Weapons PT

Today we had a little problem. After some good Army training, during accountability of people and weapons we came up with one short. Not good. By the time this was found out, I (along with others) were at the PX buying stuff. All of a sudden one of our troops came in and said drop everything and get on the bus. We did so and went back to the arms room where the 1SG directed everyone to get their weapon.

After everyone had their weapon we formed up on the PT field. The 1SG was not happy one bit, rightfully so too. He said "People really shoot at you over there", and something along the lines of, Your family is depending on that weapon to keep you safe.

He was right on target with everything he said. Our weapon is the single most important piece of equipment for this deployment. To reinforce this ideal, he PT'd us to death, imagine this, running around 1/2 of football field holding a 8lbs weapon above your head, and when the 1SG says "DOWN!" you get down and knockout pushups, situps, or flutter kicks. We did this for about 45 minutes. After that everyone was very dirty and very stinky.

My personal thought is that the 1SG did the right thing, Were we treated like we were in Basic Training, yes. So what? This deployment is more important than BT and should be taken seriously. If you lost your weapon in BT nothing happens. If you loose it in a combat zone, You die.