And I use the term familiarization loosely. Due to the holiday, it was a short week, but we still got some field time in. Monday consisted of classes on machine gun theory and the weapons squad. If you're blessed enough to be chosen at a gunner or assistant gunner, you'll go out to the range to get 'qualified' on the M240 or M249. I'm told by my friends that qualification consisted of shooting a couple of belts, along with learning how to take down the weapon and such (something that we all did as a platoon the previous Friday). Tuesday we drew weapons, and went out as a platoon to do M240, M249, M2 and Mk 19 familiarization. We shot one belt for each weapon during the day, with the exception of the Mk 19 (logistical difficulties precluded us firing them, but we did get an opportunity to pull them apart). The weapons themselves are, as you might imagine for a TRADOC unit, pieces of junk. Don't fret if they malfunction on you (or if you go through three of them, as one buddy team did). We also did a night familiarization, but only with either the M240 or the M249 - depending on what platoon you were in. Wednesday was weapons cleaning, and we called it a week.
Not a lot happened this week, so there's not exactly a whole lot of advice to dole out. Two things do come to mind, though. First, if you're a gunner or AG, check your weapons constantly - parts (pins, bolts, etc) like to fall out of them, and you don't wanna find out that a pin is missing only when you finally return from the range. Bad juju. Secondly, it might behoove you to look up the TM for the optics for the guns, and see how to range targets with them properly. It's a pop-up range that you're on, and while the're not tracking how many targets you hit or anything, it's always satisfying to see 'em fly back down behind the berm, instead of throwing up dirt.
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