Get Some!

In Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket", the helo door gunner yelled "get some" as he gunned down VC in a rice paddy as his helo flew over. Gunner's have been yelling "get some" ever since. While my preferred target is Taliban/Al-Qaida, this week I was able to shoot at milspec silhouettes, old decommissioned tanks and a broken-down deuce and a half truck. Civilians pay good money to do this at the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot every year. Uncle Sam lets me do it for free.

Highland Sailor and the M249 - 5.56 Nato Light Machine Gun




Highland Sailor and the M240 - 7.62 Nato Medium Machine Gun in Turret Mock Up



Highland Sailor and the M2 (Ma Deuce) - .50BMG Heavy Machine Gun



Until next time: Keep your eye on a shipmate, head on a swivel and stand by to Give'em Hell! Hooah!

NIACT Update

This past week was a busy one at Camp McCrady.
Alpha Company started the week with our Navy Individual Augment Combat Training (NIACT) Check In Brief and Gear Issue (4 sea bags of stuff, 2 of which I have been told I'll never use.) We also had our weapons issued (M16 A2 Rifle & M9 Pistol) and then spent some time learning how to assemble our IBAs (Individual Body Armor).

Later, we completed Basic and Advance Rifle Marksmanship Training, Combat First Aid Course, Heat Stress Training and Communication (aka Radio) Training. The Rifle Training was very good, the other training not so much.



HMMWV (Humvee) Convoy Intro and Practice was fun for the first five minutes then the novelty wore off.



After the HMMWV Training it was time to "Zero" the M16 Rifle.



We shot a lot of ammo during our M16 Practice session.



As busy as Alpha Company was, we also became well acquainted with the Army term "Hurry Up and Wait.



It is tradition that every time I go to sea, I grow a "Deployment Mustache". Here is a very sweaty, four day old one.

All in all this has been a good week. Very long, hot days but definitely worth while. Alpha Company's Drill Sergeants are great and are more than willing to help us as we learn to put our boots on the ground.

Until next time: Keep your eye on a shipmate, head on a swivel and stand by to Give'em Hell! Hooah!

Birthday Dinner

Every year my wife takes me out to my favorite restaurant or makes one of my favorite meals for my birthday. This year Uncle Sam had the honor, Veggie Burger in Barbecue Sauce MRE...Yum. Honestly, the package would probably taste better.


Until next time: Keep your eye on a shipmate, head on a swivel and stand by to Give'em Hell! Hooah!

Arrived: Camp McCrady

I made it to Camp McCrady located on Fort Jackson, SC.

A few posts ago I stated I was going to sit around San Diego (SD) until my flight to SC…Rather than sit around the barracks in SD, I decided to take 6 days leave. I flew home to Florida and spent some time with the family. After my leave the pace of the events started to quicken, I flew back to SD and two days later I flew a military hop back to the east coast.

My training unit arrived in our barracks and unpacked our sea bags, ready to call this open bay home for the next three weeks.



Until next time: Keep your eye on a shipmate, head on a swivel and stand by to Give'em Hell! Hooah!

NArmy

A few of my civilian friends have asked, “What is the NArmy?” Having assumed everyone knew what the NArmy was I did not provide a definition of the word, and for that I apologize.

The NArmy is simply a word merge of the words Navy and Army. Sailors who are assigned to the Army are considered to be part of the NArmy. Sailors in the NArmy are considered ”Sailders” (Sail-jer) again a word merge of Sailor and solider.

There are currently 12,000 Sailders in the US NArmy serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and in the Horn of Africa.

Until next time: Keep your eye on a shipmate, head on a swivel and stand by to Give'em Hell! Hooah!