A blog about a girl who speaks her mind and talks about whatever she wants. So its a blog about everything, and absolutely nothing, all at the same time. . .
Profile
Name: Kami
Alias: Risawn
Location: Washington State, United States
An avid Snowboarder, rabid NRA supporter, Starving Artist, Military Junkie, anti-fru-fru Glorified Private that basically posts incoherant ramblings and things better left unsaid.
So I got an email today. I found it intriguing, because it's been a while since I had an email such as this. I'm sure I get these from time to time, but I thought I would comment on it because it made me scratch my head and think 'huh?'
Hello Risawn.
I felt compelled to write to you, as I read your blog purely by accident and found it disturbing reading.
I am a former British soldier who has lived in the USA for 4 years. I love Guns, Pistols and Rifles and used to work at Wal-Mart selling in that department. While I acknowledge your freedom of choice and speech and the right to bear arms, brandishing them around and posting them on the internet makes America look stupid and infantile.
As for political preference, these things are private in my country, and exercised through the ballot box, in secret. As an Historian of good repute, may I add that history will not endeavour George Bush Jr kindly as time goes on. His reputation is lower than Harding at the moment.
As for your religious beliefs, those too, are deemed private, the Mormons have not exactly had a good press in the recent years, and a GWB voting, gun-toting lady in camoflage maybe the last thing that they need to have.
On a lighter note, America is but one small country in a big world, just as my country found out in 1776.
May your country quickly learn Humility and may America soon have Universal Healthcare.
So, that was it. He'll probably think I'm being arrogant by posting this on my blog, but you know what? Anything people email me may find itself on my blog. Here is my reply.
Wow, thanks for your enlightening letter. I think I'm going to desert the military and get rid of all my guns while I vote for Ralph Nadar in the next presidential election. I've also converted to Atheism so I never have to worry about shaming Mormons again. < / sarcasm >
My blog is my personal webspace, it is a public forum where I post my thoughts on anything I wish to discuss and has always been that. If you find it that disturbing, don't read it.
I will comment further on his email here.
First Topic- Guns. I like Guns. I like to shoot them. I think they are fun. Every now and again I like to go out and go plinking as a hobby. This is a hobby of mine and I tend to write about things that interest me (not just limited to guns I might add). And this is a blog about me that for some reason has at one time garnered an unusual amount of fascination from people that I still sometimes don't understand (both the fascination and the people), and a few of the readers I got left have lingered for some reason, and a lot of them like guns too. I post about my interests, one of my interests is guns. Sometimes I post gun posts to remind my readers that I'm a gun user, because I have had concerns of stalking in the past. People are less likely to stalk me if I'm armed and they know it.
So I will continue to post topics about guns, about me firing them, and show some bad ass pictures of me holding them with a snarl on my face. Don't mess with me. If you think I'm delving into the stereotype of the infantile and stupid American that the rest of the world apparently sees, so be it. Because you obviously don't know me.
My former NCOIC made a similar comment to me about why I like to pose with military assault weapons, but I might need to add that I now think that man is a retard.
Newsflash, there are 300 million people in America, and I hardly represent our population as a whole. I don't like to consider myself fitting into any particular stereotype, and I don't care what the hell anybody else thinks of me. Especially these days. If you think I look stupid and infantile because I happen to like to pose every now and then with instruments of death, go read somebody else's blog. Nobody is forcing you to read this one.
Topic Two - Politics. Nice to know that they do things that way in Britain. This is a blog that I sometimes voice my opinion on. I'm of a conservative persuasion. This is a blog about me. People who read it for whatever reason are reading my perspective on things. Nobody is telling you to read it.
Furthermore, I don't really write about politics that much, in previous election years I wrote more and I even got a bit more vindictive. I've also grown somewhat since then and that is not the central focus of this blog by any means. It sometimes holds a commentary of my opinions on current events and political matters, but that is not a large interest to me at the moment. If you disagree with me, good for you. You have every right to disagree with me. That's the beauty of personal opinion. But you might notice that there are a whole lot of blogs out there that voice their politics. Some are left, some are right, some are centrist. And some of these aren't even American! *gasp!* I know a few Brits who post about politics.
Topic Three - George W Bush. For some reason, because I posted a picture of me holding an M203 stating I wasn't sorry for voting for the man in 2004, people see me as an unapologetic Bush Supporter. Ok, maybe I am, but this doesn't mean I love the guy. He was never my ideal candidate for President and these last four years have been a disappointment. Still, I don't regret voting for him. I saw the alternative as a worse candidate, whether that is true or not we will never know, because unless somebody can create a device that enters us into an alternate dimension where Kerry was elected President instead, we will never know.
I don't apologize because the only thing you can do about the past is learn from it and drive on. You may notice that I don't post a lot about George W Bush and what a great job he's doing as President, because I don't think he's doing that great. Again, he was never my ideal candidate for President, I voted by my political stance and who I thought was the better man for the job. I didn't like Kerry.
Whoever wins the presidency this year, be it Obama, Clinton or McCain, I think I'll get by as best as I can with whoever wins and get on with my life. I say something every now and again about the candidates, but honestly I'm not fond of the whole lot of them. I guess I'll get by the best I can.
In conclusion. Yes, I voted for GWB. So what? So did about 50 million other Americans. But that's right, we're all retards.
Topic Four - Religion. Now this I don't get about you going off on me not remaining private about my religious beliefs. I'm getting two things from you. You think I should keep my religious affiliations to myself because I should be ashamed of myself considering all of the negative press surrounding my religion as of late. Or you think I should talk about religion less. Or you're anti-Mormon.
