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Published: September 28th 2009
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Hello again, this is Dobie! Sorry it has taken me so long to send a training update, it has taken me a while to get pictures to Davina. She’s over in Germany now and I stayed back at Camp Atterbury to do some more training. From what I hear its not the best living conditions over there so I am glad I have an extra couple of weeks to get there, anyways, I wanted to keep training hard just in case they need an extra soldier in Kosovo.
What a day this was. Soldiers seem to really eat this weapons training stuff up! They put on their flak jacket, their Kevlar and all kinds of fun army gear. I was even allowed to borrow some uniform parts from a fellow soldier since I won’t be issued anything because I’m not a real soldier. It was a little big, but I loved the safety glasses.
First they taught us how to clear a malfunction of the weapon, how to load and unload safely and then the different shooting positions. This took a long time because we have so many different types of weapons. Little hand guns, medium sized rifles, automatic
weapons and then the big dogs. Wow, if you didn’t have your hearing protection on it would have been really loud.
My favorite was the crouching position like you were sneaking up on someone. It makes you a smaller target for the enemy. Not that that's a major concern for me but it was either that position or lying down on the ground. Heck, when I layed down I could hardly see over the blades of grass!
Most everybody shot very well, sometimes we shot at paper targets and then other times we shot at the plastic torso targets that fell over when we hit them. Mine fell over a lot and that made me feel like I was well trained and ready for the mission. If only I could be a real soldier…
I have been watching Davina with her weapon. She carries a pistol and I laugh most of the time because she is always adjusting it and trying to get it to sit in just the right place so it’s comfortable when she wears it. Some days she wears it in a shoulder holster and other days it is strapped to her right leg.
Those days are the funniest. The leg holster it attached to her belt and then there is a strap that is snapped just above her knee. It looks cool and all, but it seems to be a real pain when she has to go to the bathroom. You see, when you undo your belt the gravity of the weapon makes it slide down to your knees, then it dangles near the floor while still attached to you knee. Then when you go to pull up your pants it gets all caught up by your knee and it seems like your pants never quite come up to the place that they started out. Most of the time she has to take the entire holster system off and start over again. Then she walks around and complains about how baggy her pants are. Heck, if I had eight pounds hanging off my belt all the time mine would be baggy also! Then as I watch others walk I realize that most people have this John Wayne swagger to them. One leg is heavier than the other, so they kinda drag one a little slower and more deliberate than the other. I suppose
baggy pants and bathroom complications are just small prices to pay to have a cool holster and be part of the army.
Gotta go get ready for my next part of the training. Looks like tomorrow will be a day at the pepper spray range. Yea! Hope it’s as much fun as the gun ranges were today!
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