Where to begin? The Army has this thing called theM203 grenade launcher, a direct off-shoot of the older M79 grenade launcher. The M79 is a stand-alone weapon and the M203 is an accessory for the M16.M4 platform. They both launch 40mm grenades.
I can train a monkey to use one of these things, and anyone can become competent, but some folks really shine with it, able to put those grenades exactly on target every time. They have a knack for it, and those are the guys you want on the grenade launcher.
Grandson Quinton is a PFC in the National Guard. He has drill this weekend, and crashes with us when he's at drill, because his unit is just a couple of miles down the road. He came in last night and told me that he spent the day on a 203 range, as range support. After they had trained the unit they were assigned to train, they switched sides and got to qualify with the M203, and burn up excess ammo. I asked him how he did.
"PawPaw", says he, "I hit everything I aimed it at. Qualified expert the first time out."
I told him that a good grenadier could put a grenade through a 12" window at 150 yards.
"Yeah", he says. "I did that easy."
Hun! Quinton is a grenadier. How about that?
I trained with the M-79 when we went into Berlin and did the "Combat in cities" training. Fast forward 8 years after I switched to the Navy and we did some weapons training at Cam Ranh Bay. They were amazed at how I was able to shoot that thing right off the bat. Didn't miss once.
ReplyDeleteThat is AWESOME Pawpaw. Glad his on our side.
ReplyDeleteDid JROTC summer camp in 1984. Got to shoot M203’s, all rounds were gold-tipped HE. When we were all done, and most cadets were on the trucks headed back, a couple of us got to help the cadre “finish off” a few 100 rounds. One trainer cadre had an M79... we got really good at lobbing those into targets... Windows of deuce and a half’s, the backend of what looked a lot like BMP’s and a couple of dumpsters at +/- 400 yards. I think you’re right, some folks have a knack for it and some folks couldn’t quite figure out the geometry.
ReplyDeleteOutstanding!
ReplyDeleteGreat news.