Drill

I had hoped to be integrated with my unit by now, training with my platoon at 29 Palms. The Marine Corps had other ideas. Hurry up and wait.

Due to administrative delays--the root cause of which isn't known to me--I'm still in Oregon waiting to head down to California. Since I've been waiting for a week, and have probably another week to go until I can get down there, I've been looking for ways to occupy my time. The Marines from my unit that won't be deploying came in for drill this weekend, so I volunteered to go to the field with them.

Drill this weekend was held up at Fort Lewis in Washington. I've been asking a lot of questions about how things work around here, so I was told that most field drills are held in Oregon, but this month we were in Washington. For our unit, there were two items on the schedule for this weekend: a live-fire range, and gas chamber training.

The live fire range was pretty fun, even though my weapon was not BZO'd for me. A BZO, or Battlesight Zero, is a procedure that ensures that your weapon does not have any consistent errors in shooting. This accounts for any manufacturing characteristics or defects of the weapon but also the individual shooting the weapon. Every shooter holds a weapon differently and has a slightly different body position with respect to the weapon. Therefore, a BZO for one person will not guarantee that the next person can also hit dead center. The weapon I was using was BZO'd for someone else, which was my excuse when I missed the target.

Regardless, the range had pop-up targets at 75, 175, and 300 yards that would stay up for several seconds at a time and fold down when you hit them. I found I was more successful with the 300-yard targets than the 175-yard targets, I think because the 175-yard line required a slight change to my body position that didn't allow me to reach my natural point of aim in the time allocated. I still enjoyed putting the rounds downrange, though.

The gas chamber is not that bad, and much better than it was a TBS. The purpose of gas chamber training is to teach you to don and clear a gas mask without actually breathing any of the gas or getting it in your eyes. To this end, the training exercise involves donning a gas mask and going into a chamber filled with CS gas. You first ensure that your mask is working properly and adjust whatever is necessary to ensure you aren't breathing gas. Next, the instructor has everyone "break the seal", or allow gas to get into the mask. This is the worst part, because you are waiting while the instructor checks that everyone has gas next to their face. I close my eyes and hold my breath for this part. Then the instructor calls, "gas, gas, gas," and you quickly re-seal your mask, clear the gas out, and check to make sure you are breathing fresh air.

The first time I did this, at TBS, we repeated this three times to make sure we'd gotten the hang of it. Today was refresher training, so we only did it once. I also noticed today that the gas wasn't as strong as it was when I did it at TBS. At TBS, I noticed gas burning on my neck about 30 seconds after I walked into the chamber. Today I didn't feel that at all.

Gas chamber training isn't pleasant, but it's certainly necessary, because Marines need to be prepared to fight in any environment. It also wasn't very unpleasant--I've been through other training exercises that were much less fun. Today's exercise had an added bonus in that I got to attend the Battalion Sergeant Major's re-enlistment ceremony inside the gas chamber.

The cause of the administrative delay has been resolved, but that does not mean my wait is done. The current plan is that I should be in California by the end of the week--we'll see how it all plays out.