Home on the Range

Thank my lucky stars, I survived five days of being surrounded by lawyers with loaded M16s.  Nobody got shot, and by the end of the week, all but one "qualified" by Army standards.  (Considering that during the prior DCC class, a 1LT shot herself in the foot, this was indeed an improvement).

I shot an M16A4 with a Close Combat Optic (CCO) that theoretically made it idiot-proof.

Simply point the little red dot on the thing you want to destroy and pull the trigger.  Theoretically, the bullet should whiz out of the rifle and fly straight downrange and destroy the target.  Theoretically.  Turns out there's a little bit more to it than that.....

The first morning, we spent several hours indoors, "zeroing" our weapons with a bore sight.  This tedious process just aligns the muzzle of the weapon with the sight.  Once we were aligned with the bore sight, we practiced dry firing (i.e., no bullets) in each of the four firing positions:  prone supported (lying on your belly with the barrel of the rifle resting on sandbags); prone unsupported (same thing, no sandbags); kneeling; and standing -- all while attempting to balance a dime on the muzzle of the rifle.  The trick is to keep your body absolutely still, time your breathing perfectly so that you are neither inhaling nor exhaling when you pull the trigger, and then pull the trigger slow and smooth.  I found firing a weapon a lot like golf ....... way too many things to remember before you get to have any fun!  Not to mention, the weapon weighs about 9 pounds, which gets really heavy to hold absolutely still, especially in the standing position.  By noon, we were out on the range for more "zeroing" -- this time by firing live bullets at a little piece of paper stapled to a target at 25 meters out.   Cadre told us that nobody was going to leave the range that day until everybody successfully zeroed their weapon.  No pressure.    No pressure at all.

Somehow, I managed to zero my weapon on my first try.  My first 5 shots clustered low on the silhouette, but just below the "bulls eye".  4 of my second 5 shots clustered in the bulls eye, with one stray shot up by his right shoulder.  The last of my 5 shots all clustered in the bulls eye.  The SSG assigned to my lane was surprised, to say the least.  He told me I had to take a picture of my target (below) and email it to Doug.  Of course, I eagerly complied.  :)

The next day, we went out to the LOMAH (Location of Miss And Hit) Range.  Each firing lane had a computer connected to it.  The targets were positioned at 50, 100, 150, 200 and 300 meters, and each had a series of microphones under them, which supposedly sent information back to the computer about where the bullet hit (or missed) the target.   Each firer had a partner who watched the computer screen and coached based on where the shots were landing (high, low, left, right, etc.).  My first two times up, I was 40 for 40 each time (i.e., 100% of my bullets hit the target).  Shocked the crap out of me, that's for sure.  The third time up, we changed from static targets to pop-up targets, which was MUCH harder because you had to move the weapon around, steady it, and fire, all before the target popped back down into hiding.  (Personally, I think in the middle of combat, I should be able to tell the bad guys to just "hold still damnit!!" while I line up my shot .... apparently that's not all that realistic, so the Army insists we learn to shoot these silly pop up targets).  I didn't do so well on the pop-ups, only hitting 21 of the 40, completely letting all the air out of my party balloon. 

Wednesday was qualification day.   We were at a new range, with 8 pop-up targets in each lane at 50, 100, 175, 250 and 300 meters.  To qualify (and pass the course) we had to shoot a minimum of 23 out of 40.  We were given 20 rounds in the prone supported position, 10 at the prone unsupported position, and 10 at the kneeling position.  All of this wearing full "battle rattle" including:  the IBA (Interceptor Body Armor - 29 pounds); FLC Vest (Fighting Load Carrier - 12 pounds loaded); ACH (Advanced Combat Helmet - 4 pounds); and full camelback (7.5 pounds full).  Oh, and did I mention it was 92 degrees that day with no shade?  

 

Despite waddling around like a penguin in all that gear, and sweating off at least 10 pounds, I managed to qualify on my first try.  Apparently, I not only qualified, but hit 31 out of 40, which technically makes me a "sharpshooter" by Army standards.  (Hey Dad - I guess firing at those bales of hay when I was a kid actually paid off!).  As soon as I finished shooting, I had 15 minutes off to hydrate and eat, and then was pulled by Cadre to coach other students who were having trouble.  All in all that day, I spent about 9 hours in full battle rattle, in the sun, on the range, either shooting or coaching .... by the end of the day, I was completely exhausted.  I honestly do NOT know how Infantry guys do this every single day in 120+ degree heat in Iraq/Afghanistan.  Again, I am humbled by how hard this really is. 

Thursday we started the day with an awesome pre-dawn "Combat PT" session.  Wearing our IBA (29 lbs), we had to run around the track in teams, carrying our buddies on field stretchers, then run relay races carrying two 5 gallon water cans (about 40 lbs each), then run a relay race doing a buddy carry with partners.  Fun way to start a day!  The rest of the day, we cleaned our weapons.  I had no idea it could really take that long (or that many toxic chemicals) to clean a weapon that hadn't even fired 500 rounds!  Friday started at 0330 with a six-mile ruck march, loaded down with 20% of our body weight, plus full camelback, FLC vest, and carrying our weapon.  We've been doing lots of ruck marches all summer, so this wasn't a big deal, except that carrying the weapon added a new challenge.   The rest of the day was spent learning patrolling techniques, which essentially meant running around the PT field, dropping to our knees, and dragging our bellies/faces on the ground for hours.  More of that fun next week. 

After that fun-filled week, I think it goes without saying that I slept a lot this weekend.   One quick note about two important things I've been hammered over the head with during the past few weeks: (1)  Its impossible to appreciate how mentally and physically difficult it is to keep this pace and meet these challenges every single day.  I cannot begin to imagine how difficult it really is in real combat, outside of the safety-net of the training environment.  (2) One of the most important things I've gotten out of being in the Army for this short amount of time is an amazing boost of my confidence.  If you had told me a month ago that I'd walk through a snake-infested swamp at 0400 in the dark and not have a meltdown, or fire an M16 and actually hit the target, I'd tell you you were crazy (using much more colorful language, of course).  

One more week left!