Come on Dave, don't leave us hanging, tell us some of the names you called him......
I shouldn't go into detals here, but I'm pretty sure that I called him both a jerk and a doodoohead at some point. I did draw down on him (as far as I was concerned, he'd engaged me after all) and this might have complicated things. It all was sorted in the end. In 2004, I was ready to kill that maternal effer, and just might have done so if others hadn't acted. I don't remember his name, but if he somehow remembers mine and finds this - I'm over it. We're all good, dude. I'm on a different timeline now.
As I said, things changed on the range after that. We began to assign more line coaches to prevent that sort of thing from happening in the first place, and we range personnel were required to wear flak jackets. I pointed out that our protective gear would not stop a 9mm projectile, let alone the nasty stuff, and I was shut down. I don't know what they're doing these days and honestly, I don't care anymore. It's no longer my problem. I did what I could while I was there. It wasn't just us that had problems either. The MARDET that worked with us was having their own problems. It came to a head when they got hammered for not taking down a guy that swept the line. Then we were like, "So you want us to tackle the next guy that does that?" And that wasn't what they wanted, but it was what they wanted, and...yeah, military.
Eventually we wound up with a DIVO that came to us from the SEALs. Things on the O-Gang end were getting better when I left, but it got turned over to contractors shortly after that. I don't know what the hell is going on there now. More to the point, I haven't asked. It's out of my hands and that's not what I do anymore.
I've still got that blouse somewhere, and I'm still in touch with a few people that remember that incident...the time when the guy who didn't lose his cool, lost his cool.
To be fair to myself, this was early 2004, following up an exciting (and long) 2003 deployment, and I was not in my right mind back then. I eventually got my crap together (possibly in the oddest way possible) and it all worked out.
But yeah...range qualifications with certain communities could be nerve-wracking. I'm proud to state that we had no serious injuries while I was there. (Nothing related to bullets, anyway. The Beretta M9 could and did punish improper grip placement.)
