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Guam - Every marine is first a rifleman. It's a mantra of the marine core and one of the reasons why marines must train to keep up their proficiency in marksmanship. Today marines from the III Marine Expeditionary Force held combat marksmanship training as part of the Guahan Shield 2013 exercises.

Members of the III MEF continued training under operation Guahan Shield today at the firing range on NCTS Guam. Marines had the opportunity to cross train with members of the Guam Police Department's swat team.

Staff Sgt. Phillip Clinton explains that training like this is essential for marines in order to maintain readiness.

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"Today as you can see down range we're conducting our advanced combat marksmanship program it's one of four levels we do as marines for the marksmanship program first two levels being the rifle range and the last two levels being out here in the field,” said Staff Sgt. Clinton.

Clinton explains that this is part of their annual training cadre for marksmanship. They conduct annual training at rifle ranges and at ranges similar to this one where they practice more advanced training that involves more movement. "Shooting multiple targets shooting multiple hammer pairs and control pairs so on and so forth,” explained Staff Sgt. Clinton. A hammer pair is when you fire two rounds into a single target rapidly while a control pair is a slower version of a hammer pair, essentially it's two well controlled well aimed shots into the same target.

 "Today we'll be firing the M-16 the M-4 and the M-27 which is an infantry automatic rifle,” said Clinton. The type of ammunition used today included the 5.56x45mm NATO which is small caliber rifle round that can be fired out of the M-16 M-4 and M-27 and the .223 which is the civilian version of the 5.56.

 The marines practiced various drills today including what's called facing movements which involves pivoting to the left or right to face targets. "I'm walking in one direction and I see a target to the left I present myself to the target I present my weapon to that target and I fire at the target,” said Staff Sgt. Clinton.

 They also practiced walking backwards and then turning 180 degrees to face a target and shoot and they practiced what are called combat glides. Combat glides are the way that they glide or walk towards a target with knees bent and balance placed on the balls of their feet. "We walk heel to toe nice and slow so my weapons not bouncing so it's nice and smooth and I can gauge my target and have a good group in a small circle,” explained Clinton.

 The Staff Sgt. says that cross training with GPD's swat team provided a great opportunity for both marines and local law enforcement to share tactics and learn from one another. "It's always awesome when we can have anywhere we go have locals train with us so that we can see what they do see if we can incorporate it in our training and vice-versa and so it's always great to be able to learn from each other and show hey we're on the same team same fight so it's pretty awesome,” said Clinton.

 Two companies of Okinawa based marines and sailors with the III MEF have been training on Guam since February eleventh as a part of Guahan shield 2013. The exercises are expected to end in May.