The method behind the machine: Surgeon, shooter, Soldier
Lt. Col. John Cletus Paumier (center) stands with friends who helped build his own private 600-yard rifle range in his back yard, which spans eight acres in Salem, Ohio. Paumier is an orthopedic surgeon, officer-in-charge of the Army Reserve Marksmanship Program and command surgeon for the 416th Theater Engineer Command, headquartered in Darien, Ill. Photo Credit: Sgt. 1st Class Michel Sauret
Army Reserve Marksman 
Congrats and all, but two quick questions;
What is the new Commanders action plan for spreading the joy of Service Rifle Competition to the average Joe or Jane across the force?
What impact does the USAR Shooting Team have on the USAR total force, and not just for a select few?
What is the relevance of the USAR Shooting Team to the average Joe or Jane across the Reserves?
Or, asked a different way;
What if the Team was totally disbanded today, and they took a survey, not of the personnel on the Team, but on the work-a-day reservist, of the action and what effect it would have on them?
I can tell you as a frustrated machinist that the instrument has yet to be devised to measure their total indifference to said action.
If that were to be the case, then the Team has made itself about as important to the lower Enlisted as having a Jamaican Bobsledding Team competing in they’re name.
They need to start by getting the common Enlisted up involved, to come up with (or dust off) programs that applies for the force at large, so that they (The Brass) would never think about budget cuts to them, because they would know just how severe the backlash would be.
Right now, if a Soldier wants to learn, he has to go outside his Unit at his own expense, normally taught by former Marines, in Known Distance style (or any other) competition, at a civilian range. Or in other words, he gets a more thorough training in Marksmanship then he ever did in the USAR or from its Team.
And that is the most striking damnation on our Leadership across the board.
It’s unfortunate that the top Leadership have lost more sleep, totally agonized, more, over a piece of non functional headgear than they ever thought about marksmanship training across the force.
It even more disturbing that you could take the average Civilian Service Rifle Competitor or 3 Gunner, and he/she would totally smoke the average Soldier trained with the current methods of instruction.
What’s the most heartbreaking is, you could ask any Civilian up or down a firing line at any High power match, and they could tell you in detail about the Distinguished Rifleman’s program; ask any Soldier at an annual Weapons qualification and they usually respond with “The what program?”
Leadership is doing a bang-up job otherwise though.
>> What if the Team was totally disbanded today, and they took a survey, not of the personnel on the Team, but on the work-a-day reservist, of the action and what effect it would have on them?
The same result as if any Reserve element not operating within the realm of their branch/MOS or command or personal interest went away: Likely nothing. Routine qualification is of interest because it shows up on reports commanders are accountable for. However, there are no bonus points if a percentage (or if anyone) in the unit earned leg points that fiscal year.
>> They need to start by getting the common Enlisted up involved, to come up with (or dust off) programs that applies for the force at large, so that they (The Brass) would never think about budget cuts to them, because they would know just how severe the backlash would be.
I think it is worse than you realize.
Army Reserve Marksman was not a name I conjured out of thin air. It is the official name of a publication directed by regulation (AR 140-1, Chapter 7) requiring Office, Chief Army Reserve to disseminate marksmanship information throughout the Reserves. OCAR stopped publishing this in the 1990s due to funding. After reading the reg, I reserved the domain name, created this site, and contacted Public Affairs at OCAR by email, phone, and certified snail mail about it.
The suggestion was to distribute a brief email monthly with links to relevant articles, making publication cost a non-issue. In addition to regulation requirements, I used the Army Ten-Miler as precedent because information on this event is spammed to every Reservist at their mail.mil email and the supporting website is a commercial domain (.com) and commercially hosted, same as this one.
At first, OCAR appeared receptive. Their Public Affairs OIC contacted me, saying there would be “… no problem with you producing an email version that we can send out via AKO. We will support distribution of your product via AKO leader email and by highlighting in online and social media. We will also offer a quick review/edit of your product before you go final with it (just for another set of eyes on it for edits).
Let me know if this meets your needs.”
A few weeks later I was informed by the same people that this was not going to happen. Guidance from my leadership in the USAR Marksmanship Program was to drop it. And that’s where we stand today.
The USAR Marksmanship Program has been hosting marksmanship clinics and EIC events for units. Last fiscal year we held events attended by thousands of Reservists.
Yes, that is a small percentage of the Reserve. Please realize that Team assignment is an additional duty on top of normal Army Reserve duties (which likely have nothing to do with small arms training) and MTT (Mobile Training Team) is another additional duty on top of that. This website is maintained and paid for by yours truly as an additional additional duty. We can only reach people choosing to find this on their own.
Impact would be improved if OCAR and USARC became interested in doing what the regulation dictates and disseminated info accordingly.
Army Reserve Marksman was not a name I conjured out of thin air. It is the official name of a publication directed by regulation (AR 140-1, Chapter 7) requiring Office, Chief Army Reserve to disseminate marksmanship information throughout the Reserves. OCAR stopped publishing this in the 1990s due to funding. After reading the reg, I reserved the domain name, created this site, and contacted Public Affairs at OCAR by email, phone, and certified snail mail about it.
The suggestion was to distribute a brief email monthly with links to relevant articles, making publication cost a non-issue. In addition to regulation requirements, I used the Army Ten-Miler as precedent because information on this event is spammed to every Reservist at their mail.mil email and the supporting website is a commercial domain (.com) and commercially hosted, same as this one.
At first, OCAR appeared receptive. Their Public Affairs OIC contacted me, saying there would be “… no problem with you producing an email version that we can send out via AKO. We will support distribution of your product via AKO leader email and by highlighting in online and social media. We will also offer a quick review/edit of your product before you go final with it (just for another set of eyes on it for edits).
Let me know if this meets your needs.”
A few weeks later I was informed by the same people that this was not going to happen. Guidance from my leadership in the USAR Marksmanship Program was to drop it. And that’s where we stand today.