I returned yesterday from my first aviation field exercise. We were in the woods from Tuesday morning until Friday. This was the last training exercise of my flight school career. I will turn in my gear next week and graduate.

The aviation community is replete with stories about how cushy field exercises can be, especially compared to those experienced by soliders in the infantry and other branches. I had heard tales of Chinook pilots wheeling refrigerators out of the back of their helicopters to plug into the ever present generator. Coolers of steak and soda, tables, chairs, and barbeque grills were all common items seen when aviators were in the field. After all, pilots are limited by what we can carry in our helicopters, not by what we can carry on our backs.

The stories appear to be true. The intent of the field exercise was for us to plan missions in a field environment and then fly them in the AVCATT simulator. This, however, did not take up most or even the majority of the time for most of the students. Those without leadership roles, in particular, had a lot of free time. We all spent a lot of time in our 30 person tent sitting on our cots or in chairs, playing cards, listening to music, eating junk food, telling stories, and generally acting like high school kids at a sleep over party. We even ordered pizza to be delivered to the tents one night and then burned to boxes to keep our instructor from learning our dirty little secret when he came to check on us in the morning.

It was not all fun and games, however. Despite my best efforts I wound up with a leadership role. I was the flight lead for the third mission. The Air Mission Commander chose me because I am a flight school XXI student and had more experience in the aircraft than a lot of ther other students. Though I did not want the job it appears that the army has some rules about Warrant Officers doing what they are told to do by more senior officers. Go figure. Read more about Aviation Field Exercise

We had our 9 mm qualification today. It was a really cold day to be out on the range so, by the time I got to shoot I was shivering pretty hard. The army issues 9 mm Barettas to officers, referred to in military parlance as the M-9.

The range consists of pop-up targets at various distances. They are pretty close because the M-9 is definately a close range weapon. My first attempt did not go well but I believe there was something wrong with the targets. I knew that I was hitting some of them but they were not going down.

Range control told me that I failed to qualify and had to go again. This was frustrating because I was getting cold and it seemed like it should have been easy. It made it worse when the Sergeant in charge of the range began to talk to me like a slow child, explaining how to aim the gun.

Luckily I redeemed myself. I shot at different targets and they all seemed to be working properly. I scored "expert", the highest possible and better than just about everyone else. No pop-up target is safe with me around.

Take care,