I had an experience recently that demonstrated the fleeting nature of celebrity.  We spent the day at the rifle range on Thursday going through a practice qualification shooting exercise.  It consisted of engaging targets placed from 50 to 300 meters out that would pop up for 3 to 6 seconds before falling.  If we hit them they would drop sooner.  Sometimes two targets would appear at the same time and we would need to drop the closer and then the farther one.  Makes sense, doesn't it?  A bad guy at 300 meters isn't generally as much of a threat as a bad guy at 150 meters.  And if we didn't hit the closer target with our first shot we were instructed to fire at it again.  The thinking being that if we can't drop the closer target what makes us think we should be firing at the farther one?

We were given 40 rounds of ammunition to engage the 40 targets that would appear.  We fired from three positions and both with full body armor and "slick", or wearing no body armor.  40 is the highest possible score.  We went through the course 4 times.  I got a 25, 35, 35 and 37.  The instructor running the exercise would call out the scores on the PA system for each firing lane after each evolution and when he got to mine, he said, "Congratulations Expert on Lane 11, with a score of 37."  Turns out 37 was the high for the whole training Company of about 120 people.  A score of 36 or greater qualifies one as an "Expert" marksman.  Most scores were between 10 and 30 with the average probably at about 18. 

Word started to spread up and down the line.  "Who is that on Lane 11?"  "Who got the 37?"  Later somebody in a group would say, "Hey, I got a 32," and someone else would respond, "Well Z got a 37."  "Who is Z?"  "You know, the quiet guy, Clark Kent."  (That's right, I have acquired a knickname.)  Soon people I didn't know were congratulating me and chatting me up.  The Drill Instructors were giddy that one of their green trainees shot so well; an obvious reflection of their training cababilities.  The DIs and other people started to call me "Killer".  Besides all the accolades, I was just pleased to have "won" the event.  Now the pressure set in.  I had a title to defend.

Friday we shot the qualifying course for real.  Everybody was curious to know if I was going to shoot a perfect 40.  Well, I was certainly determined to and I told them I'd do my best.  Running through the course twice I got a 24 and a 34.  I couldn't believe it.  That day at least a dozen people shot better than I did and there were even a few who shot 40s.  After the event a lot of people asked me how I did with great expectation in their eyes, and when I told them they looked really disappointed and then moved on to find the new "Experts".  So I stood by moping while other guys got to be called "Killer" and got slapped on the back by strangers who congratulated them.  Yesterday's 37 didn't hold much currency anymore.

Despite the big disappointment of my score I did accomplish something that should go down in Camp McCrady lore.  At one point during the exercise the 150 and 250 meter targets would come up at the same time.  While I was watching the person before me go through the course I noticed that if you were positioned in the right place in the shooting pit those two targets were right in line with each other.  An idea started to form. 

When my time came I set up at the very left side of the 12 ft wide firing pit.  I had made note of the order the targets would appear and when the 150 and 250 came up I lined up on the left shoulder of Mr. 150 and squeezed the trigger.  Both targets fell at the same time!  When I was finished firing I told the Drill Instructor on my lane and he said he had seen that done only once before.  I told him I'd try to do it during the second evolution.  As I settled in he started to gather a group of witnesses behind my position.  Again the 150 and 250 came up, I squeezed the trigger and both targets fell with the single shot.  I heard the whoop behind me while I zeroed in on the next target and finished the exercise.  Drill Instructor McGill radioed the range tower and other DIs to tell them he just had two 2 for 1 target kills on lane 15.

I never attained the glory status of the 40 shooters of that day and my stunt wasn't as well publicized as I secretly hope it would have been.  But I walked off the range knowing that years from now Drill Instructor McGill would be able to say that in one of his prior classes he had a sailor shoot two targets with one bullet; twice!  I'm okay with that.