Weapons Qualification Day

Probably the best day of CST thus far, so good I have to remind myself I'm getting paid for this. Need to take it in while it lasts...

Getting our gear checked and ready



Zeroing M4s



Zeroing M4s - I love the landscape in the background

 We qualified on the M-4 rifle and M-9 pistol today, of course Army style.  In the Air Force we have nice indoor ranges where we shoot at paper targets, out of the weather, nice firing posts, etc...its the Air Force.  Here we're literally in the middle of nowhere New Mexico (even more so than where our Camp is located), in the hot, sandy, sunny desert heat, and that is where we stayed for 14 hours of shooting, in full 50 lb gear, and 101 degree weather. Hooah.

Middle of nowhere, New Mexico





Cooling down after the first qual round



 

M-9 range, close range pop-up targets

 

Me shooting M4s!

For the M-4, they also qualify much differently than we do - they have pop up targets that come up anywhere between 25 and 300 meters, and you have a few seconds per target to blow it away.  I ended up with a score of 34/40, which is one away from Army expert marksman.  I also had the opportunity to fire again (the Army loves the Air Force because we actually listen and follow directions, so our classes always end early and they let some of us shoot again).  It was awesome, I could have stayed out there all day.

Then we moved to the M-9 pistols, which was pretty sweet too - no paper targets, got to shoot pop us, and also did it while advancing on the target, which we never get to do.  Needless to say, more fun.

After the daytime qual, we had to go back and do a "limited visibility" qual with both weapons.  The instructors didn't want to wait until it was that dark (it was a Sunday, and they have lives..) so we shot again in a kind of dusky situation.  Either way, it was lots of fun and I ended up shooting over 300 rounds today and life is good.  It was also good getting used to the gear and the heat, after awhile it starts feeling pretty natural and you stop getting annoyed that your uniform is soaked with sweat and you have a few extra pounds on your back and head.



I'm smiling on the inside



The up and coming class is Base Defense, which I'm pretty excited about.  I talked my way into it (not everyone gets to do it), and its alot more firing and doing legitimate Army stuff.  I figure that's why we're here, may as well have fun with it.  Two more weeks and we'll be on a plane out of here.