Last weekend, I packed my bags, reported into camp and along with around 120 other people, went to the shooting range in Jugrah for a whole weekend's worth of shooting competitions and practise. A little background here first and foremost, I'm in the Reserves for the Malaysian Army, so I have trainings and drills every first and third weekend of the month. Luckily, this weekend's training coincided perfectly with the one week break. I was really looking forward to it, as it would be the first time I actually get to fire live rounds on an M16 assault rifle.
We left for the shooting range in Jugrah from the Sg.Buloh Camp at 0700 hours, reaching the range only 2 hours later. The journey there was quite an experience, with around 20 fellow soldiers seated around you in the three-tonne truck, wind, sand, and even droplets of rain flying into your eyes the whole way. Upon reaching the Jugrah shooting range, we exited the truck and lined up to report in for the day.
Each of us have our own personal M16 assault rifle, which no one else can use besides us. As it was my first time shooting, I had to zero my weapon on the first practise session, to make sure the crosshair is synchronised with where the bullet hits after it leaves the weapon. Adrenaline kept everyone going for quite a while, ignoring the scorching hot sun and the severe lack of hydration. After lunch though, it was quite clear that the weather and dehydration were taking its toll on us. Everyone seemed a little less hyped up and were just trying to reserve our energy for the next shooting practice.
The first day went well, all in all I got a score of 108, with 37 of my 40 rounds hitting the target from 100 meters out. Not to brag, but that was the one of the best records for a first time shooter ever, I checked! I was elated, and went to sleep that night with a wide grin on my face.
The next day, the battalion chose the top 20 shooters from the practise session to go against the officers and trainers in a falling plate competition. The objective was to hit a metal plate no bigger than half the size of a laptop screen, from 200 meters out. As the names were called, mine suddenly popped out. I was in shock, ME? Top 20 shooters, out of around 120 people, most of whom have been shooting before? It took a while to settle in, I really didn't expect that.
There were four of us in each team, us going against the officers and regulars of the Malaysian Army who have been shooting for 30+ years. As the announcer asked my team to step out onto the range, I saw the team captain for our opposing team and my heart just stopped for a second.
"YOU?!" he said.
"Oh my god, I'm against YOU?!" I replied.
It was my father, who is coincidently the Commanding Officer of our battalion, and his team consisted of the top shooters in the whole battalion. What a way to go out, losing out to them on the first round seemed to be written in stone. While we were lining up against our targets, everyone started screaming out my name, urging me to beat my father's team. I was overwhelmed, but still, I didn't let the pressure get to me. 10 minutes later, I was still in shock. My team had beaten my father's team, the clear favourites! It was the upset of the whole competition, the favourite team going out in the first round to a team of newcomers.
As we were setting the weapons aside, my dad came up to me with a sly grin and congratulated me, saying it was in the blood. I laughed it off, I was still pretty sure he threw the match for me, but I'll never know I guess. We went on to lose in the semi-finals to the eventual champion's, but it was a good run for us. All in all, I was happy with what we achieved, being new to the challenge. Hopefully next year, I'll meet my father's team in the finals, and hopefully this time, he'll play fair. But then again, if we do beat him, he'd never hear the end of it!
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