ATEC

This week was my battalion's ATEC evaluation, in it my detachment was being evaluated for rappelling. I was being evaluated personally on a weapon called the AGL (Automatic Grenade Launcher) with my detachment mate Hon. Although this week was relatively simple, the weeks before was not good. I have stripped, assembled analyzed and memorized the IA drills of more weapons than I can count, and rappelled off the airborne tower more times than what normal people would consider sane. But rappelling is one thing, rappelling in full battle order with an almost 9kg MG (Machine Gun) is quite another.

In my fiddling around with the weapons and finding out how those weapons work, I am amazed at how good we got at building stuff that kills other people so well. Fighting wars has drove us to push the limits of design and technology, in fact many things we use in everyday life was first developed intended for military use.

And as for the weapons that kill people so well, they will continue to kill people well and the new ones that will be developed will continue to kill people more efficiently. If only we could find those design talents responsible for designing those weapons and ask them to make things that help people instead of kill them the world would be a better place. Naive? Of course! But a guy can dream can he?