Ok, big question mark here. Yes, I am Mormon. I have never denied that I'm a Mormon. And I'm not ashamed of being a Mormon so why should I keep it hidden? But I have never used my website to advertise my religious beliefs to try to convert people EVER. I rarely ever mention my religion or my beliefs here. The fact that I'm a Mormon is part of who I am, I think I may have mentioned it once or twice in a little survey thing that I'm LDS.
Besides, I'm not a stereotypical Mormon Girl. If you actually knew Mormons, you would know that most Mormons will be more then eager to tell you everything about their faith you want to know. I'm the same way, but I choose not to do it here, I only do it when I'm in the company of a person who wants to know more. I am never pushy about my faith and this blog is the last place I should be preaching about it.
I admit I'm not the best example of a Mormon. But I really don't think your judging me on my religion or vice versa because of this blog is really a matter of concern. What confuses me most is this whole phrase that my religion is recieving a lot of negative press lately and 'a GWB voting, gun-toting lady in camoflage maybe the last thing that they need to have.'
What in bloody hell is that supposed to mean anyway? This statement is ridiculous on several counts because of the fact that 1) I very rarely advertise my religious beliefs so why should anybody other then you care, 2) my faith is mostly conservative and therefore most DID vote for GWB because like me, they didn't like the alternative, 3) why does the fact that I'm serving my country in the military have anything to do with my religion and would cause people to look down upon it unless the person judging me is a liberal hate-monger? and 4) a lot of Mormons like guns. Just to let you know.
Also, the FLDS have their roots in my faith, but they are NOT Mormon. They are a sect that broke of a hundred years ago. I'm not going to go into detail because that's not what my blog is about. If you want me to post my beliefs on the FLDS church, I think they are a strange group of people. But I try to be tolerant of other people's faith because I hope people would be tolerant of mine *hah!* I disagree with a lot of things they do, and I mean a LOT of things, but that is not for me to judge. I claim the privilege of worshiping the almighty God according to the dictates of my own conscious, which allows all men the same privilege. My religion and how I worship I HAVE kept mostly private (well, other then just now).
I don't want to go into detail because as I may have mentioned before, I don't really talk about religion a lot because I think it IS a private matter and often times, unless both sides are truly open to discussion, only breeds a mass amount of contention. That is why I don't discuss my religion here.
Topic Five: America, Humility, and Universal Healthcare.
You must think I'm cocky or something. You obviously haven't read much of my blog because my regulars will let you know I poke fun at myself and my many MANY mishaps all of the time. I am not a graceful person, I often put my foot in my mouth and I believe in personal responsibility and accountability, though I tend to lose things quite frequently. I'm not really an arrogant person, at least I don't see myself as arrogant. What arrogance and cockiness I have I have to cultivate and nurture due to my profession as a Drill Sergeant. And I'm not afraid of the opportunity to kick terrorist behind if I were to be given the chance.
As for Universal Healthcare, yeah, you must be European. I'm all for taking care of people, but there is also the matter of Personal Responsibility. I am all for Preventive Medicine. I think we should educate the masses and let them know, 'hey, stupid, if you do this, you're going to get sick', though it is more common these days with the 'tobacco causes cancer' spiel, and let them deal with the consequences. Of course, there are plenty of people out there who live perfectly healthy lives and still get sick due to matters out of their own hands. The current health care system in America needs to be fixed, but I don't think Universal Healthcare is necessarily the way to go.
But that is another topic for another post that needs plenty space of its own and this one is long enough.
I love how patronizing and condescending this letter is. This dude appears to think he has all the answers and makes it quite apparent that he thinks I'm an idiot. I don't know why I even bothered to give him the benefit of replying. Oh well, if nothing else, you get the chance to see exactly what I wrote too.
As many of you know, I'm a bit of a gun nut. I like Guns. I have been a member of the NRA and truthfully I need to get my membership renewed sometime in the near future, before this next presidential election when you have people like Barack Obama who wants to ban all hand guns.
So, as many of you know, Charlton Heston, former President of the NRA, passed away yesterday at the age of 84.
I noted his passing mentioned on Perezhilton.com yesterday (one of my guilty pleasures I admit) and was curious as to what Perez's readers might say about the man they would likely see as their enemy due to his stance on gun rights.
Apparently, these people are rabid haters of anybody who wants to own a gun. And they are apparently also loyal supporters of the film maker Michael Moore.
Michael Moore's movies should be shown in Critical Thinking classes, and that's about it. The man distorts and edits so much in his movies that he completely tweaks the truth to fit his agenda. Because he does this, he has lost all credibility with me. I've seen Bowling for Columbine. I refuse to watch any other movies that he's made, no matter what message he's trying to portray that I may or may not agree with (and mostly I disagree, but the man is a complete narcissist so why should I even bother?)
Apparently, people still look at the film 'bowling for columbine' and it's character assassination of Charlton Heston as gospel. Including the apparent scene where he goes to a gun rally in Denver shortly after the Columbine incident and rallies his fellow gun-loving troops behind him.
I would link to the Bowling for Columbine Myths page to get a better understanding of all the problems with the film, but alas, the link is broken.
Whatever the case, Charlton Heston, a screen legend in Hollywood, a strong supporter of the civil rights movement in the 1960's, and a advocate of the 2nd ammendment, was a good man that does not deserve the hostility he has gotten from rabid lunatics of the left who follow Moore passionately.
