At home on the range

Gen. John Pershing, the US Army commander of American forces during World War I, was quoted as saying, "The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle."

I'm not ready to think of Josh in those terms, but at Camp Pendleton he has shown himself to be adept at shooting his service weapon – particularly for a novice. (Above is the score sheet from his first time shooting a gun.)

He qualified Sept. 2 as “expert” – achieving a pre-boot camp goal.

In a recent letter, he wrote about his training leading up to that qualification day: “This past week has been primarily spent in small groups (4-8 people), with coaches going over techniques, or on the range. We’ve been so busy we wake up at 0400, and I’m on the range ready to go before the sun comes up.”

Of course many times in civilian life he was going to bed when the sun came up after a night of playing video games online with his buddies, but I digress…

Anyway, on Thursday and Friday, it was time for Table II, which involved shooting moving targets at a closer range (less than 50 yards). For Josh to maintain his “expert” ranking, he needed to score 80 out of 100 points. At least 60 was required to qualify on this round, which would have made Josh a “sharpshooter” overall. As of this writing, I’m not sure how he scored.

Tonight, Josh is back in his rack at MCRD. Phase III – the home stretch toward graduation day – starts bright and early Monday morning.