I'm back

You may have been wondering why I have not posted in a couple  of weeks, well I had a good reason.  I do have another job which requires me to leave the farm on occasion.  You can read more about my career as a reservist in the  United States Marine Corps at www.usmcphillips.com/biography.html

Anyway, I spent the past 15 days attending the Combat Marksmanship Trainer program at Weapons Training Battalion / Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia.  This happened to be a high intensity course which only granted one day off out of 15 and working long hours.  A short day consisted of waking up at 4am, getting on the buses at 5:00, drawing our weapons from the armory by 5:30 and being seated in the classroom by 6:45.  On a good day we would spend the next 12 hours in class and get back to our living quarters by 7pm.  Our longest day started at 4am and did not see us released until 11pm.  After our 20 hour day of lectures and shooting, we then had to study for an exam and a presentation we had the next day before getting a few hours of sleep and getting up again at 4am.

We "lived" in 60 year old Quonset huts which had no heat, but did have mice running around on the dirt covered floors.  Fortunately we did have running water and while it was not 100% cold, it certainly was not hot either.  We had one large shower room with 15 heads for everyone to use and the toilets had dividers between them, but no doors.  Nothing causes men to "bond" like talking to the guys walking by as you sit on the toilet and then stripping down and showering together.  Anyone who supports homosexuals in the military needs to live in this environment for a week or so and then come talk to me about their political views, but I digress...  It got down to 51 degrees in our hut; that coupled with the early mornings made it very difficult to get out of the sleeping bag in the morning.  We ate MREs most of the time, but got the luxury of eating powdered eggs and greasy hash-browns a few mornings; needless to say, I really missed my wife's home cooking.

We also spent quite a lot of time shooting on the KD (known distance) range for pistol and rifle as well as the 3 different (tables 2-4) combat courses.  Despite shooting in the pouring rain and hurricane force winds, I qualified as and Expert (top of the three tiers in the USMC) with both the pistol and rifle.

All-in-all, it was a great course and I am now certified as a Combat Marksmanship Instructor... ooh-rah!!  I have always said that it is great anytime I get paid to shoot or simply be around weapons.