23Oct05

The Competent among the Incompetent, from one of our young students who is currently attending Basic Infantry Officer's Training at Ft Benning, GA:

"Last week, we were on an automated rifle range, designed to accommo date platoon-sized, live-fire, infantry exercises. I was assigned the role of platoon commander, so most of the others were deployed ahead of me. We wer e assaulting a squad-sized group of hostiles, represented by automated, pop-u p targets that go down immediately when hit.

The whole exercise went south when one of my squad leaders got lost and positioned his men where they couldn't see the targets. Others in the same squad could not figure out how to get their SAW running. The few who were actually firing were utterly unable to hit anything they wanted to hit, alth ough they did succeed in unproductively peppering the landscape!

Realizing that our time was just about up, in disgust and frustration I raised my own rifle and shot down all hostiles, one at a time, left to righ t. Each went down with a single hit. I then lowered my rifle and said nothing . Everyone else, seeing all targets down, declared themselves heroes and ende d the exercise.

I am astonished that basic rifle skills I picked up at the NTI are nearly unknown here. Individual weapons skill is becoming a lost art. By contras t, ' sensitivity training,' gets more than its share of attention from m anagement!"

Comment: Thank heaven our guy is there to show these grasseaters the True Way! One can only imagine what their pistol training is like!

/John

23Oct05

Victorious story from one of our instructors in SA, amid all the bad news there:

"I had a run-in with the local 'building manager' of the building where the City of Capetown is currently renting space for the police department=80 s head office. I am a frequent visitor, as my official duties take me there every

day. Thursday, I walked in as usual, with my duty pistol clearly visible, and reported to the security office. The security guy knows me already and

buzzed me through, as always.

However, as I left the building a short time later, I was angrily confronte d by a man who introduced himself as 'head of building security. =99 The building manager, it seems, had decided to impose her personal hatred of gu ns upon the whole world! She had arbitrarily declared that all officers, not permanently assigned to work in the building, will henceforth have to hand in their firearms before entering.

I do not, I am sure, have to share my thoughts with you on this particular subject. In any event, I marched directly to her office, head of security nervously tagging along. I confronted her and proceeded to explain, clearl y, slowly, loudly, the legal concepts, policies and precedents that made her 'new policy' absurd and illegal. I then explained that I would return t he following morning to conduct further business and that, if any security gua rd attempted to interrupt me in the normal conduct of my duties, he would be s ummarily arrested and charged. The next to be arrested would be head of security, an d then the building manager herself!

On my return the next day, I was buzzed through the security door with a friendly smile and the curious news that the building manager had, =80 upon further reflection' decided to rescind her previous decision."

Comment: Like my friend, we all need to stand up to these cowardly, grasseating, twits. Marxists are bullies by nature, but they are all rever t to the nauseating cowards they really are when confronted by the righteous. Good show, my friend!

/John

23Oct05

Vicki and I, along with a complement of our senior instructors, just spent a week with the firearms instructor cadre of a large, federal agency. We had

the honor of working with all of them. Some observations:

Once again, I am persuaded that the only reason anything works at the federal level is the tireless, unselfish efforts of those at the bottom of t he food chain. These guys and gals beat themselves nearly to death providing valuable training during the inadequate amount of time they have to spend wi th agent trainees.

Once again, I am pleasantly impressed with the quality of agent trainees. I had a chance to speak with several groups of them, and I am exhilarated tha t this nation can still produce such fine, young people. God bless them!

We tried to emphasize the importance of integrated movement, integrated verbalization, retention awareness, and accurate shooting at all ranges. Betterbilt's Rotator targets were extremely popular, as always.

There was great interest in Vicki's presentation of techniques to im prove the interaction of male instructors with female students.

This agency has been influenced by competitive shooters, not all of which i s negative, but most pistol competitors like the isosceles stance. We tried to point out that, while conducive to accuracy, the isosceles stance is not

particularly conducive to weapon retention, nor does is permit one to effectively confront threats from multiple directions.

I observed that trainees spend far too much time carrying empty weapons. Hot ranges, and the continuous carrying of loaded weapons that they require , carries with it risk. We all know and accept that, but I tried to make the

case that we must never lost sight of the purpose of training. We are prep aring these young folks to be victorious in a dangerous world, not just preparing

them to be "safe" on a range!

In any event, we were treated with the utmost grace and hospitality, and we ' re looking forward to the next time. As is the case when we train Marines,

it is a great honor to be able to, in some small way, influence this next generation of instructors at the federal level.

/John