And Even More Army Training

Hey folks!

I haven't posted in a while because we've been pretty busy. Monday was short range marksmanship. We worked with our M4 rifles firing at targets within 20 meters. There were good guy and bad guy pop-ups - one of each per lane. They were just poster sized photos mounted on cardboard. They do not have an infinite supply, so they re-use the posters. Since the scoring is by hand, they put little squares of tape over the old holes. As you can imagine, the "good guy" posters are immaculate; the "bad guy" posters are covered in these litte white squares. Makes differentiating them a little easier! We shot from several different firing positions (straight ahead, turning to the left/right, walking forward, walking then kneeling, walking to the left/right). Each course of fire did a walk-through first, going through each firing position and literally saying "BANG! BANG!" if the bad guy popped up and "CLEAR!" if the good guy popped up. A very motivated female Army sergeant would announce each position. For example, "Shooters, assume a good and aggressive combat stance for the RIGHT TURN SHOOT!" And we had to echo "RIGHT TURN SHOOT!" She'd then say "SHOOTERS READY!", we'd echo "READY" and the target would pop-up. At the bad guys, we had to fire "controlled pairs", which most people recognize as the proverbial "double tap". So, as I said, each course of fire did a walk through then the live fire. There were five courses of fire, so we heard that wonderful Army sergeant shout out those commands ten times for each position. It got a little monotonous. Those who were not firing were running house clearing drills and troop movement drills. All within earshot of the range. I swear I heard that ladies voice in my sleep! And it was hysterical to watch us Air Force people try to perform a troop movement through a simulated urban environment - moving from building to building. Lots to think about and be aware of - look for cover, who's covering what sector, watch out for doors, duck under windows, etc. We looked like the Keystone Cops out there! Running into each other and walking right by windows/doors. I think the Army guys make us do it just for the entertainment value. So that was Monday.

Tuesday was brutal. We were at the FOB location all day. It was intensely sunny and hot in that battle rattle (temp was in mid 80s). We were outsde for most of the day. We got to the FOB at 7:30. The first few hours was death by PowerPoint in an old maintenance tent. There were 100 of us in a tent roughy 25' x 40'. Luckily we were allowed to remove the heavy stuff and leave it outside, but the inside of the tent got hotter and hotter as the sun got higher and higher. The Army really hammers their trainees. So after sweating in ther for 2+ hours, we were back outside in all our gear walking from station to station for hands-on training. This went on until 4:00. One girl got sick from dehydration; we all got sunburn on those minimal portions of skin exposed - mostly noses, ears and lips. I drank two full Camelbacks, whcih had to be in excess of 1.5 gallons total. When we got back to the barracks, I was soaked through. And as they promised when we first got started wearing the gear, my chest smelled like my feet. Just miserable, and Thursday and Friday look to be the same deal.

Today (Wednesday) was better. We live fired those crew serve weapons I mentioned a few posts ago. We fired the .50 caliber M2, the M240B and the MK19. I've mentioned the 50 cal and the M240B before, so I won't rehash that except to say that firing a real machine gun is prety cool. Th MK19 is essentially a machine gun grenade launcher. It fires 40mm explosive rounds. We fired them from the gunners spot on the HUMVEE. We would load 5 of us in a vehicle and rotate around after each person fired an ammo can of rounds. For the MK19, that was 32 rounds. From inside the front seat positions, you could actually see the rounds go down range. (The tarets were between 400 and 800 meters away.) Then you'd see a little spot of light and a small explosion. The rounds we fired were like flash-bangs, not real fragmentation rounds. Still pretty cool. So we got a chance to take out some agression today. Still a lot of hurry up and wait, though. It took over four hours to get 50 people through.

Time to head out for chow. Army cooking is about as good as high school cafeteria food, which is to say that it is edible and you get used to it, but nothing to get excited about. As I said, tomorrow and Friday look to be rough, so I may not update for a few days. Stay tuned!

Later,

-Dave