Transition Continued

November 19th, 2005-

Happy Birthday Erin. Hopefully I'll be there for the next one.

I'm shivering in my DCUs and body armor, but hopefully the sun will come out soon. I don't really worry about the cold, instead I worry about the silouette 25 meters in front of me. Methodically I go through the steps: weapon up, weapon off safe, sight picture, trigger squeeze, sight picture, squeeze the trigger, weapon on safe, weapon down.We repeat the steps over and over, trying to build muscle memory. The actual process takes maybe a second and a half. I'm the second man in the four-man stack, moving laterally across the small arms range. We engage targets as we move across, simulating a city street or other linear engagement area we someday might find ourselves on. The lead man calls out targets, all four of us engage them. I feel the muzzle blast of the man behind me as we both pop off rounds at the target. For the first time in a while, I get goosebumps as my tan desert boots kick up the Kuwaiti sand. Wow, I'm actually having fun.