OPERATION: ROOFTOP 06 MAY 2006

Above: The "Range Team". Not pictured: Pioneer Class, Security Detail, and Rude Guy.

"On the roof's the only place I know
Where you just have to wish to make it so
Oh lets go up on the roof"

 -"Up On The Roof", James Taylor (Gerry Goffin/Carole King)

      Saturday, May 6th, 2006

     Camp Stasa, MI

     Weather: Sunny, 55-60 degrees, very slight breeze

     RSO: Weapon M, Staff  Medic: Doc

     Qualifiers: Level 2: Black Jack, Fast Mover, Eagle (Great job, guys!)

     Injury report: None reported.

    We really had the goal of qualifying people as Level 2 so they could begin The Pioneer Class. Two previously qualified folks also wanted to start the class. Super Six will have the current Pioneers to assist him with instructing, as well as other volunteers, so he will be able to cover more in the shorter time.

    Checking people's L2 gear was fairly easy. Although the list requires only one poncho, we would suggest getting a secondary one to use as ground cover if you need to make a shelter. Your bayonet, if you have one, will fulfill the knife requirement.

    The times on the three mile walk were impressive, all three coming in at under 41 minutes. (Note that the TWO mile walk time for L1 is 40 minutes, so they had a pretty good clip going.)

     Three Level 2 qualifiers, with TWO M1As!!                                          All hail the M1A.

    The shooting went well. Black Jack hit it on his first try, with 9/10 with an M1A. The others took an extra time or two, but after some very minor adjustments, hitting a 6.5 inch target was not a problem.

    Left: Camouflage self and equipment, including dandelions, and right: A hasty shelter.

    Above: Left, Black Jack's camo paint.                                Right: 3-5 second Rush.

    These fine militia members also executed a series of 3-5 second rushes covering a period of not less than 50 yards (Yards, not meters...). Fast Mover and Eagle participated in this as a two-man buddy team, and they included some combat rolls as well. Click here for a 10MB video clip of this drill.

    The testing also covered applying a field dressing to an extremity, either and arm or leg, and treating for shock. Doc evaluated this portion of the L2 testing, and Bishop good-heartedly volunteered to be the victim. We not only covered the hows and whys of bandaging a simple wound, but we also went over treating other wounds, such as neck trauma, and the use of Quick Clot and Traumadex (or Hemaderm or Bleed-X)  to treat seriously bleeding injuries. Eventually, we would like to equip our medic teams and support vehicles with some similar materials. This also would be a good place to mention that our resident Paramedic advises everyone to add some Steri-strips to their kits, as well. Doc found a nifty wire mesh splint at REI. This wire mesh splint comes in a very small package, but unfolds large enough to splint an arm, and even a smaller person's leg.

Above: Doc, right, evaluates Black Jack's bandaging efforts. Bishop is the victim.

    Fast Mover and Eagle were unable to commit to Pioneer training due to their work schedules, but still passed Level 2. Black Jack joined Razor 67 and Tank, who were already Level 2, in the second Pioneer class. The class started at about 1100 hours, and must adhere to a tight schedule. Super Six has the Pioneer schedule broken down by the hour over the next several months. This year, he has the first class of Pioneers to help him with the training. This should be a good class, though we wish more would/could attend.

    With the class rolling off to parts unknown to begin their training, the rest of us jumped into some serious drills.

        Above: Fast Mover, moving...ummm...fast.               Eagle and Fast Mover transition to pistols.

     The first drill was a live-fire two person bounding assault drill. It was mostly a simple bounding assault toward a set of bowling pins. In this type of drill, the bounding element may sometimes be forward of the shooting (support) element. A RSO followed near the shooters, ready to call a cease-fire if necessary. Shooters were given a strict safety briefing before participating, and reminded that they can either cease firing themselves, or call a cease fire if they saw anything unsafe, or even if they felt uncomfortable at any time. The three bounding buddy teams, Eagle and Fast Mover, Voodoo and Hunter, and Doc and Rancher all handled themselves well, and zero unsafe actions were observed.

Rancher on the move.

