M16 Qualification Day
The Payoff...
Well, it has been one of the toughest and most frustrating BRM cycles that I have been through. As of yesterday we were looking at around 35% first time Go rates and about 40 soldiers in the company who couldn't hit water if they fell out of a boat. Put in a last ditch effort last night to pull it all together for them and hit paydirt.
Today we went from a truly horrible Pre-Qual to the best in the whole battalion on Qual day. (I think... that's unofficial for now) We shot around 73% as a company. We only had 2 left unqualified in the company when the range was closed because of lightning in the area.
The War Pigs shot 76% and finished second in the company, but we also had three soldiers shoot "expert" and more "sharpshooter"s than I have seen in a long while (if ever). We finished the day with all War Pigs qualified on their M16s.
As proud as I am of my three "experts", I am just as proud of the two soldiers who had major malfunctions with their M16s during qualification, applied immediate... and then remedial... action, corrected the malfunction and resumed knocking down targets without missing a beat.
Both soldiers qualified. That, more than anything else, makes me feel like I am training them for combat rather than just the rifle range.
All in all, I couldn't be happier with my platoon tonight. I'm tired as all hell though and it is way past time for me to get horizontal, so I'll post again when I get a little time.
Well, it has been one of the toughest and most frustrating BRM cycles that I have been through. As of yesterday we were looking at around 35% first time Go rates and about 40 soldiers in the company who couldn't hit water if they fell out of a boat. Put in a last ditch effort last night to pull it all together for them and hit paydirt.
Today we went from a truly horrible Pre-Qual to the best in the whole battalion on Qual day. (I think... that's unofficial for now) We shot around 73% as a company. We only had 2 left unqualified in the company when the range was closed because of lightning in the area.
The War Pigs shot 76% and finished second in the company, but we also had three soldiers shoot "expert" and more "sharpshooter"s than I have seen in a long while (if ever). We finished the day with all War Pigs qualified on their M16s.
As proud as I am of my three "experts", I am just as proud of the two soldiers who had major malfunctions with their M16s during qualification, applied immediate... and then remedial... action, corrected the malfunction and resumed knocking down targets without missing a beat.
Both soldiers qualified. That, more than anything else, makes me feel like I am training them for combat rather than just the rifle range.
All in all, I couldn't be happier with my platoon tonight. I'm tired as all hell though and it is way past time for me to get horizontal, so I'll post again when I get a little time.
posted by Jack at 21:36
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home