Day 19

Today was the 4th day in a row to start at 4:30am in the morning. Except I woke up at 4am and couldn't fall asleep again. Sigh. Needless to say, I'm a bit tired now.

We arrived at a range in the complete darkness. In fact, we even got to sit on metal bleachers in the wind for an hour, waiting for the sun to come up. It was hard to contain my enthusiasm. But it was worth it, I would say. We were each given two chains of ammunition: 5.56mm and 7.62mm. Seeing the 7.62mm made me wish for my rifle out here.

We stood in line, and when it was our turn, we loaded the machine guns and then got to shoot the rounds at targets downrange. Following that, we got to walk over to the 50-cal machine gun, the M2. Quite an impressive gun. Not so much if you want to hit your target, but intimidate the crap out of your enemy. It had a very powerful repercussion, and had quite a good range. The targets we were hitting had to be about a quarter mile away. It was a neat demonstration.

From there, we were bused to another range, where we did reflexive fire drills. We'd crouch down a little bit, and swing the rifle up to our shoulder, switch off safe, fire two quick shots, put the rifle back on safe, and then lower the weapon. I wasn't great at the drill, but probably average. It was hard because we don't use the rear site for this, because that would take too long. We shot at 25 meters, 15 meters, 10 meters, and then at 5 meters. Of course, at 5 meters, it's just not sporting anymore. And thinking about it, I trust myself with the 9mm for close ranges much more, but I'm more accustomed to shooting the 9mm at these distances.

The last drill of the day was called Stress Firing. It was kind of an obstacle course. This is how it went:

1. Jump out of an armored vehicle and zig zag around some barriers to make your way to take shelter behind a Humvee. We were wearing the full body armor and carrying our M4 rifle, along with the 9mm in its holster on our leg.
2. Run to an upright barrier and take shelter. Insert a 10 round magazine and shoot 3 targets with controlled 2 round bursts.
3. Run to a wooden frame that simulates a window. From a somewhat crouched position, shoot 2 targets with the same style 2 round bursts. Then take a knee and change magazines.
4. Run to a lower barrier and kneel down. From there, we had to lean around the corner and shoot 3 targets with 2 round bursts.
5. Then run to a group of sandbags and assume the prone position. From there, we shoot 2 targets with 2 round bursts.
6. Run to the end of the field. Phew!

Needless to say, we were quite tired after that exercise. Plus, while it didn't bother me much, the Army guys were yelling and trying to induce stress. It was actually somewhat comical. But then we got to come back to the barracks and relax a bit.

And now, here's a picture from the outside of our barracks.