re: #518 jcw46
Yep, even back in the day when I was in (he says, clutching his cane and swigging Geritol) we had an Advanced Infantry Course called point and shoot or some such thingy. We’d wear a helmet with a Plexiglas visor and some padding and then have to wander along a trail from one part of a forest to the end, with pump BB guns. OPFOR guys would jump out from behind trees and crap and shoot at us with BB’s. The idea was to develop our reflexes so we got away from all of our prior “aim, breathe out slowly and slowly pull back on the trigger”rifle shooting training and get to real life where if you do that aim, breathe out crap you’ll be killed.
Course, we weren’t clearing urban areas, just “Vietnamese” Villages/mock ups. But sometimes those effin BB’s would break the skin and they HURT - so you really got used to what it was like to shoot first and question later. I probably plugged every damn tree in that forest!