BCT Blog #9

8/26/09

Wow white phase is crazy so far. Just like the beginning of red phase, they keep us busy from wake up till sleep time.

The last few days have been eventful. Sunday night, as we got ready for our first day of white phase I was appointed as a team leader. This puts me in charge of 6 other guys (2 teams of 7 make a squad, our platoon has 4 squads). So that is pretty cool because it got me off of the "read guard position" that I got stuck with for two weeks lol. And it is cool having a small amount of leadership responsibility.

I have to be honest, shooting the weapon was VERY difficult! Since I've NEVER handled anything like that before I took many tries before I finally got it. Monday was the most frustrating day ever lol. After a class on shooting, they took us to a really cool simulation where we shoot a screen on the wall and it tells us how well we can hit a simulated 300 meter away target. I could not do it and was very ashamed! There were only a few other guys in my situation and I got very worried.

But then yesterday we went out to a live range (after marching 5 kilometers to it haha) and I was sooooo much better with the real weapon. It was so much easier to see the target clearly. Anyway, I was quite nervous for the first several shots and was a "no go" for the first set of 5 clips that I shot. After stressing the rest of the afternoon, I got my second try, and finally nailed it on my very last clip! You seethe objective was called "grouping" or making 8 out of 10 shots in a 4cm circle 300m away. So anyway, I was SO relieved that I grouped my last set of shots and the good this is I got more and more confident with it each time. The key really is to relax and I was so stressed on it. But once I convinced myself that I was supposed to be enjoying it and having fun I did a lot better. I am determined to be an expert marksman by the end of this phase.