#niact

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NIACT Training - Week 2

Since we had the 2 days off because of the bad weather it's been a quick, cram-packed week.  We've been on so many different ranges this week.  We had to prequalify on our M16s early Wednesday morning.  The qualification was a series of 7 popup targets coming up randomly 40 times.  They ranged from 25 meters to 300 meters and stayed up a few seconds (longer for the 300 meter targets).  We had to shoot from 3 different positions—laying down with the gun muzzle supported on a sandbag, laying down without the gun muzzle supported, and kneeling.  There were two major difficulties with this shoot.  It was freak’n cold (still below freezing) and because of the snow, it was difficult to see some of the targets (the longer targets were white, so white on white was kinda hard to see.  On Thursday we went to a different range to qualify—same exact process as the prequal, but on a different range. Luckily I qualified sharpshooter on both the M9 pistol and M16 rifle. 

We also did some stress qualification for M16 and M9.  The goal of these shoots was to simulate shooting during an actual firefight.  We first had to get our heart rate up, so we needed to run in place, then run to a bunch of different stations, kneeling, squatting, laying down, and standing shooting a various targets.  This was a ton of fun and I really enjoyed it.  It was quite tiring since we had to do this with our heavy body armor and afterwards I had to take off a couple layers of clothes.  Didn’t even feel the cold.

We finished the week up with shooting the heavy guns.  We got to shoot the M240, M249, and finally the .50 cal machine gun.  The .50 cal is awesome.  As you shoot it you can feel the concussion through your whole body.  I’ll upload a video I took.  Fun stuff. We also went through a simulator of shooting both the M9 pistol and M16 rifle in low light situations.  Again, really fun stuff and I did well in low light. 

It’s Sunday now and time to recharge the batteries a little.  I’ll need to do a pre-pack for the flight to Kuwait (later this week) to make sure all my stuff will fit into 4 seabags.  If not, I’ll need to ship it out this week sometime.

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NIACT Training - Ft. Jackson, SC

We arrived NIACT Saturday—New Year’s Day.  Navy Individual Augmentee Combat Training (NIACT) is an Army-run training for Navy sailors who are deploying to the CENTCOM region (Afghanistan, Iraq, Horn of Africa, Kuwait, etc.).  This is where we learn some of the core essentials needed for operating in theater.  In essence, the army teaches us how to be soldiers.  Therefore we call this NARMY training. 

There wasn’t much to report on this day except that we didn’t get our luggage until later that night.  We were issued our bed linen and then assigned to our barracks. 

These are open bay barracks with 20 bunk beds, but luckily we only have 15 people in our barracks so it’s not that bad.  The first night was the worst.  It sounded like nearly everyone snored, but thankfully that was only for the first night.  Now we only have one guy who snores loudly and I think I can mostly sleep through his noise.

One thing about NIACT.  The army runs training VERY differently from the Navy.  Army will train in bulk, so there’s a lot of what they call “white space.”  White space is the time that you’re just sitting around waiting for the next activity whether it’s chow, a class, or an exercise.  They are aware of the difference and warn us not to come here thinking we’re going change things.  There’s a reason for their madness.  Plus, you can’t change 200+ years of tradition.  Just sit back and relax.  I take my kindle with me and read during the down times.  Regardless, the training is top notch, and like all training, you get what you put into it.  Pay attention, ask questions and you’ll learn a lot.