Good evening All, and welcome to your El Paso, Texas, After Action Report for July, 2023! I'm your host, Mrs. Smith, and joining me are your El Paso instructor cadre: Mr. Smith, Carlos, YoungPatriot, Beavertail, and LoanerRifle.
Ten fine folks joined us for a weekend of Liberty, Marksmanship, and History at the El Paso Community College Law Enforcement Training Academy's indoor range. Our deepest gratitude to Mr. Barry Bogle and the fantastic staff at the range for their years of support for Project Appleseed in El Paso. :bow: :bow: :bow:
Our participants included locals Marcia, Luis, Ellie, Mario, and Mandy, our visitors from New Mexico, Rick, Kira, and Rob, and the "You Came How Far??" recipients are Tony and Tony, father and son from Indiana.
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After introductions and the First Strike of the Match, YoungPatriot delivered our Safety Briefing and we brought rifles to the line.
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Our first Redcoat of the weekend had 4 brave souls taking the bayonet for the rest of us, and we got to work on our course of instruction.
Carlos (instructing) and Beavertail (modeling) showing 'em how it's done in Prone
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sling, 6 steps, NPOA, and Prone under our belts, and we got back on the line for some dry fire practice, divided into two blocks.
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Finally our first square! EVERY group was 8MOA or smaller. Clearly all that dry practice was paying off!
Lunchtime at last, and Carlos with the Second Strike of the Match set the tone for the afternoon. We continued with squares and instruction blocks, including Talking Targets and Inches, Minutes, and Clicks. YoungPatriot rounded out the Saturday history with a lively telling of the Third Strike of the Match. Huzzah! We introduced the concept of transitions, more positions, and at last our final Redcoat of Saturday. What a difference! NOBODY took the bayonet, THREE plugged Morgan's Shingle, and TWO Cleared the target. Rick and Kira were presented with Battle of Saratoga quarters for their fine fine shooting.
We bid our tired, but not exhausted, students a fine evening and sent them on their way until morning.
Sunday morning dawned bright and hot. El Paso is in the middle of its longest recorded streak of 100+ degree days, but we were fortunate and comfortable in the EPCC facility.
We welcomed everyone back, and Young Patriot told us the story of William Diamond to start off our day. Review of blocks of instruction from the day before commenced, then Carlos took everyone through a refresher of our safety briefing. Back to the range we went!
Redcoats.... Redcoats... After hearing the inspiring tale of Timothy Murphy at the Second Battle of Saratoga, we got to work. Results showed that some warming up was in order, so we got to work.
What better way to warm up than a nice cup of round of Ball and Dummy?
Mandy and Mario making some B&D magic
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Tony and Tony, and Luis and Rob making the most of this valuable diagnostic tool as well
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A square to confirm zero, then we were off and running on AQTs!
14 year old Kira decided to show us all how it's done by knocking out a 221 on her first AQT of the weekend, and her first Rifleman score ever!
She shot score on every AQT she did this weekend, with a personal best of 234 ^:)^
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Her dad, Rick, had scores ranging from 210 to 225, giving young Kira some serious bragging rights on her old man.
Tony and Tony worked hard and showed improvement all weekend, as did Marcia. None of them had ever handled a rifle before this event. Huzzah, I say! Huzzah! Marcia showed the most score improvement, gaining 75 points from first AQT to highest. The Tonys gained nearly 50 each.
We had some experience on the line, too. Rob, Mario, and Luis were all doing some really consistent good scores, though just a shade shy of the make for Rifleman. Improvement, though, by all, and Rob shot his personal best score. All of you just BANGING on the door for that patch!
And then there was Ellie. I can't forget Ellie! She hit a personal best, too, of 213! One Rifleman patch, coming up!!
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You might notice the hat on her head. What's that? Orange? That's right! In a banner weekend Project Appleseed was graced with, count 'em, FIVE NEW VOLUNTEERS!!!!!
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L-R
Moon Clip, Golden Child, LateByProxy, and Mario (soon as he has a forum account.... hint hint nudge)
Not Pictured: Two and Eight in Blue! He decided to join us after everything had been packed away, so we owe him a big fuss later :cool2:
Scattered throughout the day were the stories of Nancy Morgan Hart, Hezekiah Wyman, and more. We talked about fragile liberty, and our role in its growth. We talked about how the American Revolution is alive and well today, in OUR hearts and OUR minds.
Finally, the last Redcoat of the weekend. Here it is, for all the marbles.
FOUR students cleared the target, and ALL got three rounds in 200yd or better! Huzzah!!! More quarters have a new home!
On behalf of myself and the El Paso Team, it was our honor to dedicate our weekend to this fine group of folks. We look forward to doing it again soon!
:F
Huzzah.
I love to see all the new Orange Hats, especially on youth.
Orale! Da bueno.
A lot of positive energy from everyone in attendance. Very receptive to everything.