01 June 2008
Well, it's one week down and 7 days a wake-up to go. We started running the day time zero range here yesterday. The training had been broken up into 5 day cycles and yesterday was day 5 of the 2nd cycle. What that means is during our 12 hours out on the range, we had 9 soldiers come to shoot. Today was day one. By 1000 hrs (10 am) we had seen 18 soldiers. Then the storms came. We had to shut down the range due to lightening strikes near by and the heavy rains that came through. At one point I got on the public announcement system to recognize the sponsor of our weather, "Today's weather brought to you by the U.S. Army, where if it's ain't raining, it ain't training" That got a good laugh by those stuck out there. Then the 70 mph winds kicked up and the rain came in sideways. Two hours later....We finally have the chance to determine it's passing and begin working on getting the range ready for soldiers to come back out. First order of business was calling range control for a pump.
Look at the picture of me, LT M. and my soldiers as we try to recreate Washington crossing the Delaware. Now see the round holes to our right side. Out of 32 firing positions, we had 15 underwater. Each foxhole position is 4 feet deep so you can see, we got some rain. Of course, you know me and I try to make the most of whatever I'm given so we had some fun with it. Then 200 soldiers showed up and we had to work hard. We only managed to get about 80 run through, but they were shooting two different weapon platforms, using iron sights and then a Aimpoint CCO, (close combat optic). We left the range by 1930 hrs (7:30 pm) and grabbed a bite to eat. Well, somehow it's already 9:40 pm and I need to get ready for tomorrow.Be safe and have a great day.
