Every American military unit stationed in Germany has a partner unit in the German Bundeswehr. The 504th Signal Company would often do things with our partner unit like attend each others change of command ceremonies, welcome home ceremonies, and every so often we'd just get together and shoot each others weapons. This is one such even which took place July 3, 1993 at the German Army Infantry School in Hammelburg, Germany. I wasn't into taking tons of pictures at this point in my military career, so I don't have many, but enough to remind me of that day and the fun we all had.
Here we are getting some quick instruction and a bit of familiarization
with the MG-2 before we would go up to the firing line a little later.
I'm the skinny guy with the stupid grin and birth control glasses. :-)
A close up of the MG-2. This is the best picture out of the 10 or so
I took that day which shows the machine gun up close. That's PFC
Alexander squatting down listening to the German soldier talk.
A picture of the target we'd be firing at with the
machine gun and later on in the day the pistol.
Checking out the G-3 rifle.
More instruction on the MG-2. We'd need it later. :-)
The range we fired the MG-2 at. I liked how the Germans ran their
ranges. None of the usual safety stuff which made American military
ranges take all day long. A little common sense goes a long way!
Getting ready to get another 2 troops on the MG-2's. The German's would
reload each link after every firing with a neat little reloading machine.
It's me doing what I was usually doing... taking pictures. Man, I was
young back then, only 22! Look at that hair, wish I had it that thick
these days. *sigh* I did have a really good picture of me in that
same pose without the camera, but my German ex-girlfriend took it.
The award I received for that day. I didn't even know we were shooting
for points or else I might have tried harder! I thought the ceremony was
simply a thanks and such from each of our units for getting together that
day and shooting weapons. I got called up, and received my award for 3rd
place out of the 75 or so US soldiers who were there from my unit. :-)
This is the award I received almost 5 years later when the unit I was
assigned to, 121st Signal Battalion, actually did do the Schuetzenschnur.
I didn't take a camera along on that day and so wish I had done so now.
Your best bet is to *always* have a camera even a disposable one on you
when you're in the military. You never know when you might come upon
something you'll want to take pictures of to remember later on.
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