“I had everyone in my platoon help me train up until today, and I was very nervous especially on the line,” Cadet Blake Lisgar from University of Delaware said.

After two previous days of shooting where Cadets had to group, zero their weapons and complete a zero confirmation, Cadets from 10th Regiment, Advanced Camp test for marksmanship qualification at Pells Range. 

In order to qualify, Cadets must shoot a minimum of 23 out of 40 targets. However, if a Cadet would like to qualify for the Recondo Badge, they must shoot 30 or more targets. 

Although Lisgar has experience with shooting, he is fairly new to the equipment at Cadet Summer Training.

“I kind of had to learn from the ground up with the new red dot sights that were given to our platoon and to everyone else,” Lisgar said.

Lisgar is currently on track for the Recondo Badge as he was able to shoot 35 out of the 40 targets. 

“I’m ecstatic,” Lisgar said. “The energy is through the roof, morale is high and I’m working with the others in the platoon to build confidence and high energy.”

Lisgar credits his platoon to his success on the range. 

“They are absolutely essential,” Lisgar said. “Without my teammates and my platoon, I would not have shot well at all today.”

Similar to Lisgar, Cadet Stephen Davis from the University of Alabama, believes their platoon has grown even closer after leaving the range. 

“There’s a lot of great bonds that I’ve made,” Davis said. “Once you come off the range the past three days, everybody’s been like, ‘Oh, how’d you do, really good job.’ High fives all around and just a bunch of laughs, you know, cheering and stuff.”

Marksmanship qualification is a must pass event for Advanced Camp, which is why several Cadets feel nervous approaching the test. Davis advises Cadets to work on weapon control along with listening to the Cadre. 

“Just work on weapon control and if you have hand tremors or you have like the tendency to not be able to control your breathing and stuff. That’s just something you can work on before you come here,” Davis said. “The instructors here are really good and they’ll walk you through it and just be confident in yourself.”