More Training and Preps

Yeah, I know, I’m a slacker … should have been writing a lot more and a lot more often.

But I’ve been busy, very busy, with all sorts of pre-deployment preps.

First off, on the job, I finally got a relief designated. On the plus side, she’s smart and diligent, and works well with Harold, my contractor support. On the down side (or, should I say, depressing side), she’s a year younger than my daughter. Talk about feeling old.

The week before last, the fun stuff started. I did my M-4 qualifications. The deployment managers had a mix-up on the dates, so I ended up showing up a day early, only to be told of the current schedule, Thursday and Friday. Thursday was split between classroom time, learning about the weapon, proper use, breakdown and such. The afternoon was in the simulator – FATS, or FireArm Training Simulator. It used compressed air in the magazines to simulate shooting at targets, with a realistic level of recoil.

Friday morning was all about shooting for qualification, in an indoor range behind the DLOC … two trailers connected end-to-end. My accuracy at 100 yards sucked at first, during the practice rounds. But after one of the instructors suggested taking off my glasses and using only the clear protective eyewear, I was spot on. Turns out my progressive lenses played havoc with my efforts to align the front and rear sights on the M-4. First time out after losing the glasses, I shot a 265 out of 300, enough for qualification. I took it and ran … after cleaning the weapon, which turned out to take longer than the actual qualification shooting.

Next, a hectic weekend trip to New York, where I indulged in a Beefsteak Dinner at my old high school, then Sunday I was cruising south in the Benz for a week of Individual Protective Measures Training … IPMT for short. We’ll cover IPMT in my next entry.