Hand Grenades

PVT Erickson Says:

"Pull Pin! Prepare to Throw! Throw!"

KABOOM!!!

Sigh, I loved the Hand grenade course. It was likely one of my favorite courses in
Basic training, next to Bayonet at least.

Guess what? Everyone that joins the army has to throw at least one live hand grenade
during basic training. It's lot's of fun! And one of those things that you go home and say "I did that!"

Hand Grenades is kind of one of those things that the drill sergeants build up as being a lot worse then it actually is. Sure, you get a little dirty, it gets the blood rushing, but damn, its fun!

I kind of wouldn't want the job of the grenade sergeant who has to deal with the scared shitless private who is just quaking in his feet as he holds his grenade in his hand and waits for the command to actually activate and throw his grenade.

But to prepare you for the actual thing, they give you lots of practice. They got lots of fake grenades that make a popping noise when you activate them. They are hollowed out on the bottom and have little pieces of shrapnel that come out. You can hold them in your hand in fact and not get it blown off.

But considering you are holding a piece of equipment that is designed to impale you with many sharp fragments that burrow into your skin so that you can no longer function properly, it is highly recommended that you don't take it lightly.

There are three basic phases to the grenade course. The 'this is how to throw a grenade' phase, and the 'throwing a fake grenade' phase, and of course the 'throwing the real grenade' phase. Then there is the actual course.

Everyone is given a couple of grenades and taken into a bunker like box where you are instructed very carefully how to throw the grenade. You get into your nifty little padding, the grenade sergeant goes through it step by step, gets you into the proper stance, and then upon the command of 'pull pin, prepare to throw, throw." you go through the motions and hawk that little bastard as far as you can away from you. Sorry, you can't watch where it lands. If you do, the grenade sergeant will take you out.

If you throw it well enough, and with enough confidence, you move on.

You then get to throw the grenade from different poses. Kneeling, standing, prone, you are chucking grenades and listening to them go pop all day. You eat and breathe grenades all day, and you listen to the live ones go "BOOM" all day long. The first one you hear kind of rattles you, because you don't realize how loud it is until it goes off.

And then, its the live grenade.

I'll have to admit, the live grenade is a bit of a let down. There is a lot of talk of the whole grenade, the drill sergeants build fear in you as they talk about how likely you are to die from this experience, but there is so many safeties in play that in reality nobody ever really gets hurt from throwing a grenade, though it is considered a dangerous activity and the sergeants in that box are always vigilant. If you drop the grenade, they are trained to take you down and make sure you don't get killed.

But it is a quick experience. You run out there, hand the sergeant your grenade, and he hands it to you, gives you the commands, "Pull Pin, Prepare to Throw, Throw!"

You do it just as he tells you to do it. Yes, you chuck a grenade into a big empty pit of dirt and then you duck. You don't see it go off, you hear it go off, and it blows up dirt.

Like I said, not really that exciting. You throw two grenades and then you rotate out. And that is that.

The Grenade Course in my opinion is actually more fun then the actual grenade, which is mostly just the adrenaline and bragging rights to your civilian friends of throwing a live grenade. You take your fake grenade, your various training experiences, and get graded on participating in the grenade qual course. Yes, you can qualify on the hand grenade. Seven different events take place, from identifying different grenades, chucking grenades at various targets, and sneaking up on a bunker and tossing the grenade inside.

You get all seven, you qualify expert and wear a nifty little tab on your class A uniform that you will never wear out of BCT. If you do, people will point and laugh.