Fort Jackson: Week 2 of 3

The second week is by far your most involved week. You will finish your time on the range by actually performing your reflexive fire that you may do once more depending if you go to the Udari Range or not. If you do it at the Udari range the only difference is that you are closer and targets will pop up on both sides of you requiring you to move back and forth and remain aware of your muzzle control.

You will dress out in full battle rattle and run down the range from baricade to baricade while firing at targets from behind cover. Your cover will alternate from standing, to kneeling to laying prone and then to your off hand at last.

You will do your qualification shoot in which you need a 35 to shoot ‘Expert’. You have three rounds to do this in if you did not do it during your prequal. If you did pass during your prequal you still have to shoot. The 3rd round of shots will be in your IBA as opposed to just your Kevlar.

You will complete a first aide class, receive a class on local customs and traditions that will indoctrinate you into the customs of the Middle Eastern cultures. There will be a land navigation course with a good ole compass, map and protractor as well as an indoctrination using DAGGER’s(GPS device). You will touch up some on the communication units used as well as more classes on IED’s both hands on and some in death by power point format.

There will be a low level light fire for both M16 and M9 weapons. As of now it consists of you sitting around at the range for 5 + hours waiting for the sun to go down. To pass time we covered moving in large groups, fire team movements and how to dismount from Humvee’s and establish a security area.

The culmination of the week is the Bastogne Range in which you will fire a M249, M249 SAW, M9 Gernade Launcher and a 50 caliber artillery placement. Everyone will fire this and despite how scary the weapons might be they are quite fun. Throughout your time at the range you will receive a couple training sessions on how the weapons are loaded, cocked, fired and you may even be fortunate enough to clean a couple of them.

Clean your rifle every chance you get whether or not it will be your go to war weapon. If it’s a loner you will have turn in a clean rifle at the end of your training. You will fire blanks multiple times and they are notorious for leaving your rifle dirty and grimey.