| SNAPPING IN ISN’T A SNAP | ||
As all good Hollywood Marines know, the recruits leave the friendly confines of San Diego and head for the hills to learn to shoot at the rifle range. It’s located in Camp Pendelton, north of San Diego. One would think that this would be a welcome break. In reality it isn’t the same old torture...it’s different torture. Before anyone gets to actually shoot you must spend hours upon hours of "snapping in". What that consists of is learning the various positions that one must fire from in order to qualify with the M-14 rifle. I might add that they are also the positions that you must learn to shoot from in order to save your ass someday. At the rifle range, in those beautiful, but chilly mountains, it is not uncommon to wake up at 0400 hrs. The recruits do get to eat breakfast the first thing in the morning. Then they get to run off the calories by running double time up the mountains for a few miles until they reach the rifle range. Then the fun begins. They learn to shoot from the standing position, sitting position, in the prone. The drill instructor teaches them safety and how to aim. How to look through the sights and how to breathe. And most importantly...how to hold the rifle. You must get your left wrist wrapped in the sling very tight. Probably the only time you have to do this is when you are shooting in competition, qualifying, and when you are a sniper. Other than those times you’re as loose as a goose when you are firing your rifle. But during snapping in they make you sit, stand or sit in the position for thirty to forty minute intervals. All you are doing is holding your position, aiming and killing the circulation of your blood in your arm from the sling being so tight. After a few minutes the weapon that might save your life someday begins to feel as if it weighs three times of what it actually weighs. Your eyes water and tears run down your cheeks. It’s cold up in those mountains and your body begins to feel like it is paralyzed.
For Ken Jackson, he spent an eternity, one morning, up in those mountains. He had held each position for thirty minutes or more. His last position was sitting on the ground. He had his sights set on the bull’s eye of the target. His eyes were watering and his arm was numb. He could feel cramps starting in various parts of his body. But, like a good Marine, he willed them away. There was one thing that morning he couldn’t will away and that was sleep. He was sitting in the position for so long that he thought the drill instructors had forgotten about him. He didn’t dare turn around to see if they were aware of him. The moment somebody breaks their position, the DI will break them. So there he sat...motionless; except for the extremely heavy eyelids that he just could no longer keep up. Bam! They dropped and did not open up. Remember when you are cramped in one position for so long that when you change it is difficult to even stand up at first. Ken didn’t have that problem because before he ever stood up...before he ever woke up, he found himself tumbling down the hill like a ball. He was so stiff he couldn’t immediately get out of the sitting position. He didn’t realize until after he stopped rolling that the drill instructor had given him a kick in the back to help wake him up. |
