US Weapons There was a part of Basic Training where we put down our trusty 16s and familiarized ourselves with other pieces of machinery in the inventory of Armories everywhere. This is Basic Combat Training, if you are in the middle of a fire fight, your saw gunner falls over dead at your side, and you suddenly find your own rifle jamming for no apparent reason, are you just going to give up and say 'that's it, I'm done.' No, you are going to pick up that SAW and start avenging your gunner while your cursing your own rifle. And then you're going to take Charlie down. This is not a high speed instruction so that you know these weapons inside and out, but rather a familirization period so that you don't stare in a dumb stupor if you come across one of these strange weapons in the future. You'll at least know which end to point at the guy shooting at you and you'll have a general idea of where the trigger is. Hopefully the rest you can figure out as you fumble along. Well, the US weapons range was unique to previous ranges, which consisted of a target known affectionately as Pop Up Joe. In this range, they took decommisioned Tanks and told us to shoot at them. Hey, your familiarizing yourselves, right? Might as well give us a target that they know we can hit! Some people still missed them. Anyway, there were five main weapons at our disposal for this period. We did a round robin gig where we got to familiarize ourselves with each one. The following pictures are examples of the weapons at a simulation center, they are actual weapons modified for training. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon. It fires the same NATO approved 5.56mm round that is fired by our trusty M16A2, however, it fires its own 7.62 calliber round as well. This bad ass has a maximum rate of fire at 1,000 rounds per minute, but it is recommended to fire it in five to six round bursts (hold your finger on the trigger for a couple of seconds). That way, your muzzle doesn't become a red hot pile of liquid goo. They gave us 100 rounds on a belt and we got in line behind an M249 and got familiar with feeding that sucker its food of choice and aimed down range at that big tank in the horizon, about 100 yards away. Bliss. Ah. . . There is also a similar weapon we got to play with, the M60 Machine Gun. Its a bit larger then the M249, and therefore not as mobile. I got to play with that one too. It also has a pretty bad ass rate of fire, the specifics are somewhere on the net if you Google M60 Machine Gun. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of it. This looks an awful lot like an M16. Well, that's because it is. Its an M16 with a grenade launcher attached. The Grenade Launcher is known as an M203 Grenade Launcher, which I call my signiture weapon, a vector for launching an exploding assault farther then can be reached by the toss of an arm. Though I won't deny that either. Anything that goes kaboom on impact is alright with me. And if that picture looks faintly familiar, to those of you who know me, it kind of is. That is the first pose to the picture that made me semi-famous. The Anti Tank Weapon, from hence forward referred to as the AT4, is designed to take out small armies. Or rather, large metallic structures known as Tanks. Hence the name. Now, I admit, this was purely a familarazation course with the AT4. We learn how to deploy it, and then you practice the motion by shooting things out the AT4 that aren't quite rockets. They are significantly smaller. In fact, I'm not sure what it is they have you practice with, I just know it doesn't make a lot of noise. You just prepare the weapon, shout out behind you "back Blast Area Clear" and when you're give the clear sign, you shoot it and a little white blob comes out of the front of the AT4. It can be swayed by wind, but it gives you a general idea of whether or not you hit the tank. Which is important, because when you actually fire the AT4, its a one time shot. The final familirization period comes with the use of the Claymore Mine. Well, we don't actually deploy these, and we've been instructed on them quite a bit up unto this time, but this is just another opportunity to bash it into your brain so you can pass the end of cycle test when they make you go over the Claymore Mine. Note, the words "front toward enemy" does not face you. Although we actually only went through the motions of the AT4 and the Claymore Mine, we did get to see both in action that day. The Claymore mine wasn't particularly exciting, mostly because they deployed it against a tank that didn't show the results of the impact. The AT4s were more impressive. And loud. Of course, I didn't get to shoot a real one. They chose minorities to do that. And I'm not joking. That's how they chose who got to shoot it. -Risawn: # 6:48 AM 6:48 AM