COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Instinct is repetition and practice honed through experience. From training world class pilots to wining marksmanship trophies Capt. Seth Carozza, 41st Flying Training Squadron T-6 Texan II instructor pilot, has attention to detail locked in.
Carozza is a seasoned instructor pilot teaching world-class pilots with over 310 flight hours and over 200 students under his instruction. His attention to detail and precision directly translate to becoming only the second Airman on the United States Air Force Rifle team to earn the Civilian Marksmanship Program’s M-1 Garand Master Marksman Award.
“When that first round goes down the barrel and you call your shot and say, "Okay, I felt like that was a 10, a shot in the 10 ring at, say, three o'clock," if the shot is in the 10 ring and it lands at three o'clock, then you know that was you that pulled that shot to the three o'clock position of the 10 ring,” said Carozza. “Same thing applies with an airplane. When you're trying to land an aircraft and you have a left to right crosswind, you need to aim the plane a little bit into the wind, so you actually end up flying straight. You and the machine have to become one system so that you can execute your objective, just like a rifleman and his rifle.”
Carozza describes his time practicing his precision as meditative. He would often practice live-fire, dry-firing, loading rounds and mental memorization for more than 15 hours on a weekend in preparation for a competition.
“Every weekend, I'll try to get out to the firing range and put rounds down range training, usually in the evenings, at night, two or three times a week, I'll spend a half hour or so... just practicing the mechanics of sight alignment, breathing, trigger control... just building repetition,” said Carozza.
This practice equates to Carozza's leadership where he describes being able to meet students at their level and transfer his knowledge into an understandable format.
“Attention to detail, first and foremost, is something that I try to convey. I try to feel out every student, like, what's their background, what do they enjoy? If they're not a shooter, then I'm not going to bring up shooting. But a lot of times... they enjoy firearms, they've grown up hunting,” said Carozza. “That's a kind of touchstone I can use to build a little bit of rapport as an instructor.”
With this rapport Carozza is able to advise students in becoming more confident in the cockpit. He describes it as a warrior mindset.
“Success starts in the mind. You have to believe in yourself, believe that you can train to succeed. Winning in marksmanship always starts in the mind. Succeeding in pilot training is a mental game. If you tell yourself you’re not good enough, you're impeding your ability to succeed. After a positive mental attitude, repetition comes next,” said Carozza. “The body cannot go somewhere the mind has not... envision it vividly... so that on match day, the mind says, "We’ve done this 100 times before, this is just more practice."
Carozza has represented the United States Air Force for the last year on the rifle team and has extensive knowledge and experience in marksmanship over his approximately seven year journey through the sport. "It is an absolute honor to represent our service on the Air Force Rifle Team,” said Carozza. “We want to represent our service, building discipline, demonstrating lethality and precision publicly.”