Has It Been Awhile?

Friday, August 13th

Hey Everybody!

I believe this may have been one of my longer writing droughts. It's not because I got lazy, but more because the past couple days have been hectic/fun/shitty/and badass all wrapped into one. So where do I begin? (it's not rhetorical, because I don't remember the last letter I sent....)

How about I guess.....This week in training has been focused on Advanced Rifle Marksmanship. I think the last letter talked bout the M-249 SAW and M-240 Bravo. We just fired them once this week. Everything else this week has been done with our M-4's. We had our first night fire which was cool. It really wasn't that dark yet, so the night Vision wasn't as effective.

Wednesday we did ready-ups. Basically what that entails is you face a target ranging from 5 - 25 meters. The DS tells you to shoot at a certain point/object on the target. Your weapon is facing the ground and you must bring it up and fire. In a nutshell, it's reaction based training exercise. I did this twice and it can be difficult. The hardest part is when they tell you to walk and shoot because obviously your balance changes. It's still fun though!

Thursday/Friday I'm just going to group together since we were continuously training. Thursday was our first night that we spend out in the field. So basically imagine a camping trip with a lot of weapons, no tents, and no alcohol....HAHA

We started the day working from barriers. What we do is fire from 3 different positions while covering our body behind a wooden barrier. We start at the top, so just our head is visible and our weapon rests on the top of the barrier. We then move to a knee and fire, and then into prone unsupported. The goal/purpose of these exercises is to train us on what will be common firing positions once we're deployed. Once everyone shot, we ate chow and waited for night......

Thursday night may have been on of the coolest/most "I feel like a badass? moments in my life. After a proper class on Night Vision Goggles we put them to the test with Infrared laser sights mounted on our M-4! We were also running low on time. Combine these 3 things, and you're about to have a good time! I get the helmet put on and pull down the NV (Night Vision), turn it on, and focus the lens. For all you video game "Call of Duty" people.... it's basically just like that, but REAL! When you start looking around, you see where the lasers are moving from target to target. it doesn't really even matter how you hold the rifle, just as long as the laser is on the target. Since we were low on time, the DS's just had us fire 40 rounds as fast as we could. So here I am popping off 50 & 100 meter targets left and right with NV and lasers! Awesome??? YES!

Once we finished, we cleaned up and headed for bed about 200 meters away. I got everything set up and hit the sack. I tied my rifle to my belt loop so that if a DS walked by while I was sleeping, he wouldn't be able to take my rifle. It worked! Other than that, it didn't rain (like it was suppose to) and I managed to get some decent sleep, only to be woken up to DS's screaming for us to get ready in 30 minutes, which meant, change, repack, shave, shower, bathroom, organize, etc. I made it, but not everyone else did....So 20 minute smoke session later an we finally got it all figured out (Don't worry, I didn't do anything to hurt my knees).

So after that, we loaded up ammo and shot at moving targets today. It seems like Blue phase is going to involve a lot of the actual Infantry training, which is a great change of pace. It's always nice when you start doing what you signed up for right??? After the range, we got haircuts and bought some things from the shop (mostly small items). and headed back to the barracks.

The goal is going to be to take it easy these next few days. The weekends are good since we don't do that much work normally.

I'm going to sound off with new random thoughts/answers/etc.

RANDOMNESS

1. I shot 36 out of 40 to qualify expert
2. Family Day in 2 weeks!
3. For now, you can stop sending lyrics. People have stepped up and I have plenty to read.
4. Paper books qualify as contraband
5. GO CARDINALS!
6. I will know within the next 2 weeks where I will be stationed.
7. We finally are able to eat the candy in our MRE's
8. Good Luck Mary
9. I have not been to Annie Gun's
10 But I am le' tired..........

Embrace the SUCK!
SPC Martin