Well, I guess he's dead

Redemption. As I whined before, I can fire a weapon accurately if I can focus my eyes. Here's a pic of my target.The double-vision effect is because the backlighting caused the targets printed on the back to bleed through. I needed the backlighting to show the holes more clearly.  My only misses were one each at 150 m, 200 m, and 250 m. Score was 47/50. Note the 300 m target in the upper left. There are actually 6 holes where there should only be 5. The woman shooting next to me was woefully bad, and missed her target more often than not. I suppose the extra hole was created by one of her errant shots.

We fired 10 rounds in each of 5 different positions: prone supported, prone unsupported, over barricade, kneeling, and prone supported while wearing gas mask. I bet my misses were while wearing the gas mask.

For all my good effort today, I get nothing extra. I'm already an expert marksman, so no new ribbon. I would have been awarded a star device for my ribbon if I got expert on the M9, but no dice. (Can you tell I'm a bit tweaked by my near miss?)  Just for S&Gs, I'll post a picture of that target later. I asked the CATM if--after my deployment--I could come back and re-shoot the M9 qualification course. No dice. To toe the line, you have to have a reason to be there. (Isn't obsessive compulsion a reason?)

One thing about going to all these pre-deployment training classes is that I'm surrounded by folks in my same shoes (well, sort of...there are many young enlisted, so not quite same stage of life). It kinda helps to rant with others who are deploying than to do so at home.  And by rant, I just mean that the prep is sometimes a PITA and, therefore, worthy of complaint.

I suppose I've babbled enough. At least I've killed off the 30 minutes that Deuce has been in his bagpipe lesson. Time to go home for supper.