Mailed blog – written by Julian

2 March 11

Our military issued ear plugs were no match for the big booms of today.  So loud!  Today was U.S. Weapons Training.  For most of us, in our military jobs, we’ll never touch these weapons again, at least not on a regular basis.

First big boom boom was the M203 grenade launcher.  It looks like, well a big gun that shoots grenades.  so cool.  It goes “THUMP.”  Then we shot the AT4, which civilians would call a bazooka.  This thing is huge! We only got to shoot blanks.  But the two highest PT scores in the company got to shoot live rounds.  Wow, so loud.  The blast actually shook the dust off our helmets.  The neatest part of the AT4 is that it’s not actually a heavy weapon and despite the ginormous back blast, there is very little kick back as you hold it.  The last two weapons were the M249 and M240.  The M249 is like an M16 gone psycho.  It’s called the “Saw” and it shoots 4 rounds every 3 seconds.  It goes “pa, pa, pa, pa, pa.”  We shot from the pron (on our stomaches) all side by side.  This part was the loudest because not only did you have the noise from your weapon in one ear, but your buddy’s weapons noise in the other ear.  The M240 finale was fantastic.  it was mounted to a frame similar to one on top of an armored vehicle where you’re in the hole from the chest down.  The M240 can shoot 60 to 950 rounds per minute.  The shells just fly out like confetti.  Yeah, my life is pretty crazy like that now a days.

We are still not technically in blue phase, the final phase of BCT.  Our DS’s told us that last chapter never got their blue flags.  We’re just tired of seeing our white flag up.  But on the other hand, we haven’t really been acting like we deserve it either.  The reason behind keeping  us in white phase to the end is that it keeps us striving toward something and keeps us on our toes.  We need that.  Two more weeks.  Gotta keep the eye on the prize…seeing my wonderful parents and drinking a good cup of coffee.  I can almost taste it.