Last weekend, my 12 year old son Jeremy went to a Basic Marksmanship Encampment organized by the Civil Air Patrol. The kids (over 45 of them) spent all weekend learning safety rules, principles of marksmanship, and basic rifle nomenclature and mechanics.
I'd been signed up to help, but woke up on Saturday morning with the nastiest asthma attack I've had in months. Instead of driving into town to help at the BME, I spent the day wheezing and sneezing and basically acting like a wuss in the doctor's office. Very annoying -- and even more so when I discovered, to my chagrin, that they'd really needed another person working on the line. I won't miss the next one.
I did manage to make it to the awards ceremony on Sunday afternoon. The squadron's senior officer handed out the awards while the bright-eyed youngsters stood solemnly at attention awaiting their turns. All but three of the first time kids made "marksman" level (in the NRA junior marksmanship program?). One of the older girls achieved her "expert" rating, missing "distinguished expert" by a single shot. One of the kid shot a possible on the course of fire. I was impressed with how hard the young people had worked.
Jeremy came home with a stack of targets he'd shot over the weekend. He was really excited about them and carried them around for days to show them to everyone he knows (thank goodness he doesn't go to a government school...)
It was great to see all those young shooters and I got a kick out of being there to watch them.
pax
I'd been signed up to help, but woke up on Saturday morning with the nastiest asthma attack I've had in months. Instead of driving into town to help at the BME, I spent the day wheezing and sneezing and basically acting like a wuss in the doctor's office. Very annoying -- and even more so when I discovered, to my chagrin, that they'd really needed another person working on the line. I won't miss the next one.
I did manage to make it to the awards ceremony on Sunday afternoon. The squadron's senior officer handed out the awards while the bright-eyed youngsters stood solemnly at attention awaiting their turns. All but three of the first time kids made "marksman" level (in the NRA junior marksmanship program?). One of the older girls achieved her "expert" rating, missing "distinguished expert" by a single shot. One of the kid shot a possible on the course of fire. I was impressed with how hard the young people had worked.
Jeremy came home with a stack of targets he'd shot over the weekend. He was really excited about them and carried them around for days to show them to everyone he knows (thank goodness he doesn't go to a government school...)
It was great to see all those young shooters and I got a kick out of being there to watch them.
pax