Zero the Rifle

Fort Benning, Georgia was a horrible place that I came to love. After failing to physically prepare for the ordeal that laid before me, I was in for a horrendous shock upon arrival. OK, not upon arrival at Fort Benning... arrival at Bravo Company, 9th Battalion, 2nd ITB (B-9-2). We were the "Rangers." Of course we weren't really Rangers: we were called the Rangers.

After a relaxed time at the reception station where I got shots and some basic in-processing done (My brother actually stopped by during that time because he was there for annual training with the 1st Brigade, 323rd regiment, 108th Division Army Reserve unit, the same unit that I was assigned to). That is so long ago, I can't recall exactly what my reserve unit was, but I think I have that about right. The unit was on Laurens Road in Greenville, South Carolina, but seems to be gone now. In fact, the entire reserve center seems to be abandoned. Let's get back to my story.

When we were live-firing our weapons, we were taken to a shooting range where we were supposed to get our weapons zeroed. Of course, I had never even touched a rifle before (except the ceremonial type at JROTC) and had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I remember they had these little site picture training aids, but that didn't help because I used them incorrectly. When it came to be my turn, I lowered myself into a foxhole to begin the process. On a wooden bench, equipped with binoculars was a West Point cadet who was assigned to our company. I'd fire a few shots and he would tell me "turn your front site X numbers counterclockwise." I'd do that, fire again, and he'd tell me to adjust some more. By now, you could probably guess that things were not going to end well on this day.

The cadet kept telling me to rotate the site, blah, blah, blah. It was getting late. For some reason I was having trouble getting my weapon zeroed. Finally, A drill sergeant from my platoon by the name of Williams came by. The cadet got his attention and indicated there was a problem. The sergeant had me fire a few rounds, the cadet told me to rotate the sight post, and the whole thing came off the gun, apparently from turning it too much). The drill sergeant got angry and said, "Private XXXX, get out of that foxhole!" I did, and suffice it to say, I never got my weapon zeroed.

The problem was that I didn't understand the concept of a proper site picture. Rather than aiming at the center of the "o", I was aligning the site post with the top of the "o". This was on an M16A1 rifle. I never had another opportunity to zero so I had to learn what the site picture looked for my rifle by trial and error. I did well too: I qualified as sharpshooter.