Tempest of Light

My first Firearms Class!

I taught a 16 hour (2 day) Shotgun course of instruction to a group of academy recruits.

It was awesome.

I got there early on the first day and was quite nervous.

Veronica, one of my old instructors when I was in the academy, was up in her range tower at 6AM and we sat and talked for a while since I was an hour early. She made me a cup of coffee and calmed me down.

Around 7AM I met up with Lou and we headed over to the classroom.

He gave me a little pep talk and we entered the room.

CLASS!!!

The trainee closest to the door yelled as we walked in, signaling the class to stand at attention until told to relax by the instructor.

Lou told them to have a seat and we went to the front of the class with the 26 shotguns that were wheeled in.

I was introduced and then fed to the wolves.

I started giving my initial introduction lecture and all of the sudden felt at home.

It wasn’t but 10 minutes before I was engaging the class and making them laugh while learning the information I needed to relay to them.

Lou called me a natural and to hear that from the most senior Firearms instructor my department had was a needed refresher.

4 hours of talking and I sent the class off to lunch.

I pulled Lou aside and told him just how relieved I was that he was right and that once I got comfortable I’d breeze through it.

After lunch we went out to the range to start on range familiarization and firing practice. I fixed a bunch of shooting issues and my entire group were on target.

Awesome day.

The second day came around and we went out to the range. I was pulled aside by two different SGTs and a LT, along with some of the firearms staff and basically told flat out that they want me to take over Annual training and get into the division ASAP.

The group did their practice rounds and then qualifications without much issue at all. It was a good feeling to know that I taught them and they understood the material, were able to apply it and were mostly excited to ask questions.

I’m really hoping this goes through. I was actually happy at work for the first time in years.

• Posted Aug 25, 2009