Sorry this one took me so long to post - it came late, and came during final projects. I’ve finally got it posted… thanks to my wife for typing it up.

May 9, 2007

Hey Everybody!

Since I slipped everyone a letter last week I’ve decided to write one this week mainly because we just completed our white phase FTX and we’re about to move into blue phase at the end of this week.

The white phase FTX was all about U.S. weapon familiarization. Which means that we received classes on numerous different U.S. small and heavy arms and then were allowed to test fire them.

Before the actual FTX we did our grenade training. That was pretty fun stuff! We learned how to arm and deploy a fragmentation grenade from several different positions. For practice we used M67 frag grenade shells with just the fuse and the primer in it. When the primer/detonator went off it was about as loud as a .22 rifle. It’s very difficult to throw frag grenades because of how stinkin heavy they are. They’re definitely heavier then a rock of comparable size (which is probably the most people’s perception of their weight.) The [way to] get the good 35 meters that is preferred is to whip your arm like you’re throwing a baseball and throw as close to a 45 degree angle as you can. Even then it’s still a lot harder then they make it look in the video games. (All of you non-gamers out there will have to bear with me- I’m going to do a lot of game-real live comparisons here) Yeah Ghost Recon has it right by making grenades a weapon you have to switch to and take time to throw. Deploying a frag grenade defiantly not as fast and instantaneous as a button tap like in most games. As far as the look and sound of a frag grenade going off – it’s visually interesting and audibly deafening. Seriously, these things are LOUD. There is no way a video game or sound system will ever do it justice (well there’s probably a sound system out there somewhere that could do it but you get my point). So pretty much, the louder game developers create grenade explosives the closer they are to realism. But it’s not a really huge thunderous roar of an explosion. It’s more like a crack, pop, and echo with the most thunderous base and reverberation you’ve ever felt. As far as what it looks like- in the split second that it first explodes it looks a lot like the splash made by a drop of water in a larger body of water - but it’s made of black smoke and dust and dirt with a small yellow flash in the center. But immediately after that millisecond of uniformity it just turns into a cloud of rapidly expanding black smoke and dust about five meters square that very quickly dissipates and leaves a big black splash mark on the ground.

OK, so enough about hand grenades. They were fun but let’s get to some other things. Like the M-2 Browning .50 caliber machine gun! Yeah Baby. Now there is a man’s man weapon. The M-2 has been in the service with the U. S. military since 1934. Thirty four! And it has been left unchanged since that time. Basically Browning made a heavy machine gun that was so perfectly designed that no one wants to mess with it. BTW - did I mention John browning was a member of the [LDS]church?

We were given some classes on it at the range and then allowed to shoot about 20 rounds from it on auto fire. Man, you have not shot a weapon until you have felt a .50 cal thumping into your hands (I’m sure Brent knows what I’m talking about). The machine gun doesn’t cycle very fast because it relies on gravity to cycle another round down into the chamber. Also there’s the fact that the bolt has to travel back and forth a much farther distance because of the size of a .50 cal round (yeah those things mean BUZI-NASS) ; of course it doesn’t matter that it has a somewhat slow rate of fire. The effects of a round of .50 cal are nothing like what they show in the movies. Stuff explodes when it is hit by this round. The ground, vegetation, buildings, and what we like to call in the army – soft targets (people). They all just literally fall apart when a .50 cal round slams home at center of mass. Not that I shot any soft targets (just big metal ones that were ½ km – 1 km out) but our instructors (sergeants) told us stories from Iraq that were pretty gruesome.

Next we shot the M249 and M240B. The M249 is commonly known as the SAW (squad automatic weapon) and is the primary light machine gun used by dismounted and mounted infantry. Not too many people can say that they have fired a fully automatic machine gun. I’m one of those that can. It was so fun to feel the raw power in my hands and watch the tracer rounds go streaking down range (tracers really show just how much bullets ricochet off of anything: a lot, they ricochet probably 35% of the time). It was also interesting to watch the speed of the 7.62 mm rounds going down range (from the M240B) compared to the 5.56 mm rounds of the M249. I’m not positive on the specs but the 7.62 sure appeared to be faster.

Also were instructed in some heavy weapons used as well. Like the AT4, M203 grenade launcher, and claymore mine. We practiced firing the AT4 with models that only fired little 9mm tracer rounds. But it was till fun to aim at the derelict tank bodies down range and watch the rounds bounce off the target or treads or side. The real AT4 demonstration that we saw was awesome.

