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A student with Kilo Company, Marine Combat Training Battalion aims her M16-A4 service rifle at targets from an unknown distance during a fire and movement range aboard Camp Lejeune, N.C., March 24, 2015. The fire and movement range was the first time students were equipped with live ammunition and allowed to move across a field as a team, engaging targets and providing suppressive fire for their peers.

Photo by Cpl. Shawn Valosin

Shoot, move, communicate: MCT Marines participate in fire, movement range

26 Mar 2015 | Cpl. Shawn Valosin The Official United States Marine Corps Public Website

More than 300 Marines with Kilo Company, Marine Combat Training Battalion completed a fire and movement live-fire exercise aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, March 24, 2015.

The range was used as a building block to prepare the Marines for the Basic Skills Retention Exercise, a three-day training event that allows junior Marines attending MCT to apply the skills they learned throughout the training cycle, and ultimately for unit deployments, where they will operate in fire teams and squads and need to shoot, move and communicate effectively within the Fleet Marine Force.

“This is the first time these Marines participated in this kind of range,” said Sgt. Timothy Brig, a combat instructor with Kilo Company. “They were firing [at targets], moving, putting their weapons on safe, making sure they didn’t ‘flag’ other Marines [with their rifles], ensuring their buddies were set and firing before they moved, and that they were in a proper firing position.”

Each Marine was equipped with an M16-A4 service rifle and a magazine of 30 5.56 rounds, for a total of almost 11,000 rounds being fired over the course of the day. Combat instructors walked behind the Marines to ensure the safety of all participants and to issue instructions as they advanced across the field. 

While conducting this type of range for the first time can seem formidable to new Marines, it builds confidence in them and their peers.

“I think everyone is more confident after this exercise,” said Pfc. Anthony Cortese, a student at MCT and a Massena, New York, native. “The fact that it is combat simulated and you’re moving around your peers with live ammunition makes everyone rely on one another and makes you feel more confident in yourself.”

The fire and movement live-fire range is required of all Marines before joining the Fleet Marine Force, as the tactics taught may be necessary to suppress combatants during a deployment.