The Range

Tonight is just a short post. I have, or had rather, yet to qualify on my rifle this year. Honestly I had yet to fire it this year, even after what 6 months of activation for predeployment training? So returning from leave, which was awesome btw, I love you all and will miss you greatly, I knew I would have to go to the range. Sure enough as soon as I showed up to formation they announced that today tables 3 and 4 (combat maarksmanship) would be going. They decided to cancel tables 1 and 2 which are the ranges we are scored on, and the ranges we use to actually qualify. Tables 3 and 4 are much easier to run, and a whole lot faster. The important thing about giving us an opportunity to shoot before we got in country in Iraq was to insure that our rifles were battle zeroed with the ACOG scopes. So this morning I woke up at 4, showered, grabbed my rifle, my MTV, my kevlar, and a day pack with beef jerky, dried mangoes and water (you never know if you will have food or if you will get stranded) and ran out to the parade deck. I was supposed to be out there by five so I brought my electric razor out there with me. You may be wondering how if I got up at four I didn't have time to shave. To be perfectly honest, although my alarm went off at 4, I did not get up till 0420, and the shower felt awesome because I was tired, so I was running a little behind, and I had to find my magazines, and my shooting glasses. (For you education majors, or those simply offended by non kosher grammar, that was indeed a run on. I apologize.) As usual, however, our ride didn't show up until about 0530. Our ride, was in fact, no other than the range safety officer, and the SNCOIC. I think we were somewhat of an after thought. We arrived at the range for our "low light" portion of the ranges, only to discover that we didn't have enough ear plugs to run the range. By the time we had everything we needed and started shooting the whole low light portion of the range was notional. We were working on a deadline trying to get done by 1000, as the Marine Air Station near by was having a family day and the aerial demonstration portion was scheduled to run from 1000 to noon. Apparently ricochets pose a problem for low flying air craft. We finished table three and had moved to the next range for table four. Right as we were about to be cleared hot to begin firing again a herd of bison wandered dangerously close to our left lateral firing limits. This was a problem, mostly for the bison, as the likely hood of a Marine "missing" or a "ricochet flying off in their direction" was pretty high. After a half hearted attempt by the SNCOIC to chase them off with his Dodge we adjusted the left lateral limit significantly and were repeatedly threatened with NGP is a round even thought about landing across that lateral limit. Thankfully the bison eventually wandered off and escaped without an unfortunate "accident" that would have probably caught national media attention and ended the career of some newly demoted, trigger happy private. After successfully firing off 180 rounds (it was supposed to be 160 but the guy next to me had problems with his weapon jamming and no one wanted to deal with unexpended rounds) I returned to the squad bay to give my rifle a thorough cleaning. I almost ran out of CLP (CLP- cleaner, lubricant, protectant) but managed to get it cleaned well enough to turn in after only a few minor touch ups at the armory. I then spent the remainder of the day reading e-books. E-books are dangerous. It is like iTunes for books. I can buy a lot of books cheaply, but a lot of cheap books added up is not cheap at all. But I justified it by saying it makes up for not having to buy any for Jewell. Its not a great justification because I do need to by books for school too. Tomorrow is, I suspect, the last day off I will have until I get back from Iraq. I hope to be able to secure the duty van with a few other guys so we can go to church. I miss you all already.