Ft. Bragg, NC 1966
Before deploying to Vietnam, our company was required to shoot and qualify with all our company weapons. At the 3 inch bazooka range we all fired three rounds. I was under the impression that bazookas did not have recoil due to the rear blast. Wrong! I got wacked real good by the eye piece which produced a black eye. At the M80 grenade launcher range it was fun lobbing those rounds out to 200 yards. Until one trooper fired when the weapon was pointed down just in front of his feet. Several of us hit the ground so fast I don't even remember doing it. Turned out the grenade did not 'arm' itself till 10 yards out. Officers still had to call people to remove live round. The M60 range was a bust. No one could hit the 800 yard targets except me. Well, behind the targets was a pine forest which my tracer rounds promptly set on fire. We all spent a couple hours stomping out the fire. Officers called base fire department to soak down the area. Oh, and I was assigned the M60 in our deployment. No fun lugging that heavy weapon around. By the time we got around to the M14 range it was pretty dark and the targets were fairly close, about 20 yards. The targets were mounted on wood 4x4 posts and were no challenge at all. So, we fired at the posts till they fell over. We also fired the M1911 pistol. And, we all qualified as 'sharpshooters' on all weapons I guess to make the company look good.
Due to ammo shortages, no warning shot will be fired
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