"Grade-A Bang-bang"
It seemed fitting to quote Kurtwood Smith (a.k.a Red Foreman) in his little appreciated role as Clarence Boddicker in the 1987 classic "Robocop" to describe the events of today.
I spent some time out on the range. No, I wasn't punching cattle, I was out with the Soldiers of A Co. as they familiarized themselves with the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, or SAW. Definitely packs a whallop; it was fun to see the boys try to engage targets with something this powerful. Some guys were accurate out to 300 meters or more.
What was even more fun was to see a Chaplain's Assistant try it. Specialist (SPC) O'Brien is here on her second week of Annual Training (AT). She's with the 1/334, which is the Reserve unit that I belong to now. She's done a week over at our Reception Battalion and was wanting to get out and see some "real" training. I was able to hook her up.
We joined A Co. just as they were finishing their familiarization and were getting ready to fire. We stood on the firing line as the Soldiers engaged the targets and we policed the lines, seeing how the guys were doing. As you can guess, spirits were high for a couple of reasons. First, the big boys were gonna get to fire the big toys. The Soldiers carry their M16A2's all over the place to get used to being responsible for their weapons. They were ready to try something a little bigger. Second, SPC O'Brien is a female, and the first these Soldiers had seen in a while. It was fun to watch the PVT's get caught looking at the SPC.
When we had finished checking on the boys, I went to find some shade. It was 95 degrees by 1130 this morning. We found some next to A Co.'s Commander. As we sat down, he looked at the SPC and said, "How'd you like to fire that weapon?" SPC O'Brien's usually broad smile got a lot broader as she walked over to an ammo box, drew a strap of 100 belt-fed rounds of 5.56mm and walked to firing point #2, waiting to put rounds down-range.
It was comical to see this maybe 5'2" form get down behind the weapon. The Drill Sergeant gave her a quick info-brief on how to load the belt and the firing procedures. She tipped back her borrowed Kevlar, about twice as big as it should have been, scanned down-range for the pop-up targets and let fly with her first five-round burst. The result was a lot of dust and a dropped target at about 75 meters. It's a good thing they were only supposed to shoot 5-7 round bursts because that's about all she could let loose before she had to push her Kevlar back on her head. The recoil jarred her so much that her huge kevlar fell over her eyes.
In a short while, her rounds were exhausted and all that was left was a lot of brass, some perforated targets, and a great story to share tonight with her bunk mates, who had been stuck pushing paper all day at the Reception Battalion. Who says being attached to a Chaplain isn't any fun?
I spent some time out on the range. No, I wasn't punching cattle, I was out with the Soldiers of A Co. as they familiarized themselves with the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, or SAW. Definitely packs a whallop; it was fun to see the boys try to engage targets with something this powerful. Some guys were accurate out to 300 meters or more.
What was even more fun was to see a Chaplain's Assistant try it. Specialist (SPC) O'Brien is here on her second week of Annual Training (AT). She's with the 1/334, which is the Reserve unit that I belong to now. She's done a week over at our Reception Battalion and was wanting to get out and see some "real" training. I was able to hook her up.
We joined A Co. just as they were finishing their familiarization and were getting ready to fire. We stood on the firing line as the Soldiers engaged the targets and we policed the lines, seeing how the guys were doing. As you can guess, spirits were high for a couple of reasons. First, the big boys were gonna get to fire the big toys. The Soldiers carry their M16A2's all over the place to get used to being responsible for their weapons. They were ready to try something a little bigger. Second, SPC O'Brien is a female, and the first these Soldiers had seen in a while. It was fun to watch the PVT's get caught looking at the SPC.
When we had finished checking on the boys, I went to find some shade. It was 95 degrees by 1130 this morning. We found some next to A Co.'s Commander. As we sat down, he looked at the SPC and said, "How'd you like to fire that weapon?" SPC O'Brien's usually broad smile got a lot broader as she walked over to an ammo box, drew a strap of 100 belt-fed rounds of 5.56mm and walked to firing point #2, waiting to put rounds down-range.
It was comical to see this maybe 5'2" form get down behind the weapon. The Drill Sergeant gave her a quick info-brief on how to load the belt and the firing procedures. She tipped back her borrowed Kevlar, about twice as big as it should have been, scanned down-range for the pop-up targets and let fly with her first five-round burst. The result was a lot of dust and a dropped target at about 75 meters. It's a good thing they were only supposed to shoot 5-7 round bursts because that's about all she could let loose before she had to push her Kevlar back on her head. The recoil jarred her so much that her huge kevlar fell over her eyes.
In a short while, her rounds were exhausted and all that was left was a lot of brass, some perforated targets, and a great story to share tonight with her bunk mates, who had been stuck pushing paper all day at the Reception Battalion. Who says being attached to a Chaplain isn't any fun?
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