“There’s no substitute for good marksmanship. For that very reason you have to learn to love the things you hate to do. Don’t practice what you’re already good at, work on your deficits and keep a log of times and scores as well as the schematics of the course of fire and weapon/ammo used. Maintain your strong existing skills but spend the bulk of the time on those things you are challenged with and you’ll see your performance increase dramatically. Training time and ammunition are finite resources so use them wisely and efficiently. A perfect example is bull’s-eye shooting. It is particularly skill intensive but is the foundation for all rifle and pistol marksmanship. Times may vary from gun to gun but good marksmanship never changes. If you can’t shoot slow and straight you certainly can’t shoot fast and straight.”
-Mike Pannone
Mike Pannone retired from the Army’s premier assault force (1st SFOD-D) after an explosive breaching injury. A year after his retirement America was attacked on 9/11 and he returned to help serve his country as the head marksmanship instructor at the Federal Air Marshals training course and then moved to help stand up the FAMS Seattle field office. In 2003 he left the FAMS to serve as a PSD detail member and then a detail leader for the State Department during 2003 and 2004 in Baghdad and Tikrit.
In 2005 he served as a ground combat advisor of the Joint Counter IED Task Force and participated on combat operations with various units in Al Anbar province. Upon returning he gave IED awareness briefings to departing units and helped stand up a pre-Iraq surge rifle course with the Asymmetric Warfare Group as a lead instructor. With that experience as well as a career of special operations service in Marine Reconnaissance, Army Special Forces and JSOC to draw from he moved to the private sector teaching planning, leadership, marksmanship and tactics as well as authoring and co-authoring several books such as The M4 Handbook, AK Handbook and Tactical Pistol shooting. Mike also consults for several major rifle and accessory manufacturers to help them field the best possible equipment to the warfighter, law enforcement officer and upstanding civilian end user. He is considered a subject matter expert on the AR based Stoner platform in all its derivatives.
Gunfighter Moment is a weekly feature brought to you by Alias Training & Security Services. Each week Alias brings us a different Trainer and in turn they offer some words of wisdom.
Mike – outstanding post- well said my friend
Be safe
Mike Pannone is a life long Warrior! You forgot that prior to joining the Army, then on to 1st SFOD-D, he was with USMC, Force Recon.
Stay Safe
That bio came from Mike.
Awesome advice.
I am very proud Alias was able to team up with Soldier Systems Daily for the “Gunfighter Moment” series. It has been a huge success thanks to the Alias affiliated instructors and Soldier Systems readership.