Rifle Qualification Wrap Up

Lisa didn't seem to take much consolation in the fact she scored Expert on her second qualification. The Marines rules say that when failing the first time you are only eligible to wear the lowest rank badge which is Marksman until you qualify again in another year. But I was proud of her for coming back and posting a score at the highest qualification level even though she can't wear the badge, at least for this year.

And unknown to almost everyone, she did come back strong under a lot of pressure. You see, if she had not qualified this time she would not have been able to take her leave in July to visit family and be a bridesmaid in her friends wedding.

Ooops.

Thursday was practice day for table two rifle qualification which is FRIDAY, not yesterday as I posted previously. Lisa said she had a good day today and I think just wants to finish up.

Successful Rifle Qualification Day!

First off, the video that disappeared for a couple of days is back up. Hopefully for good this time.

But the real news is that Lisa bounced back strong and scored really well on the Rifle Range. She is fully qualified now and would have a great chance at scoring the top level of Expert if not for failing the first time around. As painful as that was I know that she is stronger for having to go through that. Tomorrow is the second table where they shoot on the move and at moving targets. This score will get added on to her score from today. In case you missed it you can read about the whole process of rifle qualification in the Marines in my previous blog post.

I asked her what she found the easiest and most difficult. She said the easiest was by far the 200 meter stationary targets. The most difficult position is standing. In Lisa's words when "standing, you have no support and have to muscle the rifle." The other difficult exercise is rapid-fire shooting where the Marine is required to stand up, THEN jump back down, acquire the target and fire in a short amount of time. It is important though as it represents a typical combat situation where you have to quickly hit the deck and acquire your target. I think the heat at Twentynine Palms affects her later in the day. It is very exposed and they have to wear their sleeves down in temperatures that have been running over 100 degrees lately.

First Day of Shooting

Friday was the first day of actual shooting.  Lisa had a good day.  Seems that she has her confidence back.  She felt bad for her former Drill Instructor who was really struggling.  I think Lisa has a lot more empathy about that situation now.  

As for her weekend Lisa said she is assigned roving patrol duty on Saturday; not her favorite way to spend a Saturday.  It is getting hot down there and they are now required to have a water bottle with them at all times.

Back to the Rifle Range

Lisa headed back to the rifle range to qualify yesterday. Turns out one of her drill instructors from basic training was there. Not only on the range but next to Lisa all day. She wasn't real crazy about that. I don't think that qualification day happens until next Wednesday and Thursday. Sounds like they had to paint targets all morning and then sit through classes in the afternoon.

I've been working on a video and hope to have that pasted on here next. I have to figure out how to convert it and upload it to a format that will work.

Rifle Qualification followup

I received a text from Lisa on the day she was qualifying. I immediately had flash backs to the month of softball in the past where I could not hit a ball other then to pop up to third base and another time where I absolutely could not hit the golf ball with my driver. Both things, that for the most part, had always come easy to me. So I shared her frustration when she texted that she had failed and couldn't shoot anymore. I sent her back a text that said, "you can shoot; just not right now."

Just a couple days earlier she had commented on how easy it was and she couldn't understand why so many had trouble hitting targets. From the start, many months ago in recruit training, Lisa seemed to be a natural. She finished second in her class and except for a rifle jam during the moving target testing she may well have finished first. She is doing ok with it and I'm confident that she will bounce back in a few weeks when she has to return to the range to qualify again.