Besides, if anything to encourage the ownership of guns, look at Switzerland and their unusually high gun ownership rate. They also have a very low homicide rate due to gun violence. Why? Because I know if I were a criminal, I would be less inclined to attack somebody if I knew they were armed.
Guns don't kill people, people kill people. If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have the guns. There are a bunch of these little sayings, but you know what? They are quite true.
I guess I didn't mean to go on a bit of a rant on the owner ship of guns when I'm talking about the death of a great man, but I guess they go hand in hand, don't they?
So we went firing a couple rifles the other day, and video taped it. I can be somewhat amusing to watch, but, well, the video can be a little boring at times as you watch me flinch a bit while firing the rifle (but I'm hitting targets! Unlike when I fired the handgun in the previous post, where I couldn't hit ANYTHING!
I don't think anybody can truly take me seriously.
That is a pretty sweet weapon though!
I didn't pose with Chuck (as in Norris) but it is a pretty fun rifle to shoot. And that sucker NEVER jams up, even though the FS2000 did. They were both pretty fun.
I almost recreated the 'not sorry' look. With an FS2000. That intense glare, the military uniform, the bad ass rifle in hand. See, I walked in the door in uniform and the first thing that came to my brother's mind was getting me to do a pose with his new rifle.
I think it looks sharp with a class A uniform (a departure from BDUs), though I'm one of the few people in the army that actually likes the Class A uniform (other then the inability to keep a female uniform squared away to the contours of my body, another post for another day)
A far off look.
Hey, this one I'm wearing my hat!
Another kick ass weapon that looks straight out of the game of Halo. I haven't gotten to fire it yet, but this will soon be rectified. And I love the rifle already!
News Shouldn't Be Bothered to Get It Right, Should They?
I just ran into a bit of hilarity in the blogosphere from the Dissident Frogman about an article in the AFP (French Press) that released an article with an Iraqi woman who is displaying two bullets that hit her house by coalition forces.
Definitely worth reading the article and viewing the video. This guy is great. Got to love the stupidity of the press to gobble up anything that makes America look bad.
It never ceases to amaze me how far technology has advanced.
I have wireless internet. In some really old barracks. On a national guard post. And it is actually a pretty decent connection!
The last couple days were filled with adventure and excitement, and a lot of down time in between. But I don't really care, it's hooah and it's army and I'm here to do my job and have fun.
I did have to get up at insane o'clock yesterday morning so we could get all of our gear in order, draw weapons, and get on the bus so we could make it to our destination in Montana in a timely manner. They just issued a weapon to us, and the supply sergeant was about to take one of the 16's out and give it to me and I noticed they skipped over a weapon. I was trying to figure out why when I noticed it had an extra attachment on it. An M203. Sweet.
So I asked if I could have it. He said sure, but asked if I was expecting to qualify. Why the heck not? I've never actually fired a 203 as an M16 before and was curious about it, so I got the 203.
Maybe not the wisest choice, as though the 203 is basically an M16 with a grenade launcher attached, the added weight of the launcher coupled with a different placement of the hand on the barrel (the bottom of the barrel is 2 inches lower), well, I now had to get comfortable with it.
But no harm done. Except for some reason I decided to volunteer for various tasks so I wouldn't get voluntold to do something I had no desire to do. And I got tasked with teaching how to evaluate a casualty, so I was lugging around a dummy with me. And I somehow stupidly enough volunteered to be Guidon Barer. What the heck was I thinking? I haven't done guidon in years, and as an E5, technically I'm not supposed to do that.
First thing this morning, I delegated that task out as quick as I could. One day was enough for me.
The range was fun though. Although I found a host of other 'excuses' for not doing as well as I usually do. On account of qualifying on a '203, my kevlar was to big, they made us fire in flak vests (which I hate), they changed the qualification round on us, we had to load and reload automatically, we only had ten round magazines, the sun was too hot, my foot was hurting, venus was out of alignment, so on and so forth. It took me far to long to zero, as I had to get used to the placement of my weapon in the prone position and get used to not really requiring a sandbag. Hell, I was all over the place, but once I got the thing zeroed, I took it and wandered over to the qual range.
We used to fire in the foxhole supported and the prone unsupported, 20 rounds in each position, but recently they decided to make the qualification range more in tune to how we actually fight in war. And, well, from what I understand, we really don't use Foxholes anymore. So we got rid of the foxhole position, and now its 20 Supported Prone, 10 unsupported prone, and 10 kneeling. A lot of people didn't really like Kneeling. It took me missing two targets (including a 50 meter, GAH!) to get it, but I loved kneeling. Prone Unsupported got me this time, like it usually does. But not for the reasons it usually did.
Well, usually we have a transition time when we qualify before, but this time, they just said get into your positions automatically. Given two ten round magazines, we had to change them out between shots and you move and your firing position changes. Then you had to quickly reload another magazine, move to the unsupported and engage the targets with only a few seconds to get comfortable. I had to constantly shift between targets until I got a good sight picture. And then its off into the kneeling position.
I qualified 26 the first time, which was qualified but considering I usually smoke the supported position and this time I flubbed it, I wasn't happy with my score (but I was happy I qualified first time considering all of my 'excuses'!). So I decided to see if I could go again, get a better score. I did, and I improved it by 2. Eh, Marksman for me.
Fine, I'll take the *%^$@# Marksman. *grumbles*
Other high points of the day included Hip Pocket Training in regards to me teaching how to Evaluate a Casualty. Except some other guy from one of the other companies got tasked for the same topic. I taught it once, then learned that they had the SAW range open so I went over there.
SAW is fun. I got in line and waited for my turn, then got a 25 round clip and got a quick refresher training on the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (er, the technical term for SAW) and went 'yay!'
