Hurricanes and Rifle Shooting

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kraigwy

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Hurricanes and Rifle Shooting-The Day I was fired as the Alaska NG Rifle Team Weather Man.

Watching the news regarding the path of Isaac, all scenarios show Isaac passing over Little Rock, the location of Camp Robinson and the W.P. Wilson Matches, National Guard Championships.

Back in 77 or 78, (don't remember exactly) there was another hurricane that hit the Gulf, then sending its rain to Little Rock.

The first morning of matches we leave the hotel room and my shooting partner ask, "you lived here as a kid, what's the weather report?". I looked outside and the dark sky was nothing but stars so I says clear but its gonna really be hot. He tosses his Pancho and other rain gear on the bed and off to the ranges.

Worst flood to hit Little Rock in 50 years.

It rained pretty hard on the short range phase of the NMC, then the sun came out hot while we moved to 600 yards. My shooting partner's leather coat got soaked so he decided to leave it on, figuring it would be too hard to get on and off wet as it was.

As I said the sun came out and started drying things out. We all know what wet leather does when the hot sun starts to work on it. Thought we was going to have to cut it off him.

The heavy rains came back, We shot the NMC on Monday, the EIC on Tuesday and were suppose to shoot the Long and Short Range Team match but that match had to be canceled.

Not because we had to shoot in the rain. If you know High Power you know they don't call matches because of rain, snow, or what ever. This was an exception. When you have flash floods rushing through the pits its hard to get people to stay on station long enough you pull your target.

That is when I discovered that rain, even hurricane force rains don't affect the rifle or ammo, but it sure raises heck on the shooter.

I also learned (as did the rest of the team) that I suck and weather forecasting.
 
While a nasty scenario, here's hoping those who need some drought relief in the Midwest will get some
Click to expand...

Yep.

I feel really bad about being excited about a hurricane but having barges stuck in the Mississippi:eek: because the water is so low is really rather dry.

We have begun referring to it as the Mississippi Creek.

There are several hundred stuck in Memphis right now waiting on the dredges to get down from Cairo IL, where they just got done dredging to clear up another bottle neck.

I really think that CPT. Stuart needs to write an autobiography. I haven't heard a story yet that I didn't find interesting or entertaining and sometimes both.:D
 
I've never understood why so many units get evac'd to Little Rock for hurricanes. It nearly always ends up with the same scenario:

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Evacuate non-essential personnel via the "here's some money... run away... anywhere you can" method.
Evacuate aircraft and essential personnel to Little Rock.
Evacuate first-responders to a "safer" location, somewhere in the area.
-
Hurricane hits.
Everyone is glad they weren't there.
Commanding officers praise a few people for doing a good job saving the aircraft.
Commanding officers remind the first-time evacuees that there will be a lot of clean-up to do.
-
Hurricane heads straight for Little Rock.
"Oh #$%#!" They don't have enough hangar space for our birds.
Scramble to get the aircraft out of Little Rock before the wind speeds climb and the rain starts to pour.
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Attempt to fly "around the storm", to get home.
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First-responders report that the base is staffed, safe, and ready for inbound aircraft.
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Spend 2 weeks delivering parts to aircraft scattered all over the southern states, because the pilots pushed them too hard to go "around the storm" and had to make precautionary and emergency landings all over the place. ....while everyone wonders why your aircraft are conspicuously absent from Search and Rescue, Recovery, and Survey efforts.
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Spend another week trying to track down the remaining personnel that went "on vacation" while supposed to be on self-evacuation.

:rolleyes:
 
I remember being in a gaggle of fighters evacuated to Mississippi one year. About 80 fighters from Georgia to MIss. Hurricane changed course and the eye of the hurricane went directly over us in Miss.
 
I remember stuffing as many airplanes as we could into hangers at Eglin AFB back in the 1980s, then flying the rest out due to hurricanes. I was pretty good at backing them in, and we put them wing over wing and arranged them any way we could to get the most in - couldn't get across that hangar without getting on one's hands and knees.

As one hurricane approached I remember an airplane that I just put back together after major maintenance and some idiot left the hundreds of pages of maintenance forms out in the rain. The pilot came out to evacuate the plane (F-16) and after seeing that the forms were now a ten-pound mass of wet pulp asked me, "Is it good to go?" I said, "Yes sir." and he took it. That was the first and last time I ever let a plane fly without a thorough forms review. I was a crew chief in the AF for 21 years.
 
There you go. As any Floridian knows, wait and shoot in the eye of the hurricane.
Then you can run inside and enjoy your mojitos. ;)
 
I think the weather was always briefed by the S2/3 staff. If they said it wasn't going to rain I always packed my rain gear. If they said it was going to be warm I always packed my cold gear. I had some of those NBC bags I always kept the gear rolled up in.

I remember we went to Ft. Hood in April when its supposed to be warm. Luckily we had a MOPP suit exercise as part or our ARTEP. It was still cold when the exercise was over. It was still so cold that everybody kept the MOPP suits on. Usually you had to threaten harmto get Soldiers to wear the MOPP suits...lol
 
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