It does beg the question though. How does something that seems so easy suddenly become so difficult. I've both experienced this and also seen this many times in golf. You are cruising along and suddenly miss an easy putt. You tell yourself to just relax, etc. But then you miss again and suddenly nothing seems right. It is one of the most helpless feelings in the world. Irritation becomes frustration and frustration becomes anger. After many years of examining this I've concluded that it is mostly mental. We have a tendency to over think things. Our brains will run on auto pilot when we have trained ourselves with proper technique. It is when we start overriding the "auto pilot" that we get in trouble. When I was in HS my golf coach gave me a book called Inner Tennis. It was written by a psychologist that worked with athletes. He theorized that there were "two" minds. The inner mind (auto pilot) and the outer mind (analytical/emotional.) The outer mind being the one that that we use when we worry or let other emotions get involved. His solution was to keep the outer-mind occupied by distracting it with other things. For example, in hitting a softball you just count to three. The pitcher releases the ball (one), the ball reached the top of the arc (two), you swing at the ball (three). It seems overly simple but is really quite effective.

So later on we talked a little and I sent Lisa an email explaining the various things that might have gone wrong and how she could learn from experience, both good and bad. I'm sure Lisa will do well again, just as I eventually broke out of my softball slump. Failures like this are painful to watch; especially as a parent. Among other things I shared with her this quote which I think is helpful when our confidence is low.

"Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward." ~Henry Ford

Rifle Qualification day

Today is the day Lisa requalifies with her rifle. The testing consists of two "Tables" which basically is two sessions. The first-table consists of fixed targets at 200, 300 and 500 yards. Of all the military branches, only Marines qualify at 500 yards. Shooting is generally done with open sights. As I understand it, they are moving to a new system using optic sights to match what they will begin using in the field. But this time around Lisa is using open sights, or what they refer to as "iron sights". The second table consists of 25 to 100-yard moving targets and also requires the shooter to move, set up, and fire a series of shots before moving again. It is designed to simulate combat conditions. The first table is worth 250 points and the second table is worth 100 points, totaling 350 points max.

There are three possible results, four if you count "unked" When someone unks it means they failed to qualify. This is something you definitely don't want to happen. The three qualifying levels are Marksman (250-279), Sharpshooter (280-304), and Expert (305-350).

Basic Marksman badge, known as the "Pizza Box".


Table one scores are taken in a variety of positions for each distance. Standing and kneeling for 200 yards; standing, kneeling and prone at 300 yards and prone at 500 yards. It just occurred to me that the measurement is meters and not yards. 500 meters is 547 yards, about 1/3 of a mile. Lisa said her biggest concern is the wind. The winds have been blowing at +/-30 mph and she said they can move the bullet two target widths. In other words you have to fire your shot 10' left of your true target and let the bullet blow back to your target. This would be easy to compensate for if the wind was always steady but it ebbs and flows enough that it is hard to predict with any precision.

Sharpshooter badge. Lisa's current rating.

Table-two requires that the shooter hit targets at various distances from 25 to 100 yards. Some targets are moving. Some shots require that they move, set up, fire, move, etc. There are time limits imposed in order to simulate a combat situation.

Rifle Expert badge. The goal.

There are also qualifications for pistol shooting. Lisa was disappointed that the unit she is in does not get to qualify on pistol.

After qualifying tomorrow I suspect Lisa will continue to work on the range on Thursday and Friday because she said she does not go back to working on vehicles until Monday. At the range, when you are not shooting, you are helping by working in the pits moving and replacing targets and helping score other Marines who are shooting. The targets are heavy and extra-hard to move in the wind. Lisa said she was not going to work out last night because her arms were dead from lifting targets for a good part of the day.

As for the picture at the top, if you look hard you can see the targets in the far background and in case you wonder, yes the sky really is that blue at Twentynine Palms.

Every Marine a Rifleman

It is one of the core tenets of the Marine Corp.

It is time for Lisa to requalify so as of last Wednesday she has been spending most of her day on the rifle range. She will be there this whole coming week as well. In general Marine's have to requalify every year.

There are three levels that can be earned. The lowest is Marksman, than Sharpshooter and finally Expert. Lisa qualified as Sharpshooter during her basic training even though her score suffered on one set of tests because her rifle jammed. Even with that she finished second in her platoon. She is hoping to move up to expert but said she is not sure as the wind has been very strong, making it hard to calculate the drift on the longer shots.

I will write more later.