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Posted by Gary Troxel [207.200.116.137] on Sunday, August 29, 2010 at 01:48:52 :
In Reply to: Re: fire it and get an "M1 Thumb" posted by mike Stone Idaho, USA [71.39.211.42] on Friday, August 27, 2010 at 21:22:04 :
As a Naval Reserve I only attended two weeks of Boot Camp. (THANK YOU JESUS) One of those days was spent at the Marine Corps Rifle range. My Stepdad was a Marine in the south pacific in WW2 and had mentioned the thumb situation. This was about all I could ever get him to talk about but I remembered it. When we all lined up behind our rifles and saw the heat coming off the barrels, I think most of the boys were lost in the heat wave. My brain switched to what he had said those years ago.
I expected all the rifle range commands from the Sgt. running our show but instead he was only interested in getting this over with. He knew what he had, a bunch of two week Naval Reserve Pukes.
Well I paid special attention to how he was moving back and forth behind us and he didn't really look all that interested. He had about three helpers for our group and they were also wanting us to get done. I had never worked an M1 before but knowing something about it, I only clipped the end of my thumb on the first clip but the next two went in just fine. That spring pressure is something on the first time. No one yelled at me but there were lots of thumb situations. I was so worried that the Sgt. was going to scream something at ANYONE I guess I was sweating more from that than the hot day. We were supposed to qualify with a certain number, I think it was 249 or so. After a few shots I realized since I had never been instructed in any rifle shooting and no one was helping me out I might as well just shoot my three clips and not worry about it. Can you believe it, I qualified as something. I'm not sure I hit anyones target. It was exciting and fun, especially the ride in the cattle trucks to and from San Diego Naval Training Center. I never heard the Sgt. say or scream anything to anyone. Maybe he was a newly wed. Fun to look back on but god was it a hot day.