FORT KNOX K.Y. – Shots rang out across Canby Range, clouds covering the sky as Cadets assigned to Alpha Company, 1st Regiment, Advanced Camp grouped and zeroed. They fired five rounds at a 50-meter target, hoping for a tight shot group. If they successfully created a group, Cadre would direct the Cadets on how to adjust their M4 Carbine to zero in on the center of the target.

Some Cadets, like Calla Shotwell, Carson-Newman University, and Audrey Bailey, Augusta University, take the fundamentals needed to group and zero off the range and apply them to parts of their lives and Army careers off the range.

“This is an essential skill that all Soldiers need,” Shotwell said.

The fundamentals of marksmanship Cadets are taught is to have a steady position, breath control, good aim and gentle trigger squeeze.

With hopes of joining the Army Nurse Corps after they commission, Shotwell and Bailey plan to apply those fundamentals to their careers. Being able to focus and practice patience is essential on the range, as well as in their future careers.

With loud bangs from rifles sounding, people constantly moving and yelling, exercising focus on the range is important. This experience will prepare Shotwell for when she is a nurse in the Army, working in a hospital.

“There’s always alarms going off,” she said. “Maybe there’s patients yelling or people trying to get each other’s attention or something crazy like a code happening.”

As a nurse, Bailey will have to be able to stay focused on her patients and their needs as distractions are all around her, just as she does on the range. If she doesn’t, the results could be detrimental.

“If you’re frazzled and you don’t really know how to center yourself, you may miss something that could actually really hurt someone,” Bailey said. “The same thing could happen here.”

On the range, Cadets cannot become distracted or lose focus. They must be aware of what they are doing and where they are aiming at all times. Being patient is part of that.

To be able to successfully group and zero, Cadets must be able to take a deep breath and relax in the face of pressure. They must stay patient.

“If you just keep firing, firing, firing, you’re not going to group and zero,” Shotwell said. “You just have to be patient and really control your breathing and take your time.”

Shotwell knows that when she is a nurse, she will have to be patient, just as she is when on the range.

“You deal with some patients sometimes that may irritate you, but patience is important,” she said. “In order to get the job done the way it needs to be done.”

With their company headed to qualify with their rifles as the next part of their training, Shotwell and Bailey will have to exercise patience and the ability to focus on the range one more time before they start to transfer those skills to their jobs.