Well,
I'm over here on Ft. Lewis getting some training for a future deployment. As it happens, there are only a few of us new soldiers in the battalion, that need to be trained up and attached to a unit that is deployed. But since we're fresh out of Basic Training, we have been receiving preparatory training.
For those of you who have followed me on my military adventure, you may find this progress interesting. Anyone interested in the story since the begining should start here
The last couple of weeks, we have actually got to train with Army Special Forces. Last week, we did a few nights of training involving us providing the opposing force for their training. I learned a lot about MOUT by gaining "the enemy's" perspective. Despite the fact that these soldiers were special forces, and we were just new privates, those of us who took it seriously were able to pick apart their strategies and make things really difficult for them. We used simunitions (paint rounds fired from real weapons).
In one particular scenario, I myself "killed" 4 of them while managing to survive the whole exercise (I had the advantage of the element of surprise with the first one, but I expected the rest to come get me... but they didn't, so I "killed" some more). It was cool because I made an impression on the instructor.
Today, we had 9mm training. It was nice to get some "high speed" (that's army lingo for "effective," "efficient," "elite," or otherwise useful) training. Now, this is where I had the chance to shine. Thanks largely to Zanardi 50's help back in April, I went to the range with a lot of confidence in my marksmanship and just let my training take over. I'm still new enough to shooting that I have to make a conscious effort to do it properly, even at very short distances (such as 5 meters), but of the 18 of us (including 4 NCOs), I had one of the two tightest shot groups from what I observed. One of our SF instructors came by my target and complimented me on my shooting, and pointed me out the other members of his team.
That made me glad, because during basic training, I scored mediocre at all of my shooting exercises, even though I wanted so badly to be the best shooter in the company. Now however, I feel much more confident in my shooting and ability to hit a man sized target (that is, just hit it at all, not necessarily center of mass) at 25 meteres with just a "reaction" shot. For qualification purposes, I should be able to qualify expert with not much problem (though I will have to be able to apply these skills while wearing full armor, which changes some things, but the fundamentals seem to be solidifying into my mind and muscle memory).
Anyway, I asked one of the instructors if I could go shooting with him this (or whatever) weekend, and he said I could. Tomorrow, we will be going back out for more training with the SF team and doing similar drills with the M4.
All in all, other than actually being on a Special Forces team, as an MP, I could not have asked for more. I will hopefully be able to volunteer for SF when I get back from deployment, so all of this exposure to SF is a great boost of confidence and motivation.
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my little military "journal.":smile:
I'm over here on Ft. Lewis getting some training for a future deployment. As it happens, there are only a few of us new soldiers in the battalion, that need to be trained up and attached to a unit that is deployed. But since we're fresh out of Basic Training, we have been receiving preparatory training.
For those of you who have followed me on my military adventure, you may find this progress interesting. Anyone interested in the story since the begining should start here
The last couple of weeks, we have actually got to train with Army Special Forces. Last week, we did a few nights of training involving us providing the opposing force for their training. I learned a lot about MOUT by gaining "the enemy's" perspective. Despite the fact that these soldiers were special forces, and we were just new privates, those of us who took it seriously were able to pick apart their strategies and make things really difficult for them. We used simunitions (paint rounds fired from real weapons).
In one particular scenario, I myself "killed" 4 of them while managing to survive the whole exercise (I had the advantage of the element of surprise with the first one, but I expected the rest to come get me... but they didn't, so I "killed" some more). It was cool because I made an impression on the instructor.
Today, we had 9mm training. It was nice to get some "high speed" (that's army lingo for "effective," "efficient," "elite," or otherwise useful) training. Now, this is where I had the chance to shine. Thanks largely to Zanardi 50's help back in April, I went to the range with a lot of confidence in my marksmanship and just let my training take over. I'm still new enough to shooting that I have to make a conscious effort to do it properly, even at very short distances (such as 5 meters), but of the 18 of us (including 4 NCOs), I had one of the two tightest shot groups from what I observed. One of our SF instructors came by my target and complimented me on my shooting, and pointed me out the other members of his team.
That made me glad, because during basic training, I scored mediocre at all of my shooting exercises, even though I wanted so badly to be the best shooter in the company. Now however, I feel much more confident in my shooting and ability to hit a man sized target (that is, just hit it at all, not necessarily center of mass) at 25 meteres with just a "reaction" shot. For qualification purposes, I should be able to qualify expert with not much problem (though I will have to be able to apply these skills while wearing full armor, which changes some things, but the fundamentals seem to be solidifying into my mind and muscle memory).
Anyway, I asked one of the instructors if I could go shooting with him this (or whatever) weekend, and he said I could. Tomorrow, we will be going back out for more training with the SF team and doing similar drills with the M4.
All in all, other than actually being on a Special Forces team, as an MP, I could not have asked for more. I will hopefully be able to volunteer for SF when I get back from deployment, so all of this exposure to SF is a great boost of confidence and motivation.
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my little military "journal.":smile:
