FORT BENNING, Ga., (Aug. 19, 2015) -- More than 40 lieutenants demonstrated smart, fast, lethal and precise principles Aug.15 when they met with Maneuver Center of Excellence trainers at McAndrew's Range to improve their marksmanship skills:

• SMART in that they used training resources to become better Soldiers on their own time.

• FAST in their comprehension and application of the trainers' advice.

• LETHAL in their drive to become better marksmen.

• PRECISE in their collection of feedback from fellow lieutenants and qualified instructors.

The program included 10 shooters from the Armor Basic Officer Leader Course and 31 from the Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course.

Capt. Tim Blair, battalion operations officer for IBOLC, said the instructors came from the Army Marksmanship Unit on Fort Benning as well as cadre from IBOLC and ABOLC.

The collaboration between AMU and the lieutenants benefits all involved, Blair said.

For AMU, the event gives the Soldiers an audience to train, and for the lieutenants, it increases their marksmanship.

"Coming here gives me an opportunity (to train) with these subject-matter experts and get an insight on their knowledge and their proficiency of the weapon system and shooting," said 2nd Lt. Aaron Smith, Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course student.

Smith worked on overcoming old trigger-pull habits he learned from shooting back home, outside of the Army, in New York. With the help of the AMU instructors, Smith learned the standard.

"You have got to ride the gun through recoil; I need you to follow your sites throughout the entire shot - if you see your sites before, during and after, it should be one solid picture," McElroy said, advising lieutenants as they shot.

The day's first session included short-range marksmanship, positional shooting, working off barricades and weapons handling. The lieutenants were put into groups for the second session, which allowed the instructors to get data at a distance.

The points of instruction included body position, holding the rifle and how it affects the shot, downrange feedback at different ranges and getting lieutenants conditioned with muscle memory.

Soldiers shot while kneeling from 100 yards; prone unsupported shooting from 200 yards; prone supported shooting from 300 yards and prone supported shooting from 400 yards.

"They'll shoot one-hundred yards farther than they are really comfortable, but when they go back to 300 it is going to seem easy in comparison," Blair said. "Part of it is just getting over that mental obstacle ... once you get them past that it just becomes easy."

Before going to the range, Soldiers were tested on doctrinal marksmanship information to determine eligibility, and then prioritized based on their basic rifle marksmanship scores. A total of 104 lieutenants completed the test and 44 were able to attend the first session of training at Krilling Range on Aug. 1.

The Aug. 1 event focused on a mix of BRM and short-range marksmanship through round-robin stations. They received instruction, practiced conducting grouping and zeroing drills, had a discussion on lethality, broke into three groups and began the round robin training with speed vs. accuracy drills, turning drills and barrier drills, Blair said. The first two stations focused on engaging targets from five to 25 meters. At the barrier station they learned the basics of barrier shooting and using hold-offs to engage targets out to 150 meters from a concealed position.

In the future, the training will be on the first and last Saturdays of the month. "It is a pretty awesome opportunity to come out here and get some extra training shooting with some of the most qualified instructors you could have," said 2nd Lt. Jackson Panice, an IBOLC student. Panice wanted to work on keeping the same sight picture throughout and keeping good groupings while he was kneeling.

"You just always can get better," he said.

Blair said the program is a win-win to make Soldiers better marksmen and train them to lead Soldiers.

"What's great is these guys are young second lieutenants in the Infantry and Armor world and for their first job, they'll go take control of either a tank platoon or a rifle platoon, and they're going to have to train marksmanship. So, by seeing this, they get to see what world-class marksmanship instruction looks like and they'll be able to take that to their units and in turn train their units," Blair said.