"Small arms range---going hot"

Before I get to the small arms range, I would like to take one moment to try to explain how dark it is here at night. You see, because of the maniacs up in the caves nearby, we can't have any lights on at night here. We all walk around using our red, green, or blue lights at night to see. White lights aren't allowed, as they can be seen from too far away. Now this makes for some excellent stargazing, just look up and you can see shooting stars, satellites, and the Milky Way galaxy clearly. However, it can be hazardous at times. This is the view I see when I step out of the hospital at night. The other night, while not using my light and thinking I knew where I was, I walked right into a tree. Not a little branch on my shoulder or something, I walked straight into the trunk! I felt real smart...turned on my light after that.

Robyn is sporting her new Navy PT attire she bought. She likes wearing the clothing of various services and confusing everyone. We let her get away with it and call her our mascot.

On this day we had some fun away from the hospital. The Army, unlike the Air Force, believes that if you are carrying around weapons, you are doing it for a purpose, and should the opportunity arise, you better be able to use that weapon. So every 2 or 3 weeks, you visit the firing range.

The range has 10 firing stations. The sandbags are located 25 meters from the targets.

Placed on each target is a sheet of paper with a silhouette of a person. That is the little black spot in the middle of the papers hanging. This represents a person 300 meters away.

Before we start, our group loads up about 2000 rounds of ammo.

I'm ready to shoot something! A loud voice transmits over the base intercom: "Attention on the FOB, small arms range--going hot." This lets people know why there are machine guns firing like crazy at the perimeter of the base.

With the barrels resting on the sandbags, we are firing at our targets with the lowest possible profile.
I look through the site, breathe in, breathe out, and squeeze slowly. This minimizes how much you move your weapon and increases accuracy.

My friend to my right let me know afterward that it was hard for him to concentrate on his target because my M-16 was ejecting shell casings all over him. Ha.

After going through several rounds of shooting, checking target, adjusting site, and shooting again, the weapon becomes "zeroed" and we begin to see better and better results on target.

My target. You can see my first 3 attempts (which were 3 shots each) low and to the right. My next 2 attempts were better, but not perfect. Unfortunately, at this point a trauma alert was heard over the loud speaker, so essential medical personnel had to go back to the hospital. We had to miss the majority of shooting, and getting to shoot the M-16 in burst mode. But they promised me we could come back soon. I will hold them to it!

Seeya next post.