What a crap week. On top of all that snow last week, I got sick. Me. I never get sick, but I did. I thought it was the flu, but it ended up only lasting a day and a half. The day after I was sick I filmed the footage I needed for my video project. Drew was a great sport, despite the freezing cold and the stupid things I made him do over and over again. We had to shoot two days though because of my inability to correctly use the camera the first day. I was tremendously late for work on Friday because I had to return the camera or else pay 25 smackers. Then, of course was drill.
Drill this time involved getting up at the butt crack of dawn (actually 0400) to take a coach bus down to Fort AP Hill in order to requalify with the M16. The bus ride wasn't so bad, though I couldn't sleep. But when we got there, it was snowing. It was nice and shiny up here but where I am?? NOOOO! It had to snow!
Naturally I'm in my cold wet weather gear with Kevlar helmet and LBV with canteen and ammo, ending up having to re-zero my weapon to accomidate for the extra crap I was wearing. Only took 12 rounds but I'd rather do it in 6. Still snowing by the way.
After that I had to wait for everyone else in the company to zero, which took a while. I ended up sitting on the bus watching a bootleg copy of Are We There Yet? with the other completed soldiers. When the time came to move to the qualification range, the bus driver got the bus stuck in an exclamation of "FUCK!!"
Getting on one of the other buses, some of us headed to the Qual range. I was in the first line to fire, assigned to lane 16. I set up my foxhole and aimed downrange.
Now, a typical M16 qualification range is 300 meters. There are pop-up targets placed at 50 meter intervals. You have 40 targets to shoot as they pop up, and you need at least 23 to qualify. You shoot at 20 standing in a foxhole and 20 while in a prone position. I usually shoot 35.
But keep in mind it is snowing...heavily. I COULD NOT SEE PAST 150 METERS. Visibility was limited. The targets I COULD see were covered in snow, making them nearly impossible to pinpoint. The only way I could see most of them was to recognize the movement of the targets. I didn't even attempt to shoot at any targets beyond 150 meters.
Coming off the firing line, disgusted, I noticed only 3 of the 16 in the line had qualified. I was one of them, qualifying with the bare mininum, 23. Hey, at least I qualified on the first try. In limited visibility at that.
We left the range at 1830, watching a bootleg copy of Assault on Precinct 13, and returned to base at 2015. But the trucks and Humvees carrying our supplies were still on the road. We had to wait until they got back, then offload the weapons and gear. When final formation rolled around, it was 2145. That's nearly a 17 hour day.
Thank Darwin I stayed in a hotel! Didn't have to drive home.
On Sunday we cleaned our weapons, covered in sand and dirt and carbon from the previous day of abuse. I cleaned my rifle as I always do, getting in every nook, cranny, and orifice I could find. I know I usually do a thorough job because my weapon never jams. But for some reason the Chief was being anal about it, inspecting every weapon thoroughly for dirt, grease, anything black, before returning it to the cage. Not one of us got through, not even me and my pristine rifle.
I cleaned everything again, took it back, but this time, Sgt. Bright was there, checking weapons. He found a nook in my rifle that I cleaned, but apparently not enough. After lunch, I cleaned the area in question, about a half-inch diameter circle, for 30 minutes. Took it to him, and taking a white pipe cleaner, proved me wrong again. I give up and admit to myself I'm going to be cleaning this weapon until the end of the day, so I did. That was drill for this month, and another crappy week finished.
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