There goes week 12... and it sure took its sweet time to do it. This by far has been the most stressful week in Depot. From our midterm, to having files due, to learning our BOLF (be on the lookout for) driving zone. I am glad to see it go. Although from the looks of things and from what I have been told week 13 isn�t much better. Ok let's start with this week.
I have said it before but its hard to summarize the week into a page. Let's start with the mid term. That was stressing the whole troop out this week. We wrote on Thursday morning. It was a two hour test on everything that we have covered in the course so far. Mostly on the criminal code and Law. I went into it feeling nervous like everyone else. When I finally came out of it I felt good. I didn�t know my score but I figured that either I did well or that nothing that we had done in class had sunk in. The test ended at 10 o�clock and after the test we had firearms. Then we had lunch and then back to class. We didn�t find out our marks until 1 o�clock. We went to our facilitator's office in small groups to find out our marks. A pass is 60% a superior is anything over 80%. One by one we entered the office and closed the door. There was that minute of torturous silence as he searched the page for your name and mark. Finally he looked up at me and said congratulations you got a superior. I tell you there was a BIG weight lifted off my shoulders at that moment as I really realized that the stuff that they have been dishing out had actually sunk in. There were 5 people in our troop that received a superior and I was one of them. Officially I got 87.5% 2nd highest mark in the class. Not bad for a guy who �C+st� his way through highschool. Everyone in our troop did rather well.
Just to make life fun for us they decided this week to test our stress level as a troop. We had firearms on Wednesday and the midterm on Thursday which, as you read, was followed by firearms again. That meant that Wednesday night we would have to clean our pistols. Your gun has to be inspection ready for every firearms class. That takes anywhere from 45min to 1 � hours. Then Wednesday during APS we were given an assignment to do an oral presentation due on Friday. Hmmm lets see off at 4:30, eat dinner until 5:30, clean my gun until 6:30, get back to the room, get gear and work out till 7:30. Start finding info on oral assignment and put it together till 9:00. Oh ya, there is a midterm exam tomorrow study time. If you didn�t look at your notes before, you sure didn�t have time to do it Wednesday night. We went to bed early to get a good nights sleep for the exam.
Firearms this week (excuse the pun) was a blast. We got to work with the shotgun again. We first started with drills and then moved on to live rounds. First we were told to load five shots of �O� buck. That has a really nasty kick to it. First shot I was holding my gun a little sideways and when the gun went off I punched myself in the nose. My eyes started to water, it wasn�t fun. Luckily no one saw that. I re-adjusted my self for the next shot. I guess you only do that once. Some people have some nasty bruises on their shoulder from holding the gun wrong. I was glad when we finished the five shots of �O� buck. Then we moved to good old �00" buck. It has half the kick of �O� buck. Five shots of that. Then to shotgun slugs. We shot 5 shots 1 at 15m, 1 at 25m, 1 at 50m, 1 at 75m, and 1 at 100m. Amazingly I got all five slugs on target. Not bad for a shotgun with just a little bead site. Then we went to pistol. We learned all 5 stages of the course of fire. We were able to go through the stages and prepare for the benchmark shoot which is next week.
I was also one of the guys that got to take a crack at the F.A.T.S room in firearms this week. The F.A.T.S or Firearms Training System is like a big video game. You are in a room and given the basic details of a call. In front of you is a big screen. The room is darkened and you are given a gun which looks and acts like yours but has a laser in it. The scenario starts on the screen and you have to act like you are actually there. If the scene requires you to give verbal commands then you do so, if you feel threatened you pull out your laser pepper spray. If you feel that your life is in danger you pull your gun and you may have to fire. That is when they turn the computer off but the scenario doesn�t end there. You then have to pretend that you are in court. The Cpl will question you as to what happened, how many shots you fired, if you fired, and why. Were you justified in using lethal force? Were there any other people involved? What did the perp say? It's amazing the tunnel vision you get when put in a situation like that. It all happens so fast and is over in 10-15 seconds and then you spend 20 min trying to remember what you did and saw. When they replay the tape you see and hear things that you didn�t see the first time as well as you get to see if you even hit the suspect. It was a real eye opener.
This week also saw the return of Cormier court. That is where they bring in actors from the outside and give them a situation. Then you as the police officer have to go in and resolve the situation. Since our studies have revolved around domestic disputes lately that is what most of the scenarios were. They kicked it up a few notches from the last time we did it adding weapons, props and a few other surprises to keep us on our toes. While the two officers enter the scene the entire troop watches the whole thing unfold on the big screen in a near by trailer. Then when the officers get back your work is broken down and you were judged on your performance by your troop and by your facilitators. It�s a great learning tool. I wish we had more.
This next week is challenging to say the least. We have a firearms benchmark, our PDT test, our 3 mile timed run, our BOLF drive and we challenge for our blues in drill. That is where the drill instructor will test our knowledge of the RCMP, ranks, history etc etc. If we answer all the questions right we get to wear the pants with the long yellow stripe. If we get more that three wrong we have to stick with the plain blue McDonald�s pants for another month. I hope we do well.
Bring on week 13.... |