    In a classic fire-and-maneuver action, you will be moving while your teammate is shooting. Sometimes you will bound forward of where he/she is shooting from. This can cause some nervousness, and this is normal. This type of drill is designed to expose militia members to this situation. Due to the extreme seriousness of such a drill, we only allow persons who are qualified Level One or better to participate, and even then, this is done with each team being very closely followed and monitored by a RSO. This drill also stresses the value of communicating both vocally and with hand and arm signals. "Cover me!", and "Go, go, go!" were among the simple back-and-forth communications heard between teammates. It is very important to let your buddy know if/when you are reloading or if you have a jam/malfunction, so they can continue to cover for you while you address your situation.  "Covering" does not always mean that you are firing, but can also mean that you are aiming toward the suspected enemy, and are prepared to fire if the enemy/threat presents itself. As militia, we lack the luxury of massive re-supply, so wasting lots of rounds on "suppressive fire" is probably not the best idea. When you see a bad guy, pull the trigger and put them down.

    After this absolutely excellent drill, we backed up to 100 yards for some non-traditional shooting positions. This included shooting around the corner with your weak hand, shooting through a window from within a tightly enclosed position, and shooting from a simulated rooftop position.

Roof shooting, and weak-hand shooting.                          It takes getting used to, but you'll get it.

From around every corner, every window, and every rooftop....The Militia is everywhere!

    If you have never shot left handed, come out and do it. Some people need to work hard at it, and concentrate so much on forcing their hands into the right place, that they lose track of breath control and trigger squeeze. Some people (ahem. "Doc") are natural left hand shooters, though.

    Everyone got to shoot from every position. Hunter's 8mm Mauser (best 80 bucks you'll ever spend) not only knocked down pins and punched holes with impressive accuracy, but it provided such a loud, gleeful noise, that at times the pins would fall down from sheer terror. That is one loud rifle.

    Whilst shooting left-handed, I got some splatter from my rifle. I had dumped some oil in it, to facilitate easier cleaning later, and it sprayed out as the weapon cycled. Since I have mostly shot this rifle with my right hand, I had never experienced this before. Oh, joy...Gun oil (rather dirty, black gun oil) on my glasses. something to think about here: Light coat of oil means light coat of oil. It doesn't mean, "Lee, just hose your bolt carrier down with this spray." This was something of which I would never had been aware, had I not took a few minutes to shoot left-handed.

    Shooting from the simulated rooftop presented a couple of challenges. First, the roof is too tall to stand on the ground (unless you're really tall, like somebody from Bay City, for example), so you have to use the ladder. There is also the problem of getting into a good shooting position. Most people shooting from the roof would shift around with every shot or so. Also, there was danger of scraping your finish on the shingles (Hunter commented that he now has a good start at stripping and re-finishing his stock). This is an excellent training aid, that presents interesting and unusual shooting challenges. In short, it is a perfect addition to the range! More kudos to Cpl Punishment and Viper 6 for their mad engineering skillz.

Doc covers from the roof...                                                   ...while Bishop shoots left-handed.

Above left: Malarkey.                                                          Above right: ???I get to shoot???

   The folks did some more sighting in and shooting, which is a good thing, and then we pretty much wrapped it up and headed out. Rude Guy permitted us to lust rather heartily at his new 6.8 SPC AR. It is almost a foregone conclusion that this 6.8mm round will be THE NEXT BIG THING. You can purchase a kit which includes everything except a stripped lower receiver for around between $500-$600. You should check around for these kits. You can also find lower receivers for a reasonable $130-$150. I am not telling you to give up your current rig, but keep in mind that more folks will be jumping on the 6.8SPC bandwagon here pretty soon.

   One interesting bit of gear was also used this day. Fast Mover has a "dump pouch" on his left side into which he tosses his empty magazines. The pouch is rolled up and secured with a strap when not in actual use, but when he needs to start changing magazines, he unsnaps it and just tosses his mags in. This is a great way to keep from having to fiddle-fart around trying to put empty mags back into your pouches, and prevents you from confusing empty and full mags.

Fast Mover tosses a mag into his dump pouch, left. Right: Pouch rolled up, out of the way. Notice also his first aid kit, worn on his thigh for quick access and clearly marked with a black cross.

    Next month, we will be doing some bolt-action rifle drills, and maybe some friendly competition between Mosin-Nagants, Enfields, and Mausers. Clean your old battle rifle and pick up some ammo. See you out there on June 3rd!!!

-Weapon M

The .223, 6.8SPC, .308, and 8mm.

CLICK HERE FOR MAY 2006 PIONEER TRAINING PICS. GAZE IN AWE AT THE AIR FORCE INSPIRED SHELTER.