CAST day 8

I have been without Internet for a few days.  It’s amazing how bored you get without a TV or internet.  Here is un update on my school.

Friday was “Care under fire”.  Nothing real exciting.  Combat First-aid in a simulated hostile environment.  We were trained on how to properly call for a Medivac.  Learned the newest first-aid info for gunshot and shrapnel wounds.  Pretty much it.

Saturday we did the marksmanship course.  They taught us some techniques to make our rate of fire and accuracy better.  We shot on a 300 meter range that had pop-up targets at 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, and 300. Obviously you start with the closest targets and go out from there.  Trying to keep a firing rate of 12-15 rounds a minute. The Marine sniper that taught the class said that 12-15 per minute is the ideal rate of fire. At the end of the volleys we did “double taps” to the chest of the 50 and 100 meter targets.  He explained how a single 5.56 round, even if well placed, won’t usually take someone down from that close.  Two simultaneous rounds causes your body to go into shock almost immediately.  The guys we are fighting get hyped up on drugs before they go out and don’t go down easy.

Monday was the first of the two days of ” Mounted Ops/C-IED” training.  Basically a course that teaches the basics of convoying and what to do when encountering IED’s. Lots of good information and at the end of the day we did the HMMWV and MRAP egress simulators.  Pretty awesome.  You strap into the vehicle shells that are hooked to a motor that spins them around. Once it stops spinning you have to get yourself and your crew out.  Getting out is pretty tough.  I can imagine it wouldn’t be a very easy task in an up-armored HMMWV with doors that weigh almost 400 lbs.

Today was the second day of Mounted Ops/C-IED. We did the hands-on part of the class.  There is about a half mile course constructed that has IED’s along the road and thru the town.  We have to drive down the road and thru the town reacting to different scenarios that the instructors come up with. They set off IED’s and then coordinate attacks from “insurgents”. We have to react to the contact while transporting the wounded out of the damaged HMMWV.

I had never thought about the responsibilities that everyone in a convoy has.  As a gunner you have sectors of fire that you have to watch. If your sector is the left side and the convoy comes under attack from the right, you have to keep your gun on your sector and not turn around.  Your instincts tell you to turn around.  If you turn around and you receive contact from the left, you have compromised everyone in your convoy.  It takes a lot of self discipline to accomplish you duties in a high stress environment.  Our training is in a controlled environment and it is still very intense when IED’s are going off, people are shooting at you, and the local population is screaming at you.  You start to get Tunnel vision.

I guess this training is like insurance.  You hope you never need it, but when you do you will be glad you had it.

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