I got down in the prone position, tried to get comfortable and my stupid kevlar flopped into my line of sight, so I was sitting there fidgeting around until I got a decent site picture waiting for the tower to give us the go ahead.
What I got was something like this.
"Engage your tar- CEASE FIRE CEASE FIRE!!!!"
A flippen dear decided to take a stroll across my lane at that precise point and we were forced to wait until it ambled on past. I had a perfect line of shot for the sucker to, but that would be a bad thing as deer are plentiful yet a protected animal on post. So once it had passed (we hurried it along by flopping up the pop up joe targets) I engaged my targets.
It took me a few shots before I got a decent site picture. But I took out the 100 Meter target, and the 200 meter. And a couple of the 600 meters. :) SAWs are fun.
However, my favorite range of the day was the 9mil. Usually I'm not fond of the M9 qualification range because usually you just shoot at a paper target and you have nothing to really gage your score against, so you can be consistently missing and you won't know this because you can't see where your shooting until your done.
This is the first 9mil pop up joe range I have ever seen. And it was a freakin' blast! I'm not sure the precise range, but they had a slew of targets ranged from 15 Meters to 40, or so. Like I said, not precisely certain on the distances. The firing range was a little eratic, we had to practice dropping a magazine and reloading another magazine quickly. Sometimes just five targets popped up, one time ten, all in all thirty targets in all.
For having brief experience on that range, I took people's advice from the past with my handling of handguns and instead of leaning back with a pistol, which threw me off balance, I leaned forward and suddenly I realized that I LIKE handguns! I was getting comments that I was smoking that thing left and right. A couple of targets I might have hit if they stayed up a split second longer, but all in all, I qualified first time and I was getting a couple comments that I should look into getting into competitions.
Whatever the case, I loved that range, I wanna go again!
When we got back to garrison, we were then treated to a Urinalysis. Yay us. . .
Tomorrow should be rather exciting, with a lack of flak vest wearage. I think I need to get a few different poses with a 203 and make more 'Girls With Guns' Comic Book Covers.
In my family we've acquired this tradition on Thanksgiving. We find a range or suitable public ground, we round up our assortment of fire arms, and we go plinking.
After this round, we're wondering if we're going to find another warmer holiday to associate our plinking tradition.
My dad who's a welder made these targets that go *ping* when they're struck, so we don't necessarily have to see if we hit them or not. Whatever the case may be, I took my trust rifle Chuck, along with the other asortment of firearms at our disposal. Because my niece went with me, I spent a good portion of the time actually trying to talk her into firing Chuck instead of shooting myself. She promised she would do it, NEXT year. We did get her to fire a Ruger 5 Mil and a 22. Revolver.
EDIT: Ok, I meant to say Ruger 9 Mil, either that is a typo or I'm just the world's largest poser when it comes to guns. . .
I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing here. Either I was caught in one of those priceless kodak moments where my face is contorted to display my worst possible features, or I just took a whiff of something pretty foul.
Grimace or not, Chuck is still a lot of fun to shoot! And although I'm not as accurate with the Ak as my military issued M16, I still get a pleasant feeling every time one of those targets goes *ping!*
I have to get some support with this thing, and then I'm lethal!
Whatever the case, one of the highlights of the trip was one of the newest additions to the gun family. A chinese SKS! Dropped once, never been fired. . .
And a bayonet. . . *drools*
I love the bayonet. I thought the fact that this rifle had a bayonet attached to it was so freakin cool that I started remembering weapons drills from basic and started screaming war chants.
*WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE BAYONET!?!* *TO KILLKILLKILL with the COLDBLUESTEEL!*
*WHAT MAKES THE GREEN GRASS GROW?!?* *BLOODBLOOD BRIGHTREDBLOOD!*
Thrust to the groin, buttstroke to the face, you know, the CLASSICS! *LET ME SEE YOUR WARFACE!*
In the army, after attending a range excercise, it is not uncommon to have extra rounds left over. Because of the paperwork involved and the logistics nightmare of extra rounds left over after a range, the easiest thing to do is just use the rest of them up. You try to make it so that you have more then enough ammo for a range so that you aren't caught short. Usually, in cases such as this, we had more.
So it meant firing it all down range. Usually you just try to expel it down range as quickly as possible. So my aiming technique here is not my best.
My shoulder was pretty soar for the PT test today. Still passed it with no problem. I better not fail, considering I'm trying to be a Drill Sergeant someday and I better be able to hang in there with the best of them. And it always helps to be able to give a good impression. Unfortunately, in this unit I take them monthly.
In other news, like that NCOER I had mentioned previously, my current unit had to get started on mine, which is due in November. Yeah, it looks like I have time, but if you look at this from a reservist's standpoint, that's in four days (see, we drill two days a month) so it had to get done this weekend. And so far, its a favorable one. In fact, I got an excellence in Competence. Which is a different story from my last NCOER, which says I'm completley incompetent.
So far, this has been a drill weekend. Actually, what's kind of funny is in my previous unit we always called weekends with the army drill weekends, or just drill for short. However here they use the technical term, which is Battle Assembly. Strange is I've never heard it called that before I got to this unit. Of course, I also drilled with a Hospital so that might have something to do with it.
I may have mentioned that I love my unit. I'll continue to emphasize this. I have been told not to expect these guys to be perfect and that this is a unit with its fair share of problems like any military unit, and I've definitely had moments where I may have rubbed a few people the wrong way, but what I've discovered is here I feel like I have purpose, and that I'm needed. This is something that is really big for me, I have to feel like I'm there for a reason, and that may be one of the reasons why I didn't click with Preventive Medicine.
