KABOOM!!!

Sigh, I loved the Hand grenade course. It was likely one of my favorite courses in
Basic training, next to Bayonet at least.

Guess what? Everyone that joins the army has to throw at least one live hand grenade
during basic training. It's lot's of fun! And one of those things that you go home and
say "I did that!"

Hand Grenades is kind of one of those things that the drill sergeants build up as being a lot worse then it actually is. Sure, you get a little dirty, it gets the blood rushing, but damn, its fun!

I kind of wouldn't want the job of the grenade sergeant who has to deal with the scared shitless private who is just quaking in his feet as he holds his grenade in his hand and waits for the command to actually activate and throw his grenade.

But to prepare you for the actual thing, they give you lots of practice. They got lots of fake grenades that make a popping noise when you activate them. They are hollowed out on the bottom and have little pieces of shrapnel that come out. You can hold them in your hand in fact and not get it blown off.

But considering you are holding a piece of equipment that is designed to impale you with many sharp fragments that burrow into your skin so that you can no longer function properly, it is highly recommended that you don't take it lightly.

There are three basic phases to the grenade course. The 'this is how to throw a grenade' phase, and the 'throwing a fake grenade' phase, and of course the 'throwing the real grenade' phase. Then there is the actual course.

Everyone is given a couple of grenades and taken into a bunker like box where you are instructed very carefully how to throw the grenade. You get into your nifty little padding, the grenade sergeant goes through it step by step, gets you into the proper stance, and then upon the command of 'pull pin, prepare to throw, throw." you go through the motions and hawk that little bastard as far as you can away from you. Sorry, you can't watch where it lands. If you do, the grenade sergeant will take you out.

If you throw it well enough, and with enough confidence, you move on.

. . . To Be Continued.

Posted by Erickson on 16:51 : (((