Friday, October 30, 2009

Artillery School Starts Sunday

The excitement has been building for weeks now (at least for me) and I'm at the point now where I just want Sunday to get here as quickly as possible. Yes, I know Halloween is tomorrow and it is my wife's favorite holiday, but I have an artillery school coming up! NC Historic Sites holds its historic artillery training and certification class every four years, in compliance with our Historic Weapons Program guidelines. I've taken the class twice, but this is the first artillery class that I have coordinated and will be the first full class that I've instructed. I have instructed a few refresher courses, but never a full blown class. This time around we have 33 students and 10 instructors in the class. It will be held at Fort Fisher State Historic Site in Kure Beach, NC. What separates the full class from the refresher courses is that the full class includes a live fire exercise on the artillery range at Camp Lejeune, the largest Marine Corps base on the east coast. Anytime you get to send real cannonballs downrange, it is a great experience! I will certainly post a report of the training and photos as soon as I get a chance. But, until Sunday arrives I plan to watch some sports, drink some Oktoberfest beer, and pass out candy to the neighborhood ghouls and goblins. The real fun starts once Halloween is over.

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