FTX Day 5

Qualification Day

Today's mission: get everyone qualified on the M-16 using the "pop-up" range. Large ranges with targets that pop up from behind mounds of dirt are not that common, so many units have to resort to shooting at stationary paper targets. Today we got to use the more intense option.

After getting everyone's weapons sighted ("zeroed") properly we moved up to the big range. At each of 16 points a Soldier either laid on the gravel or got down into a foxhole (cement manhole, actually). Those that chose the foxhole often found a variety of interesting critters ... slugs, spiders, cockroaches, even a frog! 20 rounds were fired at one or two targets at distances varying from 50m to 300m away, which usually would go down if they were hit. Then another 10 shots using an "unsupported" position, ie without sandbags. The final 10 were fired from a rather shaky "kneeling" position. For a unit that usually qualifies with VERY high scores, imagine our disappointment when we heard numbers ranging as low as 5 (out of 40!). Very few shot the required 23 to qualify.

After chasing the deer off the firing range and eating some lunch we continued with the exercise. I finally did get 23, but many were not so fortunate. As a backup plan we moved down to the paper range and got everyone qualified like we usually do. It was then that someone remembered we were supposed to change the rear sights on the weapons when firing at targets ACTUALLY 300m (not just 25m on a paper target) away. Drats! Well, at least we all qualified in some fashion or other.

Not much else to report, apart from getting everything cleaned up. We did bathrooms, indoor training facilities, barracks, ranges, outdoor facilities, vehicles, weapons and more. Finally it was time to load up the bus and head home. Hopeing for a quick return, everyone was warned there would be no "potty stops" so they had better take care of business early. Would have been OK until someone with appropriate authority told the bus driver he needed to take care of an "MRE Bomb" ... and NOW. Thus one person was allowed the needed break, and we continued on.

The whole exercise was certainly new, unique, and a learning experience. It's unclear whether we will try again, or whether some unit members might actually choose to quit rather than go again. I guess we'll deal with that when the time comes. In the mean-time, AT is right around the corner! San Antonio, here we come!