I apologize...

Well, it's been almost a month since I've written, and for that I am sincerely apologetic to each and every single one of my faithful readers. The truth, as sad as it may be, is that there JUST HASN'T BEEN ANYTHING worth writing about...

So, I decided to take a different approach. I am going to write about family and friends from this point forward, and will be sure to fill you in should there be anything fun, funny, interesting, entertaining, should the common-man rear his ugly (and/or grotesquely stupid) head I will be sure to let you know. Oh, speaking of that, there was one story that I never mentioned...

THE COMMON-MAN CLEARS HIS WEAPON:
I'll try to explain w/o getting into too much detail, but such that those unfamiliar with weapons will hopefully be able to follow... Since training began, we have been required to "clear" our weapons at specific points/locations/etc. For example, we constantly had to clear our weapons back in Kansas, even though we had not even laid our eyes on ammunition, let alone fed rounds through our barrels... We did this every single time we entered the DFAC (Dining Facility), as we left the FOB (Forward Operating Base), prior to entering class rooms, Burger King, Exchange (kinda like K-Mart - a little bit of everything, most of it crap...), and so on and so forth.

Needless to say, the effect works, and although this becomes an exceedingly teadious task, the importance exists for COMMON reasons. Here, we really only have to clear our weapons when returning to the FOB after a mission/convoy. On the FOB our weapons are kept in a GREEN status, which means we carry them everywhere, but the magazines are OUT, no rounds are in the weapon, and the weapon is kept on SAFE - this means that one cannot squeeze the trigger; it has been mechanically BLOCKED. For obvious reasons, this is the safest MODE our weapons can be in. AMBER indicates that the magazine is loaded, but NO round in chambered, and again, the weapon is kept on SAFE. This is a MEDIUM state of weapon status, as it only requires a round to be chambered, the gun to be let off safe and a trigger pull can be performed in less than five seconds. One or two seconds if you're good. Yes, I'm pretty good in case you're worried or just wondering...

RED is a condition that we often travel in as soon as we depart the base. This means that the magazine is in, a round IS chambered and the weapon is on safe. To fire all it requires is a quick flip of a switch and a trigger pull. For many, this does not require any additional time, as the safety is moved to the off position as the weapon is brought up and into the firing position. We typically will only be in a RED status in dangerous areas, and have recently downgraded to Amber for personnel in a convoy except for the gunners which stand up in the turret and man our large caliber weapons. I think this is primarily because they would be the first to engage, this lessens the possibility for an accidental discharge of a weapon - this happened recently down South where a guy shot himself in the thigh while trying to get out of a vehicle.

Mind you, getting in and out of these HUMVEEs is not an easy task, especially when wearing all the gear that we are required to wear. Oh, I'll post that again, cuz the picture I had on my profile doesn't show up anymore now that I've gone to the Guinness background. I think the background is worthy, so I'll have to figure out some other way to show off my cool "air-strip security pose" photograph.

Back to my story: Okay, so one day as a Convoy arrives at the airport, about an hour away from here, everyone dismounts their vehicles and walks to the clearing barrels. Now a clearing barrel is a large metal barrel about two feet in diameter, usually filled halfway with sand, sand-bags, dirt, what have you. it is tilted at an angle to allow us to walk up to the barrel, point our weapon INTO the barrel, while we conduct our "clearing." This process is really quite simple: 1) check weapon on safe. 2) remove magazine. 3) clear chamber - because a live round was in the chamber, it will be ejected and fall on the ground during this stage. 4) take weapon off safe. 5) while pointing weapon into clearing barrel, squeeze trigger. Now because we have emptied the weapon, we know that the weapon will not fire. It is just a step to ensure that the weapon is in fact empty... Step 6) return weapon to SAFE. We perform this drill for both of our weapons, the M-9, 9mm Baretta Pistol, and the M-4 Carbine Rifle.

Well, on this particular afternoon a Common-Man stepped up to the clearing barrel with his pistol, checked to make sure his weapon was on safe, pulled the slide backward and watched the round eject onto the ground, took the weapon off safe, pointed into the clearing barrel and pulled the trigger.... BANG!!! Holy $H*T his gun went off and was even louder because of the echoing effect of having been pointed into a barrel that acted as a megaphone... He looked quizzically at the weapon thinking, "I know I cleared the weapon, I saw the round eject... That's odd, but it must be empty now, so..." and pointed into the clearing barrel a second time and pulled the - BANG!!! "SonofaB*T(H! What the hell!?!? How in the Fu" - "HEY!!!" his train of common-thought is broken by Sauce, a friend of mine who is just uncommon (and witty enough) to saunter over to idiot boy and say, "YOU might wanna remove that magazine, or we're in for a long afternoon..."

Needless to say, this particular individual was relieved of his weapons for awhile. There have been other instances of ND/AD (negligent discharge/accidental discharge - I find it strange that the Army distinguishes a difference between these, an accidental discharge somehow being less severe than a negligent discharge), but FAR FAR FAR FAR fewer here in the North than in other theaters of operation. I am really and truly baffled and amazed at how someone could be so stupid to pull the trigger on their weapon with a round in the chamber. That is the whole purpose of pulling back the handle/slide and checking the chamber. I'll be completely honest, I - in my LIMITED exposure to carbine rifles - did something similar where I forgot to pull the magazine on my M-4, pulled the charging handle and watched the round eject, but as the slide came forward I saw it strip another round from the magazine and push it forward into the chamber... "Hmmm," I thought, "that's not supposed to be in there... Oh yeah, I'm supposed to pull the mag, damnit!" and I felt pretty dumb for doing that.... This guy not only fired one round, but TWO into a clearing barrel.

I'm surrounded by Common Men, in a Common War, in a Common Country...