Friend of the Year

I've been walking my good friend Tracy's dogs for her while she is in Drill Sergeant School. Every Sunday I go over to her house and pick them up from her mom and take them on a 4 mile walk through the back wooded area of Fort Campbell. My job is to wear them out. 

The dogs are two giant and beautiful German Shepherds. One thing I didn't know about this particular breed is that they are very vocal. And when I say vocal, I mean these dogs howl. They are so excited to go on these walks with me that they just scream in the car the whole ride out there. Yodeling and barking, and jumping from the front seat to the back seat. Paws on the dashboard. Accidentally rolling down windows and shifting the car into neutral while I'm driving. Barking right in my ear. I literally drive with my a finger in my right ear to try to protect my eardrum from these dogs.

They are so excited. And it's flattering. But I really feel like I should be winning Friend of the Year for doing this for 10 weeks! Thank God I'm not transporting these dogs in my own car. Tracy's mom lets me borrow her Jeep.

Once we actually get out onto the trails they are wonderful. They mind me. They don't run off. They don't need to be on a leash. I love them. On the way home, they sit quietly and look out the window. It's just the ride there... its a three ring circus. 

Today's walk was in the snow. It was so beautiful. I took the dogs back onto a range I've never personally been on. Special Forces train back there, and since it's President's Day weekend, I figured no one would be training. I was right. It's a nice MOUT site. I liked the change of scenery, and I think the dogs actually did too. 

Only a few more weeks walking the dogs until Tracy comes home. I'm going to miss the walks. 

But not the drive. 

Shooting

James and I went shooting at the Montgomery County Shooting Complex a few days ago. James goes all the time but this was my first time. He's invited me to go a bunch of times, but his friends were always going to be in tow so I never tagged along. This time is was just the two of us.

James recently built to AR15s and needed help zeroing the EOTECH sights.

We decided to shoot hand guns first since I've never fired one of his Glocks before. To tell you the truth, I wasn't very comfortable not having a safety on the weapon. But I fired it pretty accurately considering. I shot a thousand times better than the 2 army dudes beside us at the range. One of them called me a killer, jokingly. When I brought my paper target up from down range I put him to shame and proved to him it's not just cute to call me a killer.

Turns out, I'm a killer on the AR15 as well. Firing the AR15 was basically the same as firing an M4. Except I've never used an EOTECH site. That site was so easy to zero and so accurate! I wish I had one on my M16 in the arms room! This is my zero progression:

 

Me walking in the zero.

 

I really enjoyed myself out on the range. I always say nothing makes me happier in the Army than firing weapons. And this was so much more relaxed and faster than any range I've fired at or been a safety on for the Army. I hope James and I go again soon.

Brr! M16 Range

Today's weather forecast.

Today was day 2 of the M16 range hosted by my company. I totally lucked out yesterday and got to sit in the tower and be the firing line announcer. The tower is heated and cozy. I was busy, but not freezing my ass off like all of the firers.

 

I was a firer freezing my ass off today.

 

Let's start out by pointing out Fort Campbell had a 2 hour late start because of the snow and ice we had gotten last night. Somehow this barely effected the time line for the range and the 2 hour late start did not apply to us. The sand at the zero range was frozen. I had to jump in place in between firing iterations to keep my blood flowing, and still my feet were blocks of ice in my boots. And OF COURSE, wear of the fleece cap was unauthorized. Why would something designed to keep your head and ears warm be allowed to be worn? Craziness, I say!

Kick ass, poncho! Thanks for keeping me dry!

I laid my poncho down on the sand so I wouldn't have to lay in the icy sand. People made fun of me when I took it out the range with me. But they looked at that poncho longingly when they were laying in cold wet sand. Suckers!

 

I qualified like garbage the first time I fired (only 27 out of 40!? I blame the cold weather). But then I got my act together and shot expert like I normally do (36 out of 40-- that's more like it!).

 

This was such a cold range, probably the coldest one we'll have all year. I sure am glad I got to make it a wonderful memory of my time spent on Fort Campbell. And I hope I never get stationed someplace that is actually much colder than this and have to do many more Army tasks in the freezing cold. I'm a cold weather wuss!

Eagle Rifle Marksmanship

2 weeks ago I went through a course called Eagle Rifle Marksmanship. The course clearly had to have the word 'eagle' in the title because, let's face it, this is 101st land and everything has to do with those screaming eagles in one way or another.

Anyhow, this was a marksmanship course designed to help you coach a shooter to shoot better. I am already a pretty awesome shooter. Duh. But I'm always going to have Soldiers who suck at shooting and, as an NCO, I'm always going to have to be on the range with these folks until they qualify. So learning tricks to get the shooter to shoot better was great.

Along the way, I got to put a whole lot of bullets down range. I had a ton of fun. I got to shoot at metal targets for the first time-- the tink tink tink noise it makes is super cool. I learned how to shoot with my non-dominant eye. Turns out I'm good as lefty too. I learned how to lay on my side and shoot and how to brace myself against walls and windows for more effective shooting.

I even brought back a battle scar.

I was lifting myself up off the ground and pushed a hot spent brass casing into my wrist. It's been a while since I had a brass burn. Better on the wrist than on the neck like usual!

I'm looking forward to the next 86th CSH range so I can teach my Soldiers what I learned and hopefully I'll be able to coach of few of the into shooting expert-- like me. :)    

NCO Of The Quarter; Part Deux

Holy crap, I almost died today. Let me give you a run down on the day's events.

The NCO of the Quarter competition began at 0400 this morning with a PT test. Push ups, sit ups and a 2 mile run. It was already so hot at 0400, that while I was running the second mile I had thoughts of closing my eyes and hoping I would fall off the side of the track into the drainage ditch and break my arm or leg to get out of continuing the run. I didn't, of course, because it's really hard to will yourself to hurt yourself.

Second on the list of horrors was to put on my 35+ pounds of protective gear and go qualify with my M4 rifle at the firing range. Lying on my belly in the sand with the sun cooking me from above is how I like to spend my breakfast hour instead of eating. Not only was it throwing 40 rounds downrange into paper targets, we did a stress shoot too. Doesn't that just sound fun? Our stress shoot was running down the firing lane to pick up a 9 round magazine, running back to the starting point to take a knee and load the weapon, then you walking back towards the targets while firing. Oh yeah, you only get 60 seconds to do this.

Next up was "Warrior Tasks": Loading and transmitting messages on an FBCB2, clearing and functions checks on a 50 caliber machine gun, M240 machine gun, M4 rifle and a M249 machine gun. It was coming up on noon by then, and what would be better than dealing with weapons that had been baking in 120 degree heat in the gravel than to deal with them while wearing the 35+ pounds of protective gear! For no purpose other than to "look hard core".

By lunch, when I finally got to drop my gear, I was soaked with sweat. So soaked that even the suede on my boots had sweat stains. I couldn't stop sweating and my skin was bright red. My stomach started to cramp and I was getting dizzy. I threw up water twice. Typical heat exhaustion. I had to get an IV and sit in the air conditioning for a while. I should have gotten to go home and take a nap and drink lots of water, but I still had the main event to attend: The Board.

Luckily, I was not alphabet fucked (stupid Williams for a last name) at the board and got to go first for a change. It went well. I was confident. I knew most of the answers. And my Battalion Command Sergeant Major is buddies with my Brigade Command Sergeant Major: it's always good to network with people in high places.

I do not know the outcome of the NCO of the Quarter competition yet. I don't think I won by any means because the heat was seriously effecting me all day. All I can take away from this experience is that this was my lame near death experience in a combat zone.