COSMO | Adventure - Camp Beauregard

“You feel out of your element because your element isn’t the the same anymore.” - Probably some of the most profound words I heard this past weekend during my first drill back in LA. We spent it in the field doing several training exercises but I was super excited once I found out my group was spending the day at the M4 range. Though I didn’t get a chance to shoot, I acted as on of 3 “safeties” for the soldiers who were set to qualify on their weapons that day. A safety’s main mission is to make sure there aren’t any problems or malfunctions while on the shooting line, and to communicate with the tower (where all the commands are coming from).

IT WAS HOT! Like ridiculously hot, but we were allowed a good bit of down time to stay cool and hydrated. In the last picture below, you can see me sitting in the driver’s seat of the medic truck. Nope, I’m not a medic, but I was the first to come to the aid of one of my battle buddies that fell ill due to the heat. The scene was intense. We were just getting ready to start the next firing iteration when all of a sudden we heard “Hey, we need a safety RIGHT NOW!” I didn’t hesitate. I ran to where they pointed me and then I heard “Drive! Now! We need to get her out of here!” So I hopped in a boy did I drive! My quick moving and thinking got her off the range and into the hands of the medic staff that helped to get her stable and transported to the hospital. It didn’t seem like a big deal at the moment, but when I got back to the range, everyone was telling me how proud of me they were and how well I did at reacting to quickly and being willing to step up.