FORT JACKSON, S.C. (Dec. 11, 2014) -- It's not every day Soldiers are in a classroom practicing Basic Rifle Marksmanship with Xbox controllers.
Soldiers assigned to the 369th Adjutant General Battalion, Basic Officer Leaders Course had the opportunity to be the first to test a pilot program for Basic Rifle Marksmanship, or BRM, via the Virtual Battle Space 3, or VBS3, program Monday.
"We are trying this program out with these Soldiers to help reinforce the fundamentals of BRM. This is essentially a refresher course. We are not trying to replace live-fire ranges," said Alex Harris, an instructor for VBS3 with General Dynamics. "This is an opportunity for (the Soldiers) to refresh their memories and just think when to lower their weapon, look for targets with both eyes not one and then reengage with the weapon using one eye."
Sgt. 1st Class Michael Fletcher, noncommissioned officer in charge with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 369th Adjutant General Battalion, Combined Arms Department said this is a common problem among BCT Soldiers and Soldiers in the Basic Officer Leader Course who have not had much time on a firing range. The Basic Officer Leader Course is an 18 week-course designed to provide initial military training for active and reserve officers.
"I spent three years as a drill sergeant at Fort Benning, (Georgia), and now being here with the Combined Arms Department for a year and a half, one of the most common problems I see at the ranges for young Soldiers and officers in training is BRM transition fundamentals," Fletcher said. "They'll get down and do all (the) checks and look down their front-sight post with one eye and close their non-dominant eye ... well, if they do this long enough their eyes will get tired."
Fletcher said the VBS3 program will help reinforce the transition methods necessary for firing a weapon.
Dwight Dallman, with General Dynamics, said the program has a lot of realistic features that reinforce BRM fundamentals.
"We have essentially immersed the Soldier in a BRM simulated range to the Army standard, the times in between targets are the same, the pop-up targets are the same," he said. "We cannot duplicate trigger control, but this program allows the player to see the weapon go up and down as if to simulate the Soldier's breathing while holding the weapon. They can hold a button to hold the Soldier's breath, reload and see the weapon's aperture.
"We decided to go with an Xbox controller for this program because of this next training generation," Dallman said. "Many of these guys are learning by playing video games like 'Call of Duty,' so they have been able to jump into this program the same way with minimal problems."
Dallman said using fewer rounds means spending less money, and essentially the goal is to get the Soldiers qualified so that they can graduate from their school.
Second Lt. Samantha Hutchinson, who is in the Basic Officer Leader Course, said that as an avid video game player she enjoyed using the program despite some technical difficulties.
"I thought it was good" she said. "As far as the targets go, I liked the fact that it was realistic in the fact that the targets were difficult to see, and I liked that because when you're on a range you will not always be able to see the targets right in front of your face."
Hutchinson's classmate, 2nd Lt. Darryl Napolitano, said he is not a gamer but practices with fire arms regularly.
"The program was good as far as teaching us as Soldiers to scan, and the other part that was really cool was the realistic effect that the game brought to us. You had to actually control the player's breathing as well," Napolitano said. "The only thing that could use a little more realistic effect is the terrain features. If you're on a range you can see down range at 300 meters, very rarely do you have a green silhouette against a green background."
Fletcher said he thinks the program will be useful for upcoming classes.
"I think this program is good for what I am trying to teach these Soldiers," he said. "My hope is that we can continue to use this for future classes."
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