Friday night for most people is a time to wind down from a long week of work and go out for a meal, a movie, or a drink. Maybe you have a ritual date night with a significant other. Maybe you want to just hit the local happy hour to talk about the weekend with your coworkers. Friday night for folks deploying is spent trying to shoot things with big guns.
The M2 .50 caliber machine gun has been in service with the US Army for a LONG time. We’re talking since the WWI time era with little to no changes to the design or function of the weapon. It’s reliable, accurate, and freak’n loud, which is bad for the gunner’s ears, but even worse for the guy down range catching the half inch slugs of lead and copper. We spent our 3rd day of doing PMI for these weapons and then went to the range that evening.
I would love to say that I was a steely eyed killer and knocked down everything I could with the belt of 130 rounds they issued me, but the best I could do was to knock down the far barn door sized 1000 meter targets and only a few of the “troops in the open” targets. Pretty sad considering that this is a machine gun. I’m sure with a little more practice I could be a little more accurate, but I’m not sure how much more practice they’ll give us on this weapon system since I won’t be a designated turret gunner in theater. Let’s just hope that I only have to face insurgent barns at over 1000 meters, because if I do, they’re toast!
CPT Kevin during PMI
This is what 145 rounds of pure hurt looks like
My trusty AG (assistant gunner)
Sure, he hit a few more than me, but that's because I softened the targets up for him
CPT B and MSG T on the truck on the next lane
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