Home on the ranges

ONE of the most important skills for a soldier is shooting, so we’ve been getting lots of time on the ranges over the past week and a half, starting with our personal weapon, the SA80 rifle, and moving up to the big guns: light, medium and heavy machine guns and grenade launchers. Because we fire our rifles so much in the course of our training, it’s always exciting for us to get to grips with the bigger weapons and the lads and lasses of Corunna Company have been enjoying this longer period of skill at arms training. It began with a week on the ranges at Salisbury Plain before we moved to Kent for more specialised training, which included our first real exercise.
The scenario is simple: my platoon of three sections of riflemen was tasked to occupy a building which replicated a Forward Operating Base of the type we may occupy in Afghanistan. We had to perform a reconnaissance, occupy the building and then fight off a series of Taliban “attacks”.
Although the Taliban fighters are only metal pop-up targets, and the incoming enemy fire is just sound effects and smoke, the realism of the exercise was a brilliant test of not just my command skills but also the shooting skills of my riflemen, the skills of my three section commanders (Corporals who are in charge of seven other soldiers) and the organisational skills of my Platoon Serjeant.
It’s very intense, very noisy, very hot and great fun! When the smoke and dust finally cleared and the range safety staff called a halt to the exercise, we had knocked down 551 targets (miles ahead of the other platoons, I was pleased to find out!) and we were “threadders” – absolutely knackered. I looked at my watch and we’d only been in the building for an hour and 20 minutes – it felt like hours and hours. It just goes to show how fierce and fast our operations in Afghanistan can be. It was a wake-up call to all of us that what we’re going halfway round the world to do is pretty serious stuff!
This week, we’re going to Norfolk for a four-day exercise which will rehearse us in more operational scenarios, both defending buildings and on mobile operations on foot and in vehicles, preparing us to face the task in hand. Although it’s hard, intense work, everyone is having the time of their lives – even if we are only getting a few hours’ sleep each night!