BRM qualification. 27 on first
try. Despite weapon malfunction.
I clusterfucked SPORTS but managed
to keep calm and continue to
kill targets. 3 bullets left over
for next man. Hope they helped.
Very relieved. Feet hurt like hell.
Sick call tomorrow for sure. E
Co. shot 94%, beating A Co.'s
84%. A Co. is drilled by Regulars.
Our Reservists were very happy
to beat the Regulars (who didn't
think Reservists could handle the
job). We got a pizza party!
Pizza so-so. Expensive. But
I did get to drink 2-1/2
Pepsis! I could have
drank 2 liters easily.
[Sergeants Sierra] and [Alpha] leave
tomorrow. Sorry to see them
go. they were good. Very lucky
on drills so far. Hope next
group is good and doesn't treat
us like Day 1 all over. Phone
call. No answer at [fiance's].
Tried my place--got answering
machine. At least [Juliet] and [Mike]
will let [fiance] know I'm
all right. Letters from
mom & dad and from [Charlie].
Glad to get them. Doing
laundry. Will write them
tonight. Need envelopes and stamps
however. Maybe PX tomorrow.
Miss [fiance]. 35 days to go.
My watch is fucked. Condensation
on inside really obscures face.
I'm surprised it hasn't rusted out.
I'm glad it's just an el cheapo.
Will be getting hair cut soon.
FTX next week.
Need to get envelopes and
stamps. Envelopes, stamps, batteries, shoe polish--the
staples of basic training. Everything
else is a luxury. FNGs moved
in across the street today. Brought
back bad memories. But a good
feeling too--we've made it a
long way since being dropped off
in front of the barracks. Would like
to talk to them for 5 minutes.
Give them advice. I know they're
feeling pretty bad right now.
Whoa. I clearly had some time. Clearly, part was written while I sat at the laundry machines. I must have really needed envelopes and stamps since I mention it twice. But I honestly have no idea why batteries were so important to me. I can't imagine what I had that needed batteries other than my flashlight. now it is surely true that batteries are critical in battle. But then? In basic training? No clue.
The big news, of course, was basic rifle marksmanship qualification. And in the spirit of the admonition that bad things happen at the worst times, the only time my M-16 ever jammed was during qualification that day. Luckily, training kicked in and despite the unexpected problem I carried out SP0RTS (Put the weapon on Safety, Pull the charging handle back, Observe the chamber for a jammed round and remove if necessary, Release the charging handle, Tap the forward assist to seat a new round, Squeeze the trigger to resume firing--after taking it off safety, of course). I didn't really clusterfuck SPORTS. But I remember it didn't work so I had to remove the magazine and remove several rounds that had gotten jammed up. Rather than take the time to reload them, I put the magazine back in and resumed firing as fast as I could. It worked.
I hit 27 targets, making "Marksman" (the lowest passing category requiring at least 23 out of 40 shots). Sharpshooter started at 30 hits so in theory those 3 rounds I left on the ground could have put me over that mark despite my shooting problems. Expert at 36 was right out. I honestly could barely focus on the targets at 300 yards through my glasses, let alone hit them. As I might have mentioned before, I did finally get to Sharpshooter level right before I got out of the Guard in 1993.
As I said, I left the rounds I couldn't shoot for the next guy. If he was smart he'd shoot a couple rounds at 3 targets to ensure a hit and quickly reload that first magazine to get 3 extra shots in. Our drill sergeants had--off the record--told us that sometimes troops did that to help their buddies. This was the only way to fudge passing the test, since this was serious stuff. Although if you failed the first time up on the line, you would get another chance, so it wasn't quite all or nothing. I assume those who failed were sent back another day.
Our drills were relieved and obviously happy about our results. One drill sergeant even smiled at me when I gave him thumbs up after coming off the line. If a trainee on the bubble made it, that had to be good news. After a decade of the National Guard and Reserves being an operational reserve (routinely used to augment the active forces rather than saved for the "big one" as a strategic reserve), my sense is that some of the tension between the reserve components and the active component is subdued. Back then, the active components definitely looked down on the National Guard, especially.
I was proud of my Guard unit which was as good as active companies according to several guys who came into our unit from active duty service who could compare and who initially distrusted the Guard. My judgment is that at company level, because they are often together for many years and can train on their own is that it is easy for Guard companies to be better than active component companies. Battalions, which can train only infrequently together, can be at the same level as their active component counterparts if given extra attention. But at brigade or division level, the Guard needs time to train once mobilized since it is rare for the component units of those levels to train together.
Yet I was also proud that when in signal school the next year, one of the active component NCOs who ran us through our final exercise made a written evaluation of me that said I should be active duty. I know that was intended as a compliment and took it that way.
We were allowed to eat pizza for dinner after that as a celebration. Whatever pizzeria that had the base concession for delivery made a killing. But they were slices of normality and all the caffeine I needed.
It was really great to get mail and be reminded that people back in the world remembered I was there. I can see how email today is a morale booster for deployed troops.
Again, I resolved to go on sick call for my pains. Having passed this major hurdle and with our field training exercise coming up (FTX) it seemed like as good an interlude as any to get away with it.
And we were losing our drill sergeants again, who were Army Reserve training units on their summer training.
As an aside, I've always deeply respected the term "clusterfuck." The Army trains in chaos with lots of individual pieces of human and mechanical randomness running about. This is orders of magnitude more variable than the Navy with relatively few ships and planes or the Air Force with relatively few planes to command and control. A clusterfuck is the condition when so many individual fuck ups are occuring at the same time and in close prxomity that they feed off each other and merge into a giant ball of fuck ups that you can't easily untangle. If you needed to be polite, you could just call it a "cluster." All you could do was focus on your own little bit of the cluster and hope that your brilliant efforts to fix your part were matched by everyone else getting their act together. You just don't have time to ponder the big picture very much.
Given the length I wrote, the lifting of the burden of passing BRM, my recent relief that my PT scores were pretty good, and my sympathy for the less fortunate just starting basic training, it just feels like I passed the hump and it was all down hill from then on. I guess we'll find out.
