BABADAG TRAINING AREA, Romania -- While participating in counterinsurgency and peacekeeping training with U.S. Marines of Black Sea Rotational Force 11, Romanian soldiers recently learned the fundamentals of the combat marksmanship program and foreign weapons familiarization.
The Romanians learned to fire while moving, pivoting and other shooting techniques for close-in engagements that are typical to a counterinsurgency operations, such as in an urban environment. The combat marksmanship program is designed to build proficiency and comfort shooting on the move, shooting “hammered pair,” two shots in rapid succession, and “controlled pair,” two well-aimed shots, from a distance of 25, 15, 10 and 5 meters.
“The combat marksmanship program focuses on close-quarter shooting at a distance of 50 meters or less,” said Gunnery Sgt. Daniel A. Devine, Ground Combat Element executive officer, BSRF-11.
“The focus is to get them out of their comfort zone and getting them to shoot closer together,” said Devine.
“We are trying to give them different techniques to engage targets at close range, work on body positioning, and how they actually view the target,” said Cpl. Matthew P. Horton, range non-commissioned officer-in-charge, BSRF-11.
In addition to CMP, the U.S. Marines and Romanian soldiers got to switch with their counterparts’ weapon system. The Romanians familiarized themselves with shooting, reloading, immediate and remedial action drills with the M4 carbine and M16A4 service rifle.
“They were kind of uncomfortable at the beginning because it’s an entirely different system than ours,” said Horton. “We had to talk about different modifications to shooting, especially for the different kinds of reloads and stoppages and stuff; it’s an entirely different process than [M16],” said Horton.
“You could tell they were happy to get to shoot our weapons and they started getting proficient at it,” added the Amarillo, Texas, native.
The Marines passed off their weapons and guided each Romanian shooter to use the foreign system safely and efficiently. Afterwards, the Marines got a chance to use the Romanian soldiers’ AK-74 assault rifles with Romanians standing by to make sure things safe and coached the Marines.
“I personally liked shooting one a lot. It was fun,” said Horton.
The current cycle of Romanian soldiers, from the Romanian Army’s 280th Infantry Battalion, are the second in BTA, and the last of the host nation’s troops to undergo the counterinsurgency training package.
“All the techniques we have learned here will help [us] as a whole company for future operations,” said Romanian Capt. Dan Negoita, the executive officer of the Romanian Land Forces, BSRF-11.
“We are going to enforce these techniques as much as possible,” he added.
“One thing I want them to take away is the importance of developing that muscle memory, knowing your weapon to the point where it becomes an extension of yourself instead of just holding something,” said Horton.
The Romanian soldiers will also undergo other COIN and PKO related events to include convoy and foot-patrol operations and procedures, Cordon, Search and Seizure training, Improved-Explosive Device (IED) awareness, and non-lethal weapons engagements to finish out the training.
“The training is not over yet and we are looking forward to the next exercises,” said Negoita.
“The MOUT training interests me personally,” he added.
The combined military engagements are an integral part of BSRF’s six-month deployment to the Black Sea, Balkan and Caucasus regions of Eastern Europe to participate in a security cooperation that builds military capacity to participating Eastern European nations.