Book Description

To the Marines: Welcome to Golf Company and the next step in your journey to becoming part of the world’s premier fighting force. Many have failed or never even attempted what you have accomplished thus far, take pride in that. However, your journey has just begun. At Marine Combat Training, we will train and educate you in the common combat skills necessary to operate within any environment. The basic skills you will learn were forged over two centuries of battles; they are timeless, and vital to yours and the Corps success, now and in the future. Our Combat Instructors will Lead, Teach, Mentor, and Guide every one of you, through a rigorous 29-day program of instruction. You will be taught by the most experienced, professional, and knowledgeable Staff Non-commissioned Officers and Non-commissioned Officers that the Marine Corps has to offer. These SNCO's and NCO's were hand-picked out of hundreds of applicants to come to the School of Infantry to be Combat Instructors. I highly encourage you to prepare your mind and body for this training, the knowledge you gain here will carry you throughout your Marine Corps career. During the training cycle, I expect you to commit yourself to your training and education by learning as much as you can from our Combat Instructors. Finally, when you graduate, I expect you to retain what you learned and uphold the time honored traditions of our Marine Corps. Remember that regardless of military Occupation Specialty, every Marine is a Riflemen first. Every Marine, regardless of his military occupation, is trained as a Rifleman. This concept has been around since the Marine Corps inception in 1775, when every man who volunteered was required to bring his own musket. In the early 1900s, as the Marine Corps grew and additional military occupations were created, the Commandant, General John A. Lejeune, ensured that every Marine, regardless of his Military Occupational Specialty (MOS), received marksmanship training. During the Korean War, the Marine Corps was the only service to create rifle companies entirely from cooks, drivers, and other non-infantry Marines. From this war, the proverbial saying, Every Marine a Rifleman was born. In the nineteen eighties, the Commandant, General Al Gray, recognized the need to train all Marines in more than just basic marksmanship, but in modern-day combat skills. The School of Infantry was assigned to conduct this training known as Common Skills because it is common to every Marine. These common skills allow every Marine, regardless of MOS, to act as Rifleman when called upon. MCT Battalion generates Marine Riflemen to possess a foundational understanding of, and their role in applying, the Marine Corps' warfighting ethos, core values, basic tenets of maneuver warfare, leadership responsibilities, mental, moral, and physical resiliency in order to contribute to the successful accomplishment of their unit's mission. New Rifleman Definition: A Marine Rifleman embodies the Marine Corps' warfighting ethos: offensively minded; lethal with their weapon mentally, morally, physically resilient; proficient in basic field craft; and possessing a foundational understanding of leadership and the basic tenets of maneuver warfare. CONTENTS: MCT Student Outline, 296 pages Student Preparation Guide, 10 pages MCDP-1 Warfighting, 113 pages Physical Training Playbook, 19 pages