See, Preventive Medicine is a job where the soldier can be as busy or not busy as they want to be. As long as people aren't getting sick and everything is smooth and A-OK, they can disappear off the face of the earth with a random inspection here and there and the higher ups aren't going to be none the wiser. The problem is, I WANT to be busy. I WANT to have something to do. I want to have some kind of PURPOSE! That may have spawned some of my depression with the army over the years in that job field, because many a drill weekend was spent where we had NOTHING to do!
With this unit, there is always something. What's interesting is a lot of it is just things that soldiers in general should do anyway, just most soldiers deal with their regular jobs rather then the soldiering aspect, but Drills always have something to improve upon.
Well, the status is this. I'm officially in this unit, and have been since May. I have to Reenlist before I can go to school. I'm set to go to school in March. In Fort Benning. Between now and then, I just have to keep passing PT tests and work on marching and do ranges and soldiering tasks that all drill sergeants should be proficient at.
This weekend was a range weekend. We have connections with the city government and was able to finaggle the use of the Police Academy Range. Now, I didn't have to qualify, because I qualified in April and we have another range in November (and October for that matter). But what the heck, I was up for it anyway. So I was issued a weapon.
There was something wrong with said weapon. It would fire alright, but wouldn't discharge the spent round, so you had to pull the charging handle back every time you fired to eject the brass. Not the kind of weapon you would like to qualify on. So I took another weapon at random, zeroed it in 9 rounds, and qualified with that.
These were paper targets, so you have ten targets you have to hit four times each, unlike Pop Up Joe who comes up and down at random.
I kicked butt this weekend, and I would like to report that I also kicked butt in the prone Unsupported position, the position I'm usually cursed into failing when firing at these kinds of targets.
I fired 47 out of 40. And no, that is not a typo. After the second 20 rounds, I thought I had hit all the targets when I discovered I still had rounds and tried to figure out why this was so, and thought maybe I had miscounted. No, I just had an additional 10 rounds. One I missed for certain. My first 20 I got my usual 19 out of 20. So if you take integrity into account, and say that I had actually missed those two targets the first time I fired at them I still got 37 out of 40, which is kick-butt. I've never fired that well. However, chances are they will still count me as having 39 out of 40. Which is expert.
Which is freakin' the best I've ever done on a range before!
Maybe I can keep this up? I'm mostly pumped that I have the whole prone unsupported figured out. Now I have to get ready for a PT test tomorrow. More then!
Actually, the weekend wasn't really hell at all. In fact, it was awesome! Several people mentioned how they would comment to their friends and coworkers tomorrow about how they spent the weekend.
Me? I had a nice quiet weekend. It started on Thursday, where I had to get up a little earlier then usual, took a bus to Helena Montana, fire an M16 and qualified as well as familiarized myself with a gas mask and night fire, (in which every round was a tracer and we witnessed some pretty spectacular fires!), practiced urban warfare with simulated ammo and Paintball guns, took a hike on a land navigation course which was done in both the day and the afternoon, and got a little flight to the course via whirly birds. Or Black Hawk Helicopters.
I'm trying to revamp my Milblog, so I think this post will best be served there. . .
I got my AK back. I was almost expecting an April Fools joke out of the process.
I bought my AK in 2004 and got to take it out shooting once. We didn't really get a good opportunity to get it cleaned afterwards and when it was taken out again (while I was in Kosovo) the firing pin busted on it.
Replacing that firing pin took about six months. But now I have my rifle back and I think my family will likely negotiate a trip to the range sometime this spring to excercise the fire arms.
It should be good fun. Will tell more when I get around to it.
The Schützenschnur is, as I have mentioned before, the German Marksmanship Badge, which you get for firing german weapons. Its one of the few badges that is authorized for wear on the American uniform. And ever since I heard about it, oh so long ago, I wanted a shot at it.
When I found out that I had the opportunity to acquire this most prized item while in Kosovo, I knew that eventually, some day, IT WOULD BE MINE!
Well, I got it!
So, a little background on the Schützenschnur. The badge is worn on the uniform as a silver chord on the right shoulder. It looks high speed too. You have three different levels, Bronze, Silver and Gold. In my opinion Bronze and Silver look best. Gold is just, to shiney. Then again, I've never been a fan of gold.
Well, I got the Schützenschnur, though sadly, I wasn't presented it in a formal ceremony like previous acquirers of it before me. I nabbed bronze, only because I have learned that I am killer on a rifle but I need help on a pistol.
I am lucky that I have had previous experience with the HK and the G36, so I was ahead of the game, a little bit. But I'm going home and taking a pistol to the range a lot more.
Anyway, the Schützenschnur has three parts. The G36 Battle Rifle, the HK Pistol, and the German Machine Gun. Somebody help me, I don't remember its nomenclature. SO anyway, you have 16 shots with the G36, you fire at targets from 200 M, 150 M, 100M and 80M. 4 shots from each location. Leaning against the wall, standing, kneeling, prone unsupported. If you can fire an M16, the G36 is a cake walk. Beautiful weapon.
you have 8 targets, you have to get a round in each of them at least once. You have to hit 9 to get Bronze, 12 to get silver, and 14 to get Gold. I think. I know I just got gold.
I was cold that day.
