...so I did. These guys are so righteous. They don't wear rank or affiliation, only woodland cammo and a name tape. As the Navy Lt Commander said, "He's north of specialist...but that's about all I can guess..." Apparently they had several hundred pounds of ammo they had to use up so they asked for help from anyone who likes to shoot...my only question was, "who DOESN'T like to shoot?!"
When you shoot in the Air Force, you get a very limited number of rounds, everything is regimented, and it's really not all that much fun. The Army...is WAY different. Talk about cool, we got rapid-reload rounds, all we could handle, and I got to shoot an M-16 for the first time ever. What a weapon!
As the only female and a 2Lt at that, all the Navy, Army, and AF guys kinda scoffed when they found out I'd never shot an M-16 before. The 2 Special Forces guys pantomimed fear and stayed well away as we fired off our first 2 clips. When they saw my target, they didn't scoff anymore. "They teach you how to shoot in college ma'am?" one asked as he checked out my tight grouping of shots clustered inside my 3-inch target (which is what they shoot at). "No," I said, "my Daddy taught ME how to shoot!" After that, they stood behind me TRYING to make me miss...but it didn't really work...;)
...so back to the 3-inch target...this is used because, as SPEC OPS says, its the "off-button." It corresponds to the 3 inch area from the bottom of your nose to the top of your eyebrows in the middle of the face. They aim for this area because the target will have no reflexive response when shot in this area...this is the type of thing I wish they taught us in the Air Force!
I didn't realize how much they were going to make us shoot, though. After about 300 single round shots (that's 10 clips) from 6 different positions my arms were shaking and I had a blister on my trigger finger. Then they said, "Fill 'em back up"...ugh!
But, we kept shooting anyway and by the time they backed us up to 25 meters, I could hardly hold up the weapon. Last 2 clips...fresh target..."Let's see if any of you improved since the start!" I put all my shots inside the 5 (bullseye area of an FBI target for you marksmen reading this...).
Needless to say, the 2 special forces guys where quite impressed and actually offered me a job! haha...but then they let me put it on full auto and blast away...Rambo style! Talk about fun! I was so stoked when I left there that I didn't mind walking around smelling like gun powder the rest of the day.
I plan to post some pictures as soon as I locate my camera cord...this place is crazy...but can also be quite fun, as I found out today...I hope it's just as fun next week when we go to the island for the weekend!
Jane...out...
Oh my goodness. That's all I can say. Sounds like some rootin tootin shootin. I'm glad you had fun and am especially glad you're still intact.
ReplyDeleteI'm still laughing about the gun powder smell...
Mom