Yippe

Yea!! We are finally out of our equipment which is good for everyone. We have lightened our load and it feels wonderful. I don't care how hot it is now since it's not nearly as hot with all that stuff on your body. It's like wearing a 45 pound jacket in 112 degree heat. Glad to not have to wear it anymore.... until????

Had an opportunity yesterday to go shoot a couple of machine guns. It was a really fun time because you usually can't shoot these things in the automatic mode except while in combat. I was at shooting pit at the edge of the base and we got to shoot as much as we needed to get familiar with the M-4 and M-16. The picture today is of me and my trusty M-16. I probably shot upwards of 300 rounds of ammo. The shots were making the gun very hot of course so it was difficult to hold on to. Everyone forgot their gloves. Plus the blazing hot sun added to the difficulty in handling the weapons. My favorite weapon is the M-4. I didn't get a picture of the M-4, I forgot my camera as well. Let me explain first how this happened. A call came over the brick for help on a redeployment issue at the shooting range. The HQ staff has been involved with mission tasks and there were missions that were left uncovered by those redeploying home. So there are several positions in these missions that may need to be filled by qualified shooters. These missions will probably never happen but we needed to have bodies in these spots, just in case. HQ is where I work and couldn't see assiging an additional mission somewhere else. I like to lead from the front, by example, and not by the power of ordering others to do something extra that you could do yourself.

In my next post I will talk about what I'm about to leave my desk to go do. It is my first experience with a Patriot Detail. More on that when I get back. Prayers for the Detail. Mom I'm not leaving to go outside the wire. That is that.