The HK is fired from the standing position, you have to fire it from 25 Meters at a bullseye target. 5 rounds. If you score 45 or better, you get Gold, 40 is silver, and 35 is Bronze. This got me. Unlike the M9, the HK fires low, so you have to kind of aim high. I didn't know what I was shooting at back in June, so I just fired rounds down range back then. I had to fire this weapon 3 times just to get the ligit bronze.
This is me (in unauthorized headgear) and a German dude in front of the Wolf, which is Mercedes' version of the Hummer. You can see the targets in the background.
To the side is three more sillhoutes. You have to shoot five rounds at them as well. One in each is Bronze. Two in one and one in the other two is silver. Two with two and one with one is Gold. Gold was easy.
How they grade the Schützenschnur is your lowest score is your score for the whole thing. I got Gold, Gold and Bronze. That means I got Bronze.
So, what about that Machine Gun you might ask? Well, at this particular range, they didn't have us fire with a Machine Gun. This made me sad. Hence, why I don't have its nomenclature down. The Machine Gun is the toughest one to shoot from what I understand. Dude, firing that thing would have been worth getting a Bronze for. Instead, I bit the HK. *sigh*
Indeed, back to the range for me.
As to the Unauthorized Headgear?
Army's live for trading things. In this case, we traded Hats! Patches are a plus too :)
I got my badge now. I'll need to get a picture of it.
They had the final range yesterday. I did this about a week and a half ago. This is what makes these deployments so worth it.
Did I mention that the German Army is one of the coolest Armies in KFOR?
Well, in other news, I finally went to the range today to qualify. I'll be brief and to the point.
19 out of 20 in the Prone Supported (this seems to be rather consistent) 16 out of 20 in the Prone Unsupported.
35 out of 40, Sharp Shooter baby! WooHOO! Which brings me up in the Order of Merit list and guarantees me a slot in the next Schutzenshnur!
Um, actually, I think my slot was guaranteed in the next Schutzenschnur (which is not the upcoming Schutzenschnur but the one following it), but that is a long story of its own. Let's just say I've moved from an Alternate to a definite slot. *squee!*
I trained on the SAV-T today. Because of my lackluster performance in the Prone Unsupported despite the fact that I'm pretty freakin' lethal in the Prone Supported, I decided I would see if I could get some extra training and maybe up my performance a bit.
See, we're having a range day *soon* and I'm going to go to this range with every intent on qualifying. And I better qualify Expert Damn it!
So I practiced putting rounds in targets in a similator. They had us practicing with M4s, saying that it is more difficult to qualify with an M4 then an M16.
So we did it just like we usually do, and my first round? 38 out of 40.
We did a few other excercises, like quick shooting, working on double tapping targets and shooting two to the chest and one to the head, among other things. Second score? 37 out of 40.
We did it again, just to keep in practice. Again, 38 out of 40.
What in the heck is my problem? I can go to the range, hit 19 out of 20 in the Prone Supported, and totally flake it in the Prone Unsupported. They tell me it might be my trigger squeeze, or heck, it might be the flack jacket doesn't fit me and they force me to wear it. My bad that I actually didn't practice in the SAV - T today with my flack jacket on, but hopefully, when I go back to qualify later, I can kill those targets mercilessly. I plan on hitting near if not at 37 out of 40. I just have to get a grip on the rifle in the prone unsupported. That's what I'm missing.
Because if I can actually qualify, and qualify near expert, I will jump the gun on the german Schutzenschnur and they can't keep that sucker away from me now. And I don't care what they say, I'll even post pictures! Somehow. Maybe.
So, that being said, what exactly happened during this first week I was back?
Well, one, I collected my weapon.
And Two, I discovered that I have a major pet peeve for how they do ranges here. I learned that I'm deadly lethal with a full magazine, an M16, and a Sandbag. But take away that sandbag and apparently I'm useless.
See, I had a rifle qualification range on Sunday, where we went to the range and shot at paper targets. And NO, this is not classified information, just common knowledge that you can gather from any military website. So, what was this all about?
First we had to zero our weapons and make sure they fired right. Um, 9 shots baby! One of the first ones I shot that puppy dead center! The first grouping was a little off, just had to get a feel for it, and then by the third grouping, I had them all nice within the sillhoute (er, mispelling, sue me) within a dime sized area of each other.
Yeah, I'm that good.
So after we have the sucker zeroed, we get to the real targets. 20 round magazine, 10 targets, 2 rounds in each target in the prone supported position.
Me, like every other time I've been to the range in the last year, I nailed 19 out of 20. BAM!!! Most of which well within the center of the target.
Move to the next phase. Same scenerio, except for this time, its Prone Unsupported.
Prone Unsupported is my weak area. Where for all of you civilians out there, Supported means that the muzzle of the M16 is supported by some means, usually a sandbag, where the unsupported you are supporting that rifle entirely with your arms.
I was well on my way to qualifying expert in the range with how I was firing Prone Supported. But I got into Prone unsupported, what did I do?
I shot 6 out of 20. And technically, at least four of those shouldn't have counted because the shots hit targets that I wasn't aiming at! On paper targets, I didn't even qualify!
Well, one, it would help if they didn't have us fire on a plywood platform. Just lay on one of those propping up an 8 pound rifle with your elbows digging into the surface for a little while. Yeah, THAT feels good. And then there is this other fact that I mentioned the last time I went to the range. I don't like paper targets because I don't know what I'm shooting at. My sight picture changes slightly because I'm holding the rifle differently in the Prone unsupported as opposed to Prone Supported. What I like about Pop Up Joe is if you miss him, you figure it out when he doesn't go down and you can adjust your hold on the rifle until you can hit him, and then you know where to aim. But with paper targets, well, your just out of luck aren't you? You missed that target? Oh well, you'll figure that out after you emptied out the other 19 rounds as well.
