Army Reserve Soldiers of the 412th Theater Engineer Command, HHC, conducted an Army Reserve Postal Match as a part of their Individual Weapons Qualification at the Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center on July 20, 2019.

Motivated by the training guidance of Chief, Army Reserve Lt. Gen. Charles Luckey to create the most lethal, combat-ready Reserve Force in United States history, Cpt. Jesse Campbell (412th TEC, G3) took the initiative to host this event during the IWQ portion of the 412th TEC’s Extended Combat Training held on July 18-20 at CSJFTC as an improvement to training.

Despite foul weather and some logistical hurdles, Cpt. Campbell led his Soldiers through Individual Weapons Qualification (IWQ) with their M4 carbines and had the best and most motivated complete the Postal Match as a means to conduct the advanced training. Cpt. Campbell explains this in a video created by 412th TEC Public Affairs and posted on their social media:

"We had some issues with ammo and transportation along with some bad weather, but my Soldiers saw the training through and earned a successful result," said Cpt. Campbell. "Staff Sgt. Roger Ashley, our public affairs, was our top shooter for the event and did a great job!"

The World-wide Chief, Army Reserve Postal Matches are designed to be conducted as a part of unit qualification to provide the means of conducting small arms training beyond routine qualification. These courses are a part of the progressive, gated exercises directed by TC 3-20.0 and can be used to Validate skills during Table IV or V to greatly improve the first-time "Go" rate during qualification, Table VI.

Excellence In Competition is a program dating back to 1884 to recognized skilled military and civilian shooters that accrue 30 EIC "Leg" points as Distinguished Riflemen. The EIC Postal Match is a reduced distance course using scaled targets at 25 meters to simulate most of the shooting done on Match 321, the EIC course recognized by the Army Marksmanship Unit and used throughout the Department of Army. While this Postal Match is not an EIC course, it serves as a practice tool for those that aspire to earn advanced marksmanship badges and awards.

All Army Reserve Soldiers are eligible to participate in these events and units are encouraged to host them. The U.S. Army Reserve Marksmanship program can help units provide this training opportunity for their Soldiers. More information at https://www.usar.army.mil/ARM/