1 Company,
2 Days of Shooting,
18 Lanes for firing,
22 Instructors,
181 Recruits,
200 M-16 rifles,
700 Magazines,
6000 Target Boards
27,000 Rounds of ammunition,
1 Range Package,
Thereby causing,
Countless miss-fires,
Millions of I-A's (jamming of rifles),
27,000 Expended rounds (some are returned though),
6000 Used Target boards (of which less than half got hit thanks to cock-eyed shooters),
700 Very hot magazines,
200 Dirty rifles,
181 Tired maggots,
22 Cranky and coarsed-voiced instructors,
18 Lanes littered with empty ammunition cartridges,
2 Days of fruitless shooting (the total score for this range was one of the lowest),
1 Extremely tired and sleepy company.
Which explains why I only managed to blog in the late morning. Bloody re-shooters in range caused the whole company to only cease fire at 11pm last night. Meaning that we slept at around 2am and only managed to book out early this morning. I, and a few other instructors, nearly lost our lives back at Range yesterday.
Thanks to the foolishness and ignorance of the recruits. Sheesh. No wonder instructors deserve the extra pay more than section commanders out there in the units.
Despite us reminding the recruits that they must, at all times , point their rifles to the front (in the direction of the targets), they refused to comply.
Here's one good example...
Recruit XYZ was firing as per normal.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Click!
Uh-oh. As a trained specialist, I'd recognised the sound anytime.
Bloody jammed rifle.
Recruit XYZ finally realises it too.
*Turns around from target to face me (I was standing behind him), with a LOADED rifle pointing straight at me*
"Sergeant! I-A!" (meaning a jammed rifle requiring an Immediate-Action)
"&@*!^#%$&@*!^#%$!!!",
"OEI! POINT YOUR RIFLE TO THE FRONT!!!", I shouted.
*at the same time, rushed towards him and shoved his wayward pointing rifle back to the front*
Then I went and helped him remedy his weapon. Sheesh. Another close shave. Had that rifle suddenly snapped back to life, it would be the end of me. Which really makes me marvel at the destructive power of a rifle. There lies, in the hands of a recruit, a device which is capable of taking away lives. I shudder to think what that weapon could do in the hands of an insane recruit.
Is your life really worth it?
I'm just glad to be home.
Safe and sound.
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11 comments:
an insane recruit would probably, shoot everyone in sight, until he is left with 1 bullet to kill himself with.
they are just recruit, it common of them to have such reactions.
unit men suppose to have better experience, do that too. Not to mention a recruit just 1 and half mths into army life.
anyway being an instructor at bmtc, be extra careful
glad that you're safe dude... =)
there is bound to be such a recruit in every company and in every intake. either they point a weapon that has a round lodged inside to a spec, an officer, or the assistant. bound to have one. and even in unit life, you still get one or two of them popping up in the battalion. they just do not realise the seriousness of the situation, until they see blood. which is probably too late by then.
That's true. But then they're recruits after all. Although it's a chargeable offence, all they were given is a weekend confinement. Hopefully's its enough to make them realise the seriousness of it.
people like them, you squat beside, pray he doesn't, and when he does you prepare to kick his helmet. at least if he really misfires his aiming will be thrown off. anyway just be more vigilant when around recruits, yah?
as safety what i always do in range..
line up the empty cartridge in fall in position, throw at any firer who do not obey instruction. or sit near them, use my helmet knock theirs lol
*firer moving target own time own target fire*
I know of a victim of an insane recruit before. Was round my sec sch years, haven't enter army yet. Think it was round 1996. My neighbor who was an officier was shot by a recruit at range. The recruit then turned the gun onto himself and fired. Shot the officier first then himself. Both died.
bk blooger, it was around my batch, and my friend was the unfortunate investigating officer who had to report about it. If i remeber correctly the guy was already not very mentally stable, and the officer was pushing him hard. Guy just decided enough was enough, and the rest was history.
Had an idiot who actually stood up during BIC (Battle Inorculation course) cause he got lost. He signed 21 extras for that. why the fark would you stand up knowing that you had 2 M60 GPMGs firing rounds overhead? yeah ok they were restrained, but so? Wah lao, when we all saw him start to stand we all thought thats it liao.......
I wonder about this sometimes, there is a rule that you cannot sleep before you shoot, rationale is you will be groggy and tend to misjudge and is dangerous.
My BMT range one day happened like this,
We woke up real early in the morning, the OC, CSM, 3SG's all wanted us to shower beforehand. Superstition about being 'unclean' before handling live weaponry. Also said to help reduce the chance of stoppages. Ammo detail was worst, 04 30 assemble below. I was lucky. Anyway, no matter how early you are, they spend half the morning going through theory, dry zeroing etc. Turns out the ammo was late. WHY? 'Heaven always knows' Claimed many people serving NS. My view is 'Only Heaven knows'. We went back real late at night. Furthermore, clean arms for inspection before the next day range.
Finally the next day dawns, again, delay, ammo isn't here, the ST people who man the range isn't here. Dry zeroing for Super 'can't shoot' Kings.
After an exhausting afternoon shoot which eats into evening, we had a fast dinner. Most people have no appetite anyway.
People in all details who were shooting my lane were pulled out because of a fault with the target board. WE formed a last detail. 200 guys in a company with so many IA's all the time, what time do you think it was when my detail, nicknamed the 'SNIPERS' because when we were called out, a lot of them thought we were the best shooters, blah. It was like 2 am in the morning. Before that I was dozing off, trying to stay awake. My PS was kicking my boots now and then and tellin me, 'Don't Sleep!'
I been awake since 05 30. Been helping with stores, butt detail. Not to mention this crazy idea of the OC to run to the butt and back and do some 'SIMPLE PT' to freshen you up in the morning.
I wasn't thinking straight, I was sleepy, definitely didn't shoot well. Did not have a good score though I did pretty well in my Unit.
Later on, I heard this story passing like wildfire.
'Hey, you know 'XXX Coy?'.
'What about it?'
'Wah, solid siah, got 'WHITEHORSE''
'So what?'
'Their range ah, so solid one, every thing ready for them, shoot immediately, short and sweet, Half the coy will load tonner and go to range only when the first half finishing.'
'SUCH LUXURY? WHY, WE WERE LIKE DONKEYS, HERDED HERE AND THERE!'
'What's more solid is the whitehorse detail will only be chauffered there when coming to his detail and chauffered back when he finish'
'WAH @#$%, I got nothing to say, WHITEHORSE mah!'
I don't mind whitehorses, if you are in his coy, wah, you are blessed. If you are in his platoon, you are having a bold stroke of luck. If you are in his section, wah, you must have been a monk in your past life. IF you are his buddy, you are semi-god already, because what he have, you will have. IF you are a WHITEHORSE, you REC also like God.
MINDEF admitted having a whitehorse classification, but claims is to single them out so as not to have 'different treatment'. HAH!
LOL! I had a whitehorse in my platoon, and yes i was blessed. Cause of him, the whole platoon, AND only our platoon got to always eat at the muslim cookhouse.
Unfortunetly, out whitehorse very on one, so although we had some minor benefits, the range days you had just described Jack, are all too familier.
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