The Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education has added two new courses and opened a new facility next to its fire fighting and safety school in Piney Point, Md.Last month, the U.S. Military Sealift Command (MSC) approved the Paul Hall Center’s small arms range along with two new curriculums. The first course, MSC Initial Small Arms Instruction and Qualification, lasts 21 hours. The second, MSC Annual Small Arms Instruction and Re-Qualification, is a seven-hour class. Each combines classroom instruction with hands-on training, and each has a 16-student limit.
The range itself has different shooting stations beginning as close as three yards to the targets and extending to a top distance of 80 yards. It is bordered on three sides by 15-foot berms. The computer-operated target system is state-of-the-art. (It also may be operated manually.)
Opposite the target area is a 30-by-70-foot building which includes a classroom, an office and an adjacent, outdoor area for cleaning the training weapons. The classroom also includes gun-cleaning stations. A built-in vault-safe combination with steel-reinforced concrete and motion detectors will be used to store the arms.
The classes involve the following weapons: 9MM pistol, 12-gauge shotgun, and M-14 rifle. Topics in the 21-hour course include rules of conduct and safety; the Lautenberg Amendment to the Brady Gun Control Act of 1996; personal protective equipment; use of force and deadly force; and fundamentals of marksmanship, among other subjects. The class ends with a lengthy practical evaluation.
The seven-hour course— designed for students whose certificate of qualification or re-qualification is not more than two years old—includes many of the same topics found in the lengthier one.
Both classes are intended to help students meet U.S. Navy standards for mariners who are directly involved in shipboard security.
In order to enroll in the 21-hour class, a student must be at least 18 years old; possess a valid merchant mariner’s document (MMD, also called a z-card); be capable of speaking and understanding verbal orders in English in accordance with 46 CFR 12.05-3; provide documented proof of fulfilling the physical examination requirements in accordance with 46 CFR 12.05-7; and meet the requirements of the “Qualification to Possess Firearms or Ammunition” form that is required for contracted mariners. For the re-qualification course, the only additional requirement is that the student must hold a current certificate of qualification not more than two years old for the pistol, rifle and shotgun.
Paul Hall Center Vice President Don Nolan and Safety Director Jim Hanson visited several approved sites along the East Coast when planning for the new range. “Our site was built completely in-house, and obviously we followed not only the proper building guidelines but also all the Navy and MSC guidelines for the range,” noted Nolan. “It’s another step forward for the school in terms of offering virtually every type of training that may be required for U.S. mariners.
“Given the war against terrorism,” he added, “it certainly seems possible that some of the current small arms security requirements may expand.”
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