December 21, 2005

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  Big Guns, Bigger Guns, and Christmas Cheer in Afghanistan

  
  

   

  
  

      Took me awhile to update, but so far the Internet is still going strong. I am still trying to catch up on some of the things that I never got a chance to post when the Internet was still down. I scratched some of the less interesting things but I thought I would include our self-induced firefights.

  
  

      It all started after soon after I woke up hearing repeating shots coming from the helopad area. I was hearing them all morning and wanted to find out why. I could tell it wasn’t the usual M4 sound so I was curious as to who, or what was shooting. I never miss a chance to shoot whenever I can get the time, clearance, or rounds to do so. Turns out that (nameless) was zeroing his .45. And being the great shot that he is, didn’t need very many rounds to do it, leaving some for me. I have only ever gotten the chance to shoot a handgun before once, and it wasn’t very impressive. (nameless) was a much better teacher then my buddy Meadows was at the gun store in the back of the local pawnshop. I love learning stuff like this that is practical, but only from people who know what they are teaching and how to pass it on.

  
  

   

  
  

  

  
  

    

  
  

     After about 10 minutes of instruction before I ever fired a round, something that would normally bored me to the point of disinterest, I was ready to put holes in stuff. With all the stuff that (nameless) showed me the entire thing seemed much more practical. When I was a Jim’s Pawn Shop, I would aim for the guy in the poster and be happy if I hit him. Now I would be aiming at his nose, and hitting his face instead. Aim small, miss small.(Line from Patriot that I get finally understand)

  
  

   

  
  

  

  
  

   

  
  

      This was my target holder, I tried to set it up as close as possible to something that you would see at a carnival, I think I did a pretty good job. Now I just had to hit them. These are big targets at usual .45 range but if you look at the last picture of the last post you can see how far away we were shooting from. This range is like in the movies when the guy is running away and you shoot him in the leg, except for the running part…and the leg part.

  
  

   

  
  

  

  
  

   

  
  

      Turns out that I am a pretty decent shot post-training. Now I just have to get a gun, get a badge, and have a bad guy try and run away. After the fun we had with the .45, we decided that this week would officially be weapons familiarization week. With things around here kinda slow for Thanksgiving, we set aside two days to shoot almost every weapon that the SF team here has. Something that would justify the entire trip to Afghanistan in my eyes. To shoot weapons other then our M4s and handguns we have to leave the base and go over to the heavy range…armed to the teeth. This involves not only big guns….but four wheelers!

  
  

   

  
  

  

  
  

   

  
  

      We rolled out of the gate with our 4 man, heavily armed four wheeler convoy. I have never felt more like a badass in m entire life. We drove around the heavy weapon range checking for threats before we setup. All of the sudden we were ambushed by a group of three or four paper targets bent on our destruction with no concern for their own safety.

  
  

   

  
  

  

  
  

   

  
  

      You could see in there eyes that this was a serious situation. These paper targets meant business and it was a well planned and executed ambush. We backed off about 400 yards and fought back with everything we had.

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  INCLUDING….

  
  

   

  
  

  

  
  

   

  
  

    The resident badass of the sniper inventory. The .50 cal sniper rifle. If someone were to jump behind a brick wall in a firefight, this baby with blow a softball sized hole in the wall, them, and the two walls behind them. With this, you can miss someone by over a foot and still kill them with the force it creates while it roars by. The bullets below help demonstrate my point. The ones on the right are the big boys, the .50 cals bullets make them look like slingshot pellets.

  
  

   

  
  

  

  
  

   

  
  

      One thing that you do not want to do when you fire the .50…is forget to put your left earplug in. That was the mistake that I made. When you fire it, you feel an immediate pain in your shoulder and slide back about six inches. All the dust around you kicks up and the little weeds on the ground sway forward like trees in a nuclear blast. When you forget a earplug it feels like someone just jabbed you in the ear with a pencil. The link below is to the video of me shooting it. Notice the scrambled look on my face when I stand up. I am not sure that I knew where I was. I thought someone shot me in the ear for awhile.
  http://box.net/public/MyersAndrew22/files/1771850.html

  
  

  
  This one is me shooting a silenced fully automatic M4. For anyone that has seen movies where guys rip off rounds at someone with a full automatic weapon and they all hit there mark. Let this video be proof that that is not how it works. I am an expert with the M4…at least I qualified expert on the range. But watch the front of the weapon on automatic. After the first round, the other ones go wherever they want. Definitely NOT at the target. This is part of the US advantage in a firefight because the enemy almost always fires back with a fully automatic burst. Wasting ammo and missing targets.
  http://box.net/public/MyersAndrew22/files/1771851.html

  
  

   

  
  

   This was the leader of the paper target ambush. Intelligence says he was the one that planned it. He got what he deserved. Notice the different sized holes. None of them were the .50 cal. The big ones were the bullets in the other can next to the .50 rounds, and the little ones were M4 rounds. Not bad from 400 yards… he never had a chance.

  
  

  

  
  

  That is what he gets for ambushing us with a pistol.

  
  

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      I can’t belive that Christmas is less then a week away. Bummer. I had planned on taking a picture to use as a Christmas card but since Kinkos online has a screwed up website that produces web errors instead of pictures when you try and design your card, I scratched that idea. None of the pictures turned out the way I wanted anyhow, I was hoping for snow, enough to make a 10 foot snowman in fact, but instead we got none so far. Anyway, since most of my family checks my Xanga, sorry about not getting you a card, here they are though…feel free to print them out and make a card. Just pick out your favorite one.

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

   

  
  

  Merry Christmas to everyone there from everyone here.

  
  

  

  • 10:38 pm
  • 79 Comments