SPORTS

M16A1

Here's a war story for you. Or, actually a basic training story.

I was in basic training (officially Basic Combat Training or BTC) at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri (Fort Lost in the Woods, Misery was what we called it). We were doing night shooting training. They gave us four magazines of 20 rounds each of live ammunition. We were supposed to shoot the first two magazines on semi-auto with our M16A1 rifles and then two magazines on full auto when they gave the word. I don't remember what this was supposed to teach us.

They cautioned us against pretending to have a jam so we could shoot more on auto. 

I got into position in a pre-dug foxhole (it was concrete lined), slammed in the first magazine, charged the weapon (cocked it), and prepared to fire. They gave us the order to fire over a loud speaker. I squeeze the trigger, and nothing. I probably tried again. Still nothing. So, as had been drilled into us, I did SPORTS.

What is SPORTS? 

• (S)lam (or slap) the magazine to make sure it's seated correctly
• (P)ull back on the charging handle (which you hope ejects the jammed cartridge)
• (O)bserve the port for any blockage (it was night, that was difficult)
• (R)elease the charging handle (which should put a new round in the chamber)
• (T)ap the forward assist*
• (S)hoot, you hope (some say the "S" means "squeeze the trigger")

I did that. Still nothing. 

So I pulled out the magazine, tapped it on my helmet to seat the cartridges. I slapped the magazine back in, charged the weapon, and pulled the trigger. Nothing. Now I'm starting to worry that the drill sergeants are going to think I'm faking this. So I did SPORTS again and it finally fired. I got through one 20-round magazine when the order to change to full-auto came. So I switched the selector from semi to full auto.  (The M16A1 selector switch had three settings: safe, semi automatic, and full automatic**) Now I didn't rock and roll like they show in the movies. You can empty a magazine in a few seconds like that. I did what I was trained to do: short controlled bursts. But it was still more fun than semi-auto. And I got to fire 60 rounds instead of 40 on full auto. 

The drills never said anything to me so they must have believed I was actually having problems. 

When I got to my first "permanent" duty station, Fort Ord, California, they issued us M16A2s. The A2 didn't have a full-automatic setting. Only a 3-round burst setting. You pull the trigger and held it and you get three rounds fired downrange. But I had been trained to fire short bursts and it drove me nuts. Luckily, I didn't shoot much at Fort Ord and only once on 3-round burst.

*The forward assist pushed the bolt forward so it seated properly in the chamber. It was on the right side of the upper receiver. When the M16 first came out, it was discovered that releasing the charging handle didn't always seat the bolt correctly. So updated versions had the forward assist. Basically, it was to compensate for a design flaw instead of fixing the flaw.

**Semi-automatic means you pull the trigger and one round fires. You release the trigger, pull it again, and one round fires. Full-automatic means you pull the trigger and if you hold it, rounds fire until you release the trigger or the magazine (or other feed device such as a belt) is empty.

Huskies' Regular Season Wrapup

The University of Washington Huskies' regular season ended Saturday, November 29th with a brutal 26-14 loss to the #6 (#5 AP) ranked Oregon Ducks at home. Our quarterback only hit 50% of his passes but the Oregon defense had him on his heels for most of the game. I won't bore you with why I say Oregon is basically a professional team in college football. Yet, still, no national title for them!

 The Huskies' regular season record is 8-4 which is a lot better than last year's 6-6 season (6-7 including the bowl game we lost).

One of the teams we lost to was Ohio State at home. Ohio State was at the time ranked #1 in the AP poll and undefeated (still is). Another team we lost to was Michigan who we played in Ann Arbor in The Big House. It's very hard to win in The Big House. Unfortunately, Michigan wasn't ranked at the time.

There were some nail-biter games. In the Maryland away game, the Huskies didn't start playing until about the middle of the third quarter and managed to score 24 unanswered points to win the game. We did beat #23 (at the time) Illinois 42-25. 

For one brief shinning moment after beating Illinois, we were ranked: 24 in the AP poll and 23 in the CFP. There was talk about the Huskies making it into the college football playoffs. It looked like we'd have an easy run to the Oregon game which was the last game of the season.

Then we played Wisconsin in Madison. They were 2-6. We were 6-2. It should have been an easy win despite the awful weather conditions. But we lost, 10-13. Nothing went our way and there were dumb mistakes made. That knocked us down to 6-3 and we were no longer ranked. Our star wide receiver and star running back were both hurt in the Wisconsin game making that game a pyrrhic defeat. 

Then the rumors started that head coach Jedd Fisch wanted out. His family didn't like Seattle and his wife had moved back to Arizona. At first, Fisch didn't say anything and the rumors were everywhere. At his weekly press conference, he denied that he wanted to leave. But the rumors persisted. And after that loss at Wisconsin, maybe no one wanted him.

Then we played Perdue at home. They were 2-8 and in last place in the Big Ten. We beat them handily 49-13. One of our freshman receivers left the game in an ambulance. The Perdue players were jerks. Awfully cocky for a last-place team.

Next we played UCLA in the Rose Bowl. UCLA was 3-7 overall and I was a little nervous because the Huskies had struggled with away games. I needn't worry; we beat them 48-14. (At one point it was 34-0.)

One thing that I didn't like was the number of teams we played that were coming off of bye weeks. They were:

• Ohio State
• Maryland
• Rutgers
• Illinois
• Wisconsin

That's almost half the games we played and 55.5% of the conference games we played. We won all but two of those. And for the Wisconsin game, we were also coming off a bye week.

Years ago when the Huskies were not very good, I came up with the criteria for me to call it a good year. They were:

• Have at least an 8-4 record (did that)
• Beat Washington State (they did)
• Beat Oregon (they didn't)
• Go to a good bowl game (they likely will)
• Win that bowl game (we'll see)

Now we just wait to find out on Selection Sunday (the 7th) what bowl we're going to play in and later if our coach is going to leave. He was rumored to be wanted at Florida, but they hired someone else.