The members of the Stone Bank Sportsmen's Club and Heritage Shooting were please to make our facilities available to the U.S. Marine Corps to train "Poolees" on August 3rd and 4th, 2004.

A "Poolee" is a person who has signed up to be a United States Marine and is waiting to be in the "Pool" of the next batch to go to one of only two U.S. Marine Corps boot camps. Unlike the other branches; One is not considered a Marine until AFTER they have successfully completed the 13 weeks of boot camp, qualified with the M16A2 at 200, 300 and 500 yards (NO "simulated" distances like the others), and the 54 hour "Crucible" (a simulated combat environments over a 50+ mile course in full combat gear with little if any sleep or food). 1 in 3 Poolees will NOT become a Marine.

The Poolees received classroom instruction on the firearms nomenclature and basic operation, the opportunity to receive hands on training and actually shoot the M16A2 rifle on our rifle range, conducted PT (physical training) including an obstacle course, and the opportunity to talk with Marine veterans (including one from World War II) about their experiences in the Marines.

Due to today's environment; More than 75% of high school graduates have never fired a rifle. Those that have most likely have not had any proper marksmanship training. The Stone Bank Sportsmen's Club membership and the Heritage Shooting volunteers feel that the least we can do for these brave young people is to give then an opportunity to at least learn the basics of rifle marksmanship.

We are doing our part to help the young men and women who have made the choice to serve our great nation by letting the Marines use our facilities. This training will benefit every "Poolee" by introducing them to the firearms they will be using in basic training and throughout their military career. This "advance training" is so important to the success of the "Poolees" that almost all of the Marine Recruit Sergeants and officers present at this training volunteered to do this. Most of the officers had to take time off from work to help.

We look forward to working with the U.S. Marines annually to help future groups of Poolees receive this valuable opportunity and training.

Photos from the US Marine Corps "Poolee" Training

In order to preserve the picture quality for those participants who want to print out copies for personal use, photo sizes can be as large as 230kb and may take longer to download via a dial-up connection.