to be an awesome task--teaching Iraqi soldiers and police officers advanced marksmanship and combat marksmanship.  But the task is not as insurmountable as one would think.

FIRING LINE

Out past the former British RAF airstrip at Camp Habbaniyah, Iraq, past the battered hulks of a few Mig Fighter jets a group of 20 Iraqi police officers and 10 Army Aareefs (Sergeants) are completing their last day of shooting.  The class is led by a Marine Sergeant the students affectionately call Brother Mags with the assistance of an Egyptian translator known as Mr. Jack. 

The Police Officers and Sergeants on the firing line this morning were selected by their home units for their professionalism and proficiency with fire arms.  They are already some of the better Iraqi shooters, the Marines are taking them up to a level on par with most U.S. Forces. 

The final day of shooting is a transition drill with a failure drill.  Three rounds from the AK-47 rifle then switch to the Glock 9mm for 3 rounds.  The AK rounds are shot in an 8 inch circle on the chest.  The first two rounds from the Glock go into the chest, the final one in a small triangle on the head of the target. 

Starting slow, the Marines work the students through the moves of transitioning.  Rifle down, thumb break the holster, draw up, rotate, center chest extend, gain sight alignment while extending, sqeeze the trigger.  Once the muscle memory of the movement has started to take hold the Marines push the Police Officers and Sergeants to speed up.

ISAWIC

The Iraq Small Arms Weapons Instructor Course is one of the brain children of Gunner Terry Walker (CWO-5).    A Marine Gunner is a former infantry Gunnery Sergeant who has advanced training and experience in the employment of infantry weapons from the 9mm pistol up to the 81mm mortar, TOW Missiles and small rockets.  Walker developed ISAWIC to train up a cadre of Iraqi soldiers and police officers who could become the in-house weapons trainers for their home units and has developed a pool of Iraqi NCO talent to teach the Instructors course, thereby doubling the number of students that can be brought through the course.

In addition to the core curriculum of fire arms instruction, the Marines seek to develop relationships with the students and instill Marine Corps values of professionalism, leadership and initiative in the students.  The program has worked so well, that some former students will drop by while on leave.  But that does not suprise Walker who has spent the part of his Marine Corps career teaching Marines of all ranks advanced weaponeering skills.

ARAMIK!

The distinctive crack of AK-47 fire ripples through the air, followed instantaneously by blunter harmonics of a Glock pistol.  In the first runs at speed, a few of the Police Officers are off.  The rounds are on the man sized paper targets, and would hit flesh on a person, but are outside the preferred pie plate on the chest.

The Marine instructors remind them to maintain the basics, controlled movements, aquire sight alignment, trigger control.  After a few more runs nearly all the rounds are hitting the mark.

NOT GENETIC

Some people make the mistake that Iraqis and Arabs in general, while being genetically predisposed to handle an AK, are, through some hereditary process incapable of shooting straight.

The problem of Arab Windage, the spray and pray and the death blossom, is not parentage but culture and a lack of training.  Often female Marines shoot better than their male counter-parts on the rifle range.  Sometimes a Marine recruit with zero experience with fire arms will outshoot one with experience.

Why?  Bad habits learned from their dad, uncle or grandfather.  The bad habits and poor instruction previously developed by a recruit familiar with firearms often must be undone in boot camp.  In Marine boot camp days are spent just holding the weapon properly, looking at the sights and target properly and learning body position and natural point of aim.

The same techniques used in Marine Corps boot camp have arrived on the banks of the Euphrates at the Iraqi Army's Basic Combat Training at Camp Habbaniyah.  The Marines of MNFWTC run this portion of boot camp for the Iraqi Army.

After basic lessons from the Iraqi Drill Aareefs, the Marines Coach the recruits.  Then it is out the rifle range to teach the recruits how to zero their AK-47 using the Kalishnakov Sight Adjustment Tool to manipulate windage on the front sight.

Over time, and with emphasis on the basics, the Marines have brought qualification rates up the 90% range.  Currently, recruits only have to put 15 out of a total 30 rounds in the paper shooting in the prone, kneeling and standing at the 50 meter line and the 100 meter line.

The ease with which recruits are qualifying now has prepared some Iraqi officers to head the advice of the Marines and make the qualification a little tougher and to put more emphasis on combat shooting skills.

HAMMERED PAIRS

After the recruits shot for qualification I went with a few Marines and four Drill Aareefs to another range for a combat marksmanship course.  The Marines have been taking some of the Aareefs and teaching them combat shooting that infantrymen go through.  Today was testing on Controlled and Hammered Pairs.

One of the Aareefs could not make the course, so I was able to take his place on the firing line.  Controlled pairs drills take the AK from safe, held in the ready, to off safe, shouldered and firing two rounds while taking an instant to reaquire sight alignment and sight picture between rounds.  And you have to do it in two seconds.  Both rounds are supposed be in an 8 inch circle. 

After it became obvious we could all shoot controlled pairs, we moved to Hammered Pairs--which are the same as controlled, but the second trigger pull is instantaneous and done without aquisition of sight alignment and sight picture.  In Hammered Pairs it is inevitable that the second round will pull off from the first until the shooter learns to control the muzzle with body, hand and arm positioning.   After a few more cylces through it became obvious we could all do hammered pairs. 
For 20 minutes the Marines kept adding permutations and twists into the shooting until we were faced away from our targets and had to shoot hammered and failure in 1.5 seconds.  Shooting Hammered with failure means two instantaneous shots the chest and a third in the forehead.  Turn your head, aquire, start turning your body, weapon off safe, gun up, sight alignment, picture, pull, pull, muzzle up, picture, pull.  The Aareefs and I did all that a lot faster than you could read it.

At the end of the course one of the Iraqi interpreters who had been around me a few times came up behind me saying, "You not a cameraman.  You're a hit man."  "No, he's a former Marine," one of the Sergeants said.  The translator smiled.  It made sense to him then.

But as I looked at the targets of my fellow shooters they nearly all looked the same.  One part of the circle on the chest was either riddled with holes or had become one big hole.  The small triangle on the forehead and within one inch of it was punched through more than a dozen times.  After the shooting was done I looked at the head stamps on the AKs we used. 

They were all dated 1974--they waited a long time to be to shot that accurately...

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