Omaha Beach

We have been in “buddy teams” for all of BCT. The idea is to get you used to always being with at least one other person when in a combat zone. You train like you fight. A secondary reason is to combat abuses of trainees at the hands of Drill Sergeants; a problem that plagued military services since their inception, but now seems to be largely in check. Generally it did not matter what kind of buddy you ended up with. Today, that changed. Today, we went to the Omaha Beach Buddy Team Live Fire Range. That means that both team members are moving down a firing lane at the same time, shooting live rounds at targets that appear. Each lane was about 20 meters (60’) wide, with cover such as a beat-up car, pile of tires, sand bags, etc. every 5 meters or so. Overall, the lane was approximately 200 meters long. The team members took turns advancing toward an “enemy emplacement” at the end of the lane. While one moved, the other provided cover fire. The last thing you want on this range is a partner who is careless with his weapon – one that does not exhibit muzzle discipline, in Army lingo. My partner turned out to be quite a reliable person. We moved down our lane, covering each other as we moved, and reached the final obstacle. At that point, we had to toss a practice hand grenade through a window about 15 meters away. I was one of only two people that actually got the grenade through the window that day.
It was an interesting and fun day, but like the hand grenade range, hopefully a skill I will never need to employ. Then again, it’s better to be trained for the unexpected than to be unprepared when the unexpected happens.