There’s your problem: Rifle aimed wrong way at qualification range
By Cobra Commander
SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii — After hours of troubleshooting, the soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry finally realized why they were having issues qualifying on the M4 range.
“Turns out we were aiming our rifles backward,” said Sgt. Nate Freeman. “Boy, are our faces red!”
For much of the day, soldiers were baffled by the fact that their rounds kept going the opposite way from the targets and, in fact, backward from their firing positions.
“I’ve never had this much trouble qualifying. I just assumed that the range was messed up,” said Capt. Kelly Wheatridge.
The problem, as an Army spokesman explained, was that soldiers were aiming down their buttstocks and had the muzzles tucked into their shoulders.
“This is actually a relatively common occurrence, even among combat arms units,” the spokesman said.
Range operators, squad leaders, and battalion leadership were equally puzzled for much of the day. Calls were placed as high as the Pentagon to understand why everyone kept scoring zero.
“I’m not sure, guys. It’s been a while since I’ve fired an M4,” said Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael A. Grinston via satellite phone. “Have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in?”
Soldiers consulted numerous YouTube videos and PowerPoint presentations but couldn’t quite figure out what the problem was.
“Luckily, someone eventually pulled out a copy of TM 9-1005-319-10, and we were able to look at some pictures that explained what we were doing wrong,” explained Sgt. Freeman. “But, sadly, not before we sent a lot of Joes to the hospital.”
The day of frustration and serious injuries showed the importance of refresher training on basic rifle marksmanship before conducting any range operations.
“You kind of assume shooting the M4 is like riding a bike, but it really is a perishable skill,” said 1st Sgt. Ken Broffleman.
The first sergeant went on to explain that they could not conduct marksmanship training because they were too busy “trying to figure out how boot blousers work.”
Cobra Commander’s company motto is “When you’re here, your family”. You can follow him on Twitter at @c0brcommand3r.