The concussion from the launch was big enough that we could feel it 100 meters away in the bleachers. What I’ve been consistently amazed by is how much smoke is created by detonating, firing, or otherwise employing one of these heavy weapons. There is usually not that much smoke at all generated by similar weapons in video games. I think the only game that comes close is “Black� for the original Xbox.

The M203 grenade launcher really is as easy as it looks to operate and its blast radius is about the size of a standard M67 grenade so no surprise there. What is a bit of a surprise is the range of these things. Heck with firing grenades at targets 50-100 meters away… try 400-600 meters. M203’s really have the power to reach out and touch someone. Oh yes, and it is 10x more satisfying to load and lock a round in the chamber in real life then it is in any video game. We were able to shoot 10 orange chalk rounds at the tank targets on the heavy weapons range. I think I hit 6 out of 10 tries (they’re rather difficult to aim properly - or I should say consistently).

While we’re on the subject of video games I would just like to point out the fact that our drill sergeants (probably some of the best and toughest drill sergeants in the army) play video games. Albeit it’s a PS2 but still! When they have breaks a lot of the time they’re playing video games in their office. Ha! So tell me now that only losers, teenagers, geeks, and nerds without lives play video games. Every day that old-school notion is blown out of the water even more as video games grow further entrenched in every day society. OK enough preaching… just thought I’d mention that.

There’s a whole other letter worth of stuff to write about individual and squad movement technique that I could tell you about but I think I’ll give Ben’s fingers a break. [Actually Amanda is typing this - and it is stink’n long]

Thanks for the comments that were sent my way, I enjoyed them all.

Specifically…

Yes Nate I did get your letter. It was one of the first I received at basic and it was much appreciated. Although, at the time I was rather alarmed to hear that Keith Nye had my 360. I still am not 100% cool with it but Hey, Keith is a nice guy and if anything bad does happen I’ll take it out of Ben’s hide, not Keith’s.

Thanks for the letter Grandma! I was very happy to see that familiar return address and handwriting on the envelope. Have fun with Garrett at your house (work him hard!) And thank you again for planning to attend Amy’s graduation. It really means a lot to her.

Mom Murdock, I can’t tall you how awesome it is to have in-laws that I consider just as much family as my own extended family. It means a lot to know that you support me and approve of my decisions and the way Amy and I lead our family. You’re the best! Before Amy and I take a well deserved vacation when I get back at the end of July I want to spend a few days with both of our families up in Hillsboro.

Mommy. I still wonder sometimes how you can stand seeing your sons do the military things when it was so hard for you to go through at times. I really do think I have the best mom not just because of how much you love and care for me and my family but just how much you support all of us kids in whatever we do. Thank you so much for raising us like you did mom, pretty much all the good choices I make I can trace back to a consequence of how you raised me.

Daddy. I don’t even remember telling Wayne he sang funny! Dang… sorry. I really was a poop-head back then though. You know Dad, seeing as I’m starting my army life now I have to thank you for making the military life something positive and a source of pride for you. The army values and warrior ethos were very easy for me to adopt because of the straight and honorable way you raised me. Hey, BTW, did you know a young sergeant in Germany by the name of Cornell? My company’s 1st Sgt. here says I look very familiar and he served in Germany at one of the same bases we lived at the same time we lived there. When and where did we live in Germany exactly again? That would be pretty cool if you knew my 1st sergeant and he’s training me all these years later.

Ben. Dude, what’s this about starting your own business? No more mad scientist A.I. programmer? No more doctorate then? I guess there’s ultimately more money to be made in entrepreneurship anyway right? Well good luck with the preparations you’ll be putting into your new business… I’ll be there to help any way I can. I also can’t wait to see Asher and Holly again. It’s so much fun seeing our families grow up together isn’t it?

Oh ya… one more thing… For all my Halo buddies out there. Search the Halo predictions, ruminations, and conjecture threads out there that we wrote. Did I or did I not hit the X-button feature on the freakin’ head?! Ha! I at least deserve a candy bar or something for that one. Man, I’m awesome.

PFC Christensen

P.S. Pie this week was actually cake. Banana Cake… mmm… my favorite.

P.P.S. Ben, post this letter first and then the one about me breaking my nose.