In the Great NorthWest, Doug and Helen hosted the Washington State Appleseed Patriot Day celