Report by Mike Jones

Saturday we held the kickoff activity of the Pistol program. We had to do this at R117 due to a USMC Reserve Unit training on R213/214, so we flexed and made the most of it. Thanks to Howard and Randy for their support with Medic duties. Thanks to Walter Lange for picking up the pieces and getting the pistol program up and running. Walter and I were sharing a target in alternate relays, it took some abuse during the activity.

This was a pistols skills clinic that was used to emphasize/develop Pistol Marksmanship skills. The lead instructor was Harry Harrison – MGySgt USMCR (ret), Senior Officer FVPD (ret), and Swat Team Member.

In this we started by working on trigger/sight control by shooting supported off the benches, then advanced to shooting 2 handed and single handed. All to emphasize trigger control and sight alignment.

The second portion was to learn and then start to slowly execute “pistol draw”. This advanced to draw and fire activity. In one of the pictures you can see our step wise draw under Harry’s cadence, in another, our “junior” Catalina is working on the movements behind her father.

Overall a great day at the range!

Also we had a great show during a Cease Fire of HMLA 369’s Family Day with the Cobra and Huey gunships doing low altitude flyovers and gunnery demonstrations. You dont get to see that on most ranges!