You know, it would help if they let us fire a couple practice rounds in the prone unsupported, just to get a feel for how we need to hold our rifles before throwing this out at us. I mean, we zero the rifle in the prone supported, and they expect us to hold the EXACT SAME POSITION??? I need to figure that position out thank you very much instead of doing it cold turkey. Yeah, I know that some soldiers can do this just fine, but I have learned in my time in the military that each soldier is different. And if I'm shooting that well in the supported and then can shoot squat in the unsupported, don't you think there is something perhaps WRONG there?
Call it a hunch but I would suspect that this means I need more training on firing a rifle in the prone unsupported. *Which means SIM CENTER!!!*
And it would help if I could dig my elbows into something a little softer in the meantime. Besides, if we come under fire, I don't know about you, but I doubt I can dig up a sandbag to make sure I hit the targets properly.
I went to the Range on Tuesday (took me three days to post about it, I know). It wasn't so much a day to qualify, more of a 'familiarize yourself with your weapon' day. We went to the range and fired at Targets that were about 25 Meters away. Since there were no foxholes, we fired from the Prone Supported and the Prone Unsupported position.
I can shoot anything in the Prone Supported position, had that rifle confirmed zeroed in 9 shots, but we were on these plywood Thing-A-Ma-Bobs and those are no fun on the elbows. That and we were firing in full flackvest, LBV and Kevlar. I'm not used to firing in a Flackvest. So I managed to get a good site picture in the Prone Supported, but once I got down into the Prone Unsupported position, everything went to hell in a handbasket.
We had to fire 20 rounds at 10 targets, hitting each one twice, in each position. So that's forty rounds for a grand total of 4 hits to each target. In the Prone Supported, I hit 19 targets, missing the 300 Meter target the one time by a couple centimeters.
I get down in the Prone Unsupported position, and by the time I made my way to the bottom of the target, I was rushing through it to get off of my elbows. It would have been a lot better if they just let us fire in the dirt. I doubt there would be Plywood Thing-a-ma-bobs there for us to sit on if we really came under fire.
So anyway, we fired in the prone unsupported. Well, if you looked at my target, you would say I hit six targets. Yeah, I hit six targets if you take into account that I hit a target I wasn't aiming for. That's how far off I was on this thing. Technically I only hit three targets. I was aiming low due to the fact that I was in an unfamiliar position with equipment I've never worn while firing on. Now, with Pop-up joes, I'll know if I'm missing them or not, as they go down or they don't. Then you adjust fire. If you're just firing at a piece of paper that is to far away to see if your hitting or not, you don't know if you are right on target or if you are missing completely.
That's why I loved the SAV-T machine. It will tell you EXACTLY where you hit the moment you hit the target, and you adjust accordingly.
So if we were qualifying with these things, despite the fact that I hit expert in the supported, I did so lousy in the unsupported position that I didn't even qualify! Where's the irony in that?
I saved my target anyway :)
I decided that this is good for familiarizing, but I think I'm going to stick to the Pop Up Joe, the Badass that I'm familiar with when actually qualifying.
I didn't get any pictures of me actually attempting to qualify with my rifle, however, I did get some kick ass pictures of the G36. Not necessarily of me holding it, (for some reason, I came off looking like a retard)
We had a German First Sergeant bring by some weapons from the German Army and we got to fire those badboys.
Just another name for the thing that made me famous previously.
You know, the M203 with the hose attached?
Well, they have Simulation type things here at Bondsteel too, and I saw something that looked totally bad ass that I wanted to pose with. You know, its just sitting there, looking at you saying "play with me!"
There, on the floor, sat an M2 50 Cal Machine Gun. Drool.
But note my complete and utter ignorance, I have never fired a 50 Cal and I don't know the first thing about positioning and what to do with one if one were to come across such a marvelous piece of war machinery.
Well, I ran into one problem, these things are usually mounted to the top of something, like a HMMW-V, not a piece of wood, so I was already looking kind of weird trying to position myself behind this thing.
And it had sights. Now that I look at it, why does a 50 cal need sights? Trying to position myself behind this thing as if to use the sight post to aim at my target, the recoil on this bad ass would knock me straight in the eye.
So I'm hunched over this thing, trying to figure out where to put my feet and how to aim this thing, and its not working to well. I'm hunched over like Quasimodo and can't get a good feel for this thing.
Maybe if I tried to sit up straight, it would have worked better?
Doesn't make me look like any less of a freak however.
My personal favorite pose was the one with me and my demonic grin, directly in back of the modified M2 (hence, its completely safe to stand in front of this thing to take a picture). If I could learn to actually fire something like this, I could blow up the whole freakin' world with this thing.
But your definitely dealing with Hospital Types when you start posing with weapons. Its a medical thing.
I think there is something about somebody saying that I always posed with a weapon lacking a magazine, and so I made up for it.
We went to Letnica yesterday on a MEDCAP, providing medical support for the community sponsored by Task Force Tornado, which is a Combat Arms unit. I was all over this one. One of the SGTs had an M203 in his possession and I asked to pose with it.
Then they brought to my attention what they referred to as 'Bazooka Joe', which happens to be a M249 SAW.
Another Kodak moment.
But you know what's really badass? Carrying 3 weapons at once!
However, I feel that if I tried to actually fire these things at once, I probably would be bowled over like everyone thinks I would with the 203. Also, I probably wouldn't be able to hit jack.
