Report from Iraq: #3
Category: War on Terror...
Posted Wednesday, March 02, 2005 at 11:03 AM [GMT-6]

I just heard from my bud, Sgt. Will, who is serving in Iraq (Charlie 3/112 Armor). Will reports that he now has a new daughter, born February 28 (Texas time). I've seen a photo and, boy, is she a cutie! I know that Will is aching to hold her, but thanks to the magic of this here interweb thing, he was able to "be present" via instant messaging during the delivery.

Will reports that things have been relatively quiet thus far, although his outfit's mission is about to change in a way that will make them, um, "more targetable." And, although his formal role is more administrative than combat-specific, he's been going out on occasional forays that put him in harm's way. Given that, he's been doing a little OTJ training with a Barrett .50cal sniper rifle. Below is a photo of one of his practice groupings.

Shot group from Barrett .50 cal sniper rifle; 350 meters

The pole in the picture was more than 350 meters distant, and he put three of ten into the tight pattern you see. Will tells me that the Barrett is spec'd for a 3 MOA shot group and while I don't know how to do the specific calculations, I'd have to agree with him that his group is pretty impressive.

If you've got room on your prayer list, please add Will and his family to it. I know he'll appreciate it.

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Comments

3MOA is 0.05 degrees.
That angle, carried out over 350 meters is
350m * tan(0.05), which is about 30.5cm.

If those holes are from a .50 cal (half-inch diameter) the top two look to be about 3.5 inches (9cm) apart. From 350 meters, that's one MOA accuracy. Wow.

I'm glad Sgt Will is on our side!

Please pass on to him a thank you for his service. Being so far away and in a dangerous place when his child is born ... I can only imagine how difficult that is.

Posted by: Brian (formerly bb) at March 3, 2005 02:59 PM

I'm glad Sgt Will is on our side!

Yeah, and he's not even a sniper!

Please pass on to him a thank you for his service.

You just did...he drops by here fairly regularly, to keep me honest if nothing else.

Posted by: Eric at March 3, 2005 03:03 PM

If you do find out where charlie co. is going, could you please let me know? SSG of mine doesn't ever tell me what's up.

Posted by: Shannon Randall at March 5, 2005 11:31 PM

Shannon, I'm pretty cautious about publishing everything Will tells me, as we might be surprised at who could be snooping around. In any event, he's not going to share anything that could be considered a military secret or strategically important, and I'm adding a layer of caution on top of that.

So, bottom line, this probably won't be the best place to look to discover the outfit's plans.

But thanks for stopping by anyway...feel free to come back!

Posted by: Eric at March 6, 2005 08:21 AM

Shannon, it also just occurred to me that you're joking...given that you might be serving alongside of Will. I'm just a little slow sometimes! ;-)

Posted by: Eric at March 6, 2005 08:24 AM
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