12 days down, 5 to go

The last three days of this 17 day exercise have been the busiest and the "hardest". We have worn our gear every day, carried our weapons every day, and today we got issued our gas masks to add to the number of items we carry all the time.

Tuesday we started the ranges. We were issued our M16's and than ranges started. As a nurse, we all went to a charting class which set us behind everyone else, but we went to the M16 simulator and did a practice zero and a practice qualification. The simulators are a lot of fun. I did very well too which helps the fun factor. We also did convoy ops. A lot of our training are blocks of instruction or BOI on site. We didn't actually go on a convoy, but we walk through simulations and get the basic idea. They ran out of ammunition on the real firing ranges so we had to wait until yesterday to fire our real rounds.

Wednesday we got up even earlier to get the range earlier than the unit ahead of us. Well, they had the same idea, so all it ended up doing was making us stand around for a few hours just waiting for the range to even OPEN. Then the group ahead of us got to zero and we had to wait another hour or so. I have never zero'd like we did hear. Some called it an "admin" zero because you're sitting at a desk with your weapon on sandbags and firing while sitting. Who fires while sitting??? We got 18 rounds in 6 sets of 3 to adjust the front and rear sites of the weapon so that we were shooting 5 of 6 consecutive rounds in the center of the target. The target is TINY to resemble a person at 300 meters away. You fire 2 sets of 3 rounds before you adjust anything and then you look at the grid superimposed on the target which designates if you move right left up or down on your sites to adjust your fires into the center of the target. Some weapons you have to adjust yourself to the sites of the weapon. with the M16, you adjust the weapon to your sites. So every set of 3 rounds you go down to your target and reevaluate the adjustments needed.

Once we finished with the zero range we moved over to the qualification range. I have never fired on this type of qualification range. I'm used to a 300 meter long range with scattered pop up targets. This range was 25 meters away and a large sheet of paper with 10 silhouettes of various sizes representing various distances. We did 20 rounds prone supported with the weapon resting on sandbags over 2 minutes aiming 2 rounds per target. Next, we did 10 rounds prone unsupported using only our elbows to support the weapon with 1 round in each target over 1 minute. Thirdly, we did 10 rounds kneeling shooting at the largest 6 targets over 10 minute. I have never fired so poorly in my life but I still qualified on my first try. Many people had to try twice so I can't complain. Qualifying is qualifying. That was a simple day, but it takes FOREVER. I hope we do it all again in Kuwait because the weapon I was using is MY weapon for the next 6-12 months. I want to know that I'm comfortable carrying, aiming, and firing my weapon.

Today was another ridiculously early day. We drew our gas masks and went out to the NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) range. It was a cold and rainy morning but that's about how long it took.. alll morning. Some gas chambers are overkill. This one was a confidence test. Outside the chamber, our instructor yells "gas, gas, gas". We have 9 seconds to reach to our left thigh, open the gas mask bag, extract the mask and close the bag, place the mask to our face, tighten the 6 straps that attach it to our heads, and clear the mask to create a seal. We were lead into the chamber and placed in a circle. Sometimes they'll make you do jumping jacks to sweat because CS gas feeds on the moisture in your body and burns that's why you cough, your eyes water, and your nose runs profusely. This chamber definitely had CS in in, but not to the extent of burning our exposed hands and necks. Instead of making us take our masks off and feel the full effects of CS, they kept us in the chamber for aprox 30 minutes and gave us a class on the NBC suit that we will have with us in case of an NBC attack. Then we had the option of removing the mask before exiting the building. The NBC chamber sounds awful, sucks to go into, and the instructors are so used to CS gas they seem mean when they're telling you to sing the Army song and give them your social security number while trying to breath CS gas and dry heaving on their boots. But when someone has a problem with their mask seal they are like moths on a light bulb to the person to get them out and check their equipment for malfunction. I have full confidence that my mask protects me and that's the whole point of the NBC chamber.

I am really looking forward to coming back to Germany for the holidays. It just doesn't seem like Christmas in this training environment living in barracks. I'm pooooped. Early day tomorrow AGAIN. 5 more days and back to Germany I go :-)