3 Jun 2025 2:19 pm
I might be the ownliest muthafuggen Army Trainee who ever qualified both left and right handed with the M16
I had no prior experience with firearms going into Basic...all I knew is that I was left handed.
During the weeks of practice that led up to the first round of qualifications..I was basically a 50 percent shooter which is barely passing.
20 out of 40 is what my score was after the first round a "Record Fire"...and I was very disappointed in myself.
I asked a Drill Sgt. if he had any idea why I wasn't doing better and he asked if I ever did a "dominant eye test".
I said..."No..I don't even know what that is"
10 seconds later we discovered that I should have been shooting "righty" all along.
With just a week's worth of practice going into the final round of Record Fire I shot 38 out of 40 [which was tied for high in the Company]....
It didn't occur to me until just a couple years ago that I might have been the only Trainee that this happened to.
What happened on the rifle range made sense to me afterwards because as a ball player I was a "switch hitter" who had a better contact rate righthanded...but had more power batting lefthanded.
The Drill Sergeants were all fresh from tours of duty as Combat Infantry in Vietnam and they all had the same thing to say about the M-16........FULL AUTO was a badly overused and abused feature.