"Man it's hot. It's like Africa hot. Tarzan couldn't take this kind of hot." - Biloxi Blues

But it wasn’t Biloxi. It was high summer at the Fort Benning Georgia rifle range. Being that we had no range of our own in MCLB Albany, the Marine Corps bought us a week of training time on the Army Base.

“Leave a place cleaner that you found it,” is one of our Corps’ principals. Someone blabbed and told the Army this, so they assigned us the nastiest barracks on the base. Before we even pulled our gear off the bus, we spent 3 hours squaring away our new home for the week. We would spend another 3 hours on field day before we left. Their barracks had never looked so good in twenty years.

Rifle Range Week is great fun. You get off of work on Friday and have most of a weekend of liberty. Before we headed to Fort Benning that Sunday, we had plenty of time to brag, boast and make friendly wagers on who was going to out shoot who.

“Every Marine A Rifleman.” It was motivating for us “Support” Marines to get back to the basics of The Corps. Our Iconic Hero, Dan Daly opened fire on the enemy at Belleau Wood from 700 yards. Our marksmanship is legendary.

My civilian friends have a hard time believing that we can easily hit a target 500 yards away. (How much punch is actually left in a 5.56 round is another argument.) At that distance the front site post of our weapon can totally obscure the target.

Once on the Known Distance course we settled into the serious business of relearning our deadly lessons. Yes the weather was hot. It was humid and the only piece of shade was the under the range tower. There was two of our Beloved Corpsmen standing by and on the look out if any of us showed signs of heat stress.

But that didn’t matter anymore. We all heard the call from the tower, “Shooters, with a magazine and one round, assume a good prone position! All ready on the right...all ready on the left. All ready on the firing line! Shooters you may commence firing!”

That’s all we needed to hear.

From that moment on there was no more heat and discomfort. There is only the shot. It is one of life’s perfect moments. No flies or mosquitoes. Any woman troubles or job stress just did not exist anymore. Just the shot existed.

Our Primary Marksmanship Instructors have taught us from Day 1, “Focus your shooting eye on the front site post.” Natural body alignment is another invaluable tip. Your whole body does the shooting. When you are on target, close both eyes and take a breath. If your body alignment is perfect, you should still be on target when you open your eye.

Let half the breath out. Ever so slowly, squeeze the trigger. So slowly that you should not even know when the firing pin will strike.

Pow! There is a faint metallic clang as the buffer spring absorbs most of the recoil. Down range you can see the target being pulled down. The crew in the target area heard that distinctive crack. They search for the bullet hole, mark it with a three-inch spotter circle, and send the target back up.

Perfect! A white spotter circle shows that you hit the black. Part of you is very pleased, and the mechanical part is dutifully marking the shot in your rifle data book. Bulls-eye, five points.

190 or more points are needed to qualify as Marksman. But no one wants to wear the Marksman Badge, aptly nicked named the “Toilet Bowl”. 210 or more points and you can wear the Sharpshooters Badge. 220 or more points and you can wear the coveted crossed rifles and laurel of the Expert Badge.

Just the smell of gunpowder takes me back to that time and place. Under that hot Georgia sun you can see us all intensely focused. All of us lost in that one perfect moment of the shot.