Basic Training - Weapons Training

Bear, bear, bear, bear, bear, bear. Go, go, go. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Right hand. Move your mask. Hold it up above your head. Move it a little out of there. Go ahead. Move it a little out of there. Go ahead. Set. Ready, ready, ready, ready, ready. If anyone don't want to come in, we want to move. The soldier's introduced to their rifle right from the first week of training. And we have what's called a weapons immersion program. And under that weapons immersion program, that soldier will keep their rifle with them at all times. They bring it to PT with them. They take it to every training, regardless of what the training event is. And they sleep with it. And that gets that soldier used to accountability. It gets them used to handling the rifle. And throughout the day, we can reinforce the rifle skills without actually being on the range. We spend about 10 to 12 days doing nothing but basic rifle marksmanship throughout basic training. So it's all hands on deck. Everything is focused towards qualifying with that individual weapon that that soldier is assigned. We want to see that they are applying what we call the four fundamentals of marksmanship, which is being able to get a good sight picture, being able to control their breathing, making sure that they have a good steady position, and then making sure that they are applying a good steady trigger squeeze. And if they're able to apply those four fundamentals of marksmanship, then they should be able to hit the target in the same place every time. Let's go, next two. Hurry up. Let's go. Get up there and put the grenade down and get fired inside. This is to get them used to working with the battle buddy to cover them while they are preparing to throw a grenade. Bang, bang, bang. Cover me while I throw the grenade. Let's go. Bang, bang, bang. Cover me while I throw the grenade. Let's go. Bang, bang, bang. So what we're doing now is just teaching them the basics, teaching them how to throw them safely, effectively. All right, pick up the weapons and go. All ranges, we really have to worry about safety because when you're dealing with either grenades or live ammo, you can have casualties. So we just emphasize on it. Basically just how tightly you need to hold the grenade, simple things like that, and you kind of got to get them away from the mindset that, yeah, it's a real grenade, but at the same time you can't have them freezing. Today on the grenade range, it was really exciting for me. I've been looking forward to this for most of basic training. When I threw the grenade, I guess one word to explain it would be, wow, because just feeling the thump in your chest and the overall firepower of it, it was just amazing. Today's exercise was our urban ops training, teaching privates how to safely and properly clear a building during a hostile environment. The importance of all the safety training they get from their grenade and M4 training, it all ties into the urban ops training. Weapons up to the danger area because your danger area is the hallway. Once they thoroughly understand the safety aspects of the weapons systems, then they go into the more advanced training, which is the urban ops room clearing. So when they're firing within close quarters, they know how close they're allowed to be at their battle buddies when engaging a target and throwing weapons as well. Going through the gas chamber is all about building confidence in your protective gear so that way you can understand that it's going to work and that it won't fail for you. Don't stop, put your back against the wall. If you have a good feel in your mask, give your drill sergeant a thumbs up. Give him a thumbs up. Execute your left face. Take your left hand and place it on the shoulder of the person in front of you. At this time, take your right hand and remove your mask, pull it above your head. Once I took off my mask and got in a good whiff of it, it felt like somebody stuck their hand down my throat and it was just hanging out in my lungs. It seemed like forever, and then I was holding on to the person in front of me and they started moving, and I was like, that was quick. Go this way! Go this way! Go that way! Go that way! And the biggest impact that you can make on a soldier is being their drill sergeant. I am the way I am because of the way they were to me, and I try and pass that on. I try and lead by example 100% all the way. I push myself 120% just the way I ask my soldiers to push themselves as well. Each and every day they give me a reason why I want to be a drill sergeant, and I try to give them that same exact reason why they should push themselves for me as well.