Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [111]
During the last few weeks of training, there are two field exercises. These are mini outings designed to keep the Bravo students in the field so they can begin at dawn and work straight through into the night. One of these is a three-day exercise at Camp Mackall. At a training site that for all practical purposes could be a Special Forces base in Afghanistan, Iraq, or anywhere else in the world, the prospective weapons and engineering sergeants work on the construction of a base camp and its defenses. The Bravo candidates fill sandbags, build mortar pits, construct rifle and machine-gun emplacements, string concertina wire, and develop security-patrol procedures. In ODA-sized teams, they build sand-table terrain models of the camp defenses and position toy weapons to best advantage and with interlocking fields of fire. After a cadre sergeant approves their plan, then they go out and position real weapons to defend the camp in keeping with their terrain-model plan. This exercise will be repeated many times in foreign lands during their Special Forces careers.
The second field exercise amounts to camping out on the firing ranges at Fort Bragg. The cadre and support staff truck in weapons and ammunition, and the Bravo candidates are treated to a final round of shooting, firing as many of the weapons systems as possible. The most popular event during this field evolution is the combat range. Each candidate is armed with his personal M4 rifle and standard Beretta 9mm pistol. The targets are silhouettes at ranges from ten to twenty-five yards—close-in killing range. The drill is transition—rifle to pistol, pistol to rifle. Rounds on target with the rifle, then quickly drawing the pistol—primary weapon to secondary weapon when speed counts.
“You guys got to be aggressive—this is the business of killing,” Rick Blaylock tells them. “If you’re going to your secondary weapon in a tactical situation, you’re in trouble. If that rifle jams or you’re out of ammo, you have to get to that pistol—fast. It’s kill or be killed—you or him. Most of your range time has been static firing—shooting for nice groups or double-tapping a silhouette target. In a gunfight, you’re going to shoot that son of a bitch until he goes down, and you’re going to keep shooting him. Get aggressive; get mean; get pissed. You kill him, or he kills you.”
Blaylock and Don Adams walk along the firing line—instructing, exhorting, encouraging, and chastising. They also watch their student shooters closely for safety procedures during this fast-moving shooting training.
“You’re in a fight, get angry!”
“Be quick, but be smooth.”
“Don’t take your eye off the target as you transition from one weapon to the other.”
“If you’re going for that pistol in a fight, you’re in a world of shit. That bastard wants you dead; you get some rounds on him, or he’ll get rounds on you.”
During a break in the shooting drills, Blaylock gathers the class around him. “Guys, this is no-shit, lifesaving, downrange stuff. The skill and emotion you bring to a gunfight will win the day. You have to develop the mechanics and the muscle memory, but you have to be aggressive. Controlled emotion will help you win the fight. Your total focus is to kill that dude before he can kill you. When you get to your groups, you’ll have to drill yourselves and your teammates just like we’re doing here today. Then you’ll be the guys behind the firing line helping your teammates to shoot better. Remember, you’re training for a fight to the death; let the rage and the bullets fly.”
For the better part of a full day, the class stands toe-to-toe with cardboard silhouette targets and blazes away—rifle to pistol and back to rifle. At times, you can hardly see the ground for the spent shell casings.
The Bravo candidates come off the ranges, clean weapons for a final time, and prepare for their comprehensive final exam. I ask Sergeant Blaylock