Instructor Zero surfaces with U.S. Marines in Italy (VIDEO)

While the Marines were rocking U.S.-made M9s, Zero brought his Glock. (Photos: Cpl. Alexander Mitchell/U.S. Marine Corps)

Former Italian paratrooper and current international bearded man of mystery, Instructor Zero, popped up in a series of images released by the Pentagon this month.

Funker Tactical’s resident combat arms instructor is well known in YouTube gun circles for his unorthodox training techniques including shooting with a plastic bag over his head, or dragging a parachute behind him, or drilling steel plates with a 1911 like a machine while he has a steel plate bobbing over his forearms. All done with no sweat while the tactical mullet flows over his shoulders like a Vidal Sassoon commercial, only with more cordite.

Therefore it shouldn’t really be a surprise to see images of Signor Zero in the midst of forward deployed U.S. Marines training on handguns in the Med released under the heading of “Zeroing in on the pistol range in Italy.”

It seems the Devils of Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response-Africa (SPMAGTF-CR-AF) recently took an advanced shooting course with Zero, who serves as a chief instructor with Spartan 360 Tactical Defense, at  a live-fire range near Naval Air Station Sigonella, Italy. DoD often farms out niche training to contractors as it is easier to do so rather than reinvent the wheel, and Zero knows his stuff when it comes to small arms, so the Corps likely got its Euros’ worth out of the training.

And of course, they used Beretta M9s, (they are Italian designed guns after all) even though Zero is a Glock guy and, as noted by The Marine Corps Times this week, the branch is looking to go Glock.

And, because you know you have to see Zero stunt, here is a vid he released this week (sans Marines), working a steel plate stand (with a Glock) as he treads water or some shit on a rubber ball. Why? Because Zero, that’s why.