My NCOIC wasn't impressed. And he posed a bit of rhetoric my way, asking me why I got a thrill posing with items that were meant for Death. Really, your talking about three pieces of equipment designed to kill other people. And I take them in my hand and say "snap a picture of me toting this badass piece of equipment."
Um, doesn't that ring the whole point of being a soldier to mind? Not everyone gets to pose with instruments of death at this scale. It is bloody COOL! That's why!
The supreme power of Peace through Superior Fire Power. People aren't going to mess with you if you strike an imposing image with an item designed to kill.
Though granted, I think the picture of me with the 203 and 249 and a 16 slung on my back would have more people laughing at the thought of me actually trying to fire those things simutaniously then striking fear into the hearts of enemies everywhere.
And I still stand by my statement. I love instruments of death, and I love posing with them. Even if they are designed to kill, because that's sort of the point.
I got an email a couple of days ago, challenging my badassedness. Now don't get me wrong, he's are a supporter of the blog and everything, but he just wanted to challenge me, saying that his sister is tougher then I am.
And here is his reasoning, quoted directly out of the email.
1. She goes in to battle dressed stylishly, rather than in drab camoflage patterns.
2. She has bigger hair than you do.
3. Her weapon appears to be loaded, whereas yours always seem to be empty.
4. Her minions are ex-SAS blokes and Afghanis, rather than geeks.
5. Er... that's all.
Then there was a picture.
Here is my refute. Point One.
Well, anybody can say that their sense of style is better then mine. I have no sense of style, my sense of style tends to fall under the seattle term 'grunge', sort of. I like baggy pants and t-shirts. I'm all for comfort, sweetheart. But if you really want to see style, did your sister ever play laserquest in a prom dress?
I didn't think so.
Point Two
No comment. Besides, right now I'm missing most of it. But eventually it will grow back!
But i had pretty big hair at my prom!
Point Three
When you're in a military environment carrying 210 rounds between all seven of your magazines, if you are caught with a magazine locked and loaded and you aren't on a range or outside the wire, your head would get chewed off quicker then you can say Article 15. So usually, when I'm with my little M16, I don't have it locked and loaded. But that doesn't mean I don't get pictures from time to time. Besides, Chuck, my AK, clearly has a magazine larger then an M4's. As is demonstrated to the right. YEAH, look at that bad boy! And that sucker NEVER jams!
Anyway, not all weapons have a magazine. Like this rifle.
Point Four
You need to take that up with my Minions. Some of which are in the army. Hehe. Including non-geeks in my unit who have since seen my website and said "I want to be a minion!"
No, seriously, somebody said this to me. And he's pretty hoorah.
Somebody pointed this out to me, apparently somebody decided to jump on a messageboard about guns and post a response against the 'fifth ammendment', mistaking it for the Second Ammendment, and confusing the American Definition of the 'right to bear arms' as a coat of arms instead of Firearms.
I don't need to tell you that he's not American.
"How come you are all so illeterate and ignorant aboput your own laws? As far as I am aware the 5th ammendment does not say "You have the right to bear weapons"....It says "You have the right to bear arms"."
The "Right to bear arms" means you have the right to bear a heraldic device (i.e. a coat of arms) into the field of battle.
Ok, dude, if you are going to call us 'illeterate', maybe you should take a moment to spell check your message before berating us on our intelligence.
Highly entertaining, I recommend you read on. Just 'don't feed the trolls'.
Me - zzz. . . Phone - *ring ring!* Me - *picks up phone* "'ello" Jared - "Hey Kami, you awake?" Me - *grunt* Jared - "What are you doing today?" Me - "I have to pick up something at nine. Why?" Jared - "Wanna go to a gun show with me today?" Me - *grunt* "maybe. I'm kind of asleep, why don't you ask me later."
At around 8:30, I finally woke up, and got talked into going into a gunshow. Never been to one before.
Four hours later, I came home with an AK-47 to go with the ammo that was given to me (yes, I bought a rifle to match my ammunition), and a membership to a magazine called Woman's Outlook, which I must say, has one of the funniest pictures in it I've seen of a woman modeling a rifle slung over her shoulder in a mirror. Kind of like she was thinking to herself "does this Carbine match my sweater?"
Oh, and with it came a one year membership to the NRA.
Went Plinking today. is always fun, and if you know what you're doing and not going in the middle of the night, its relatively safe too.
We tried to get an early start, but I ended up getting us lost at one point. Well, not technically lost, just kind of not in the direction we wanted to go.
Anyway, picked up some targets at Ace Hardware, they had peeps for free, so we set them up and shot at them. Fun stuff. I think I'm going to work on getting my Paint Ball gun working, I think I would have a lot of fun doing that.
Anyway, the pictures. . . I'm a sucker for photo evidence!
This is a 270 hunting rifle, and gives quite a kick. I'm amazed on how acurate it is, I don't think I ever shot it before but we pelted the targets and it showed. This thing goes through a quarter inch of steel as if it was pancake batter.
This is Emmet. Emmet is mine. I had to get the hang of loading the magazine, I kept screwing it up and cramming it to far in and jamming it. Emmet is surprisingly accurate, I'm happy that emmet is mine.
Another shot of me and Emmet, in the prone. Prone is fun. I need to work on my grip though, I was starting to get a little wobbly.
That is a very small gun. And I'm not a very good shot at it either.
I don't know why I decided to wear a cowboy hat, I just did. My Brother just bought this little bad boy, a 357 revolver, it gives quite a kick and I'm impressed that I actually hit the targets a couple of times.
This was one of our targets.
If you can't tell, I am an advocate of the 2nd amendment.
