Okay, I didn't want to talk about the rifle range before in case I unked, but since I didn't, let's talk about how fricking AWESOME it was.
So on the first day we did the grouping exercise, which I sucked at because I totally forgot all the fundamentals of marksmanship (correct sight alignment and trigger control) and just shot and it was GREAT! Then the next day we go out and start to work on the course of fire we'll be using on Qual Day and it turns out I don't really suck; my rifle's just weird. While most people have their sights set to 4 clicks right or 3 clicks left, for example, I have to use 28 right before I can hit the target.
Now, usually most people get up there and if they've never really shot before like I haven't they have a hard time. They get really nervous. The PMIs push PMAs (Positive Mental Attitudes) to keep you calm and focused. Me? I never needed mine. I totally forgot about mine. As soon as I was seated down in my position and I looked through the sights, there wasn't anything else there. It was just me and my rifle and the black. I'm a total natural - it was EASY. I can't really explain how it feels. You're like in this zone, and I knew where every shot was going to go. Even the ones where I knew I'd jerked, I knew where they'd hit.
The first course of fire is 15 shots in 20 minutes - 5 sitting, 5 kneeling, and 5 standing. You might go, "Oh, that's easy" but no. By the time you adjust your sling, fix the weapon jams, take your shot, plot your shot, wait for the target to reappear, plot your score, and re-aim, plus change your position every five shots, 20 minutes has gone by and you've still got 'saved rounds' - shots you never fired. The 20-minute slow fire I usually ended at 17 minutes fairly regularly and I was one of the first ones in the 1st relay done.
Next is 200-yard rapid fire from standing to sitting (you stand, load, wait for the target then drop to sitting position, aim and get off 10 rounds). Then they pull the targets and score them. Ten shots in the black is called a 'possible' and is hard. I got a possible on goal day, the only one in 1st relay to have it.
Next we move to the 300-yard line and take five slow fire shots in the sitting position in five minutes then ten rapid-fire shots from standing to prone. During slow fire you usually adjust your sights while you're firing to compensate for the wind.
Finally - and up to here I'd been doing nicely - we go back to the 500-yard line for ten slow fire shots in the prone position in ten minutes. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Black. Black. Black. Black. Then after my 6th shot the target comes back scored with a 2 -- nine shots in the black and one 2. I think the person scoring my target screwed up and marked the wrong shot because I KNOW I shot 10 black, but oh well. My final score was still expert, the highest rating you can get of the four.
220-250: Expert
210-219: Sharpshooter
190-209: Marksman
0-189: Unked!
Hoorah! So yea, I'm pretty pleased with that. Platoon 4000 with 12 unks took the rifle range from Platoon 4001, which had 17. This means we got a trophy and got to keep our series guidon. Losers.
Later that evening I get back to our original squad bay and have to bolt out for chow because the Catholics are going to the Immaculate Conception mass. Sadly I was all alone so I got what that guy I wrote about in my other letter got - "This recruit doesn't have a buddy!" "This recruit is all alone!"
I've been really focused on coming back home, but really it's just ten days of vacation before I go to my new duty station and new home. I'm thinking that after my five years are up I may re-enlist, or maybe come back, during my service work toward a degree, and after try for a job in (classified info removed by editor). It's a long way away though obviously. It's weird though; before I wouldn't be thinking so far in advance but now I am.
Every year I'll have to re-qualify on the rifle range so I think once I'm settled in school in California, I'll look into buying an AR-whatever, the civilian version of the M16. I won't be issued one in school but I'll need one to practice. I fully even intend to become an expert-expert, maybe even be a PMI some day. They really aren't even all that expensive, either, something like $500. Somehow I was thinking that a semi-automatic weapon would be more. It's actually a bit alarming that that rifle can be purchased by any fool with a few hundred bucks in his pocket.
Posting Break
The blog's editors took a long long posting break there for a while and left this blog to its own devices. We're going to pick back up again and finish posting the letters home.
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