On Sun, 30 Sep 2018 02:32:16 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

John H. wrote:
On Sat, 29 Sep 2018 15:39:06 -0000 (UTC), Bill wrote:

wrote:
On Fri, 28 Sep 2018 20:08:35 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

wrote:


We didn't really have guard duty, we had fire watch.
I remember my first night there I saw a guy wearing a cartridge belt
walking around and thinking he was a guard. My first thought was "I
could take that guy".
A couple nights later I was wearing the cartridge belt and walking
around ;-)


Same thick with air force. They explained making you wear the cartridge
belt made you under arms and more liable if you screw up.

There were not any live rounds on our side of the base and our drill
rifles did not have firing pins in them. I am not quite sure what arms
we were under. ;-)


We had the belt. That was all.

We wore the belt, canteen, ammo pouches and toted a real M-14...but no ammo.


Air Force basic we only handled firearms on two days of 6 weeks. One day
of inside, raining, safety and dry fire. Next day at range. In pouring
rain.

Our basic had "range week" in week 12. It was M-1 and if you qualified
fast enough, you got .45. I did both. It did not seem that hard
because it was huge targets at 200 yards for the rifle and the
standard GI bullseye at 25 (maybe less) yards for the .45.
I think if you got them all on the paper you qualified. I don't
remember a score. The whole thing seemed to be more about firearm
handling and range safety than marksmanship. I don't think we ever
fired a round until the 3d day. Most of the M-1 stuff was inside with
our non-functional drill rifles. They went through the loading
process, safety, basic marksmanship principles (sighting, positions
etc), safety, cleaning, safety, range rules and then a little more
safety ;-)
It wasn't until I got on my ship that my chief actually taught me how
to shoot a 1911 well. That was his favorite gun and I came out of
there knowing more than I needed to about the 1911. I can still field
strip and reassemble one blind folded in about a minute or two and to
a detail strip (looking) in 3 or 4.