On Target

Before we left for our epic whitewater adventure last Friday, I helped Troy out with one of his work assignments.  To make a long story short, he needed to film a training video, and I made my acting debut as a terrorist attempting to place an improvised explosive device (IED).  For the majority of the video, I played a dead body while Troy narrated how to properly search my body, sort the contents of my pockets, and document his findings.

It may not sound like it, but playing a dead body in an open field was kind of fun, especially since I had only gotten one hour of sleep the night before in the CCU.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I fell asleep during one of the scenes.  The only hard part was trying not to react whenever bugs landed on my face or crawled across my arm.

To thank me for my help, Troy let me fire some of his weapons.  I'd never held a gun before Friday, so getting to shoot his M24 sniper rifle was pretty much the coolest thing I've ever done.  I even hit the two-liter bottle Troy had set up as a target about 100m away on my very first try, much to my own surprise.

Troy also let me wield his AK-47 assault rifle and his 9mm handgun.  Personally, I found the 9mm much harder to use than the M24.  It was also really loud and I had some pretty severe tinnitus in my left ear despite wearing earplugs.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go revel in my new-found machismo.