<Dreaming With Dan>

[ Monday, April 28, 2003 ]

Base...

I went to base this past weekend. I had to get up at 2am to get to base on time. We had to get into formation by 5am, we went to the rifle range to do our annual shooting qualification. Sat. was our practice day and sunday was our qualification day. I did rather well on sat during practice but sunday I almost go fked over. 25-34 points it a marksman (lowest award), 35-39 is a sharpshooter, and 40+ is a expert (highest award). At the 200 yard line we have to fire 15 rounds in 20 min, 5 in the sitting, 5 in the kneeling and 5 in the standing. I got 4 outta 5 dead center which was 2 points each sitting, I got 1 on the black but not in the center so it was only worth 1 point. In the kneeling I got 2 dead center and 3 in the black. The standing is my worst position and I only got 2 in the black and 3 missed. At walked off the line at this point with 18 points outta a possible 30 points. Most Marines still dont do this well but I wasnt very happy with my standing. This is the only real money maker because only during this line of fire do we have a chance to have 2 points a shot.

The next set of firing was rapid fire, 10 rounds, at the 200 yard line kneeling. We had to load 2 mags of 5 rounds each, during my rapid fire I got a dud round on my 6th round. This made me totally loose my concentration and I was supposed to get a redo since it was a dud round but the fking Sgt. wouldnt give it to me. My command wasnt very happy about this and there was a argument going on with my superivisors and the range personel. At the end there was nothing we can do about it and I was scored with 4 hits outta 10 possible. Now i am walking off the line with only fking 22 points.

I was in deep shit because I was scoring rather low and I can only afford to loose 7 rounds outta the 25 rounds I have left.

We went to the 300 yard line 5 round slow fire at the sitting. I scored 3 hits out of 5 and now that got me really nervous. This now means that I can only miss 5 rounds now. Im stuck with 25 points and i have 20 rounds left. We loaded up 2 mags of 5 rounds and we started the rapid fire at the prone. I had to calm the fk down and just shoot how I was trained to. I did my rapid fire and I scored a 10 outta 10. All rounds hit, I was the only one on the range that made such a grouping. Bunch Marines in my section were all yelling and I was like FK YEAH! This now gave me a chance to get back into the game.

We went to the 500 yard line and we have 10 rounds left. All I needed to do was to make 5 rounds in the back in 10 min in the prone. I fired only 9 rounds with one round left over. I scored 7 hits and at the end of the day my final score was 42. I made it as a expert, my 3rd consecutive award. I looked back at the fking Sgt. that wouldnt let me get that reshoot at the 200 yard line, he prob didnt think I can make it as expert but fk him I did it.
daniel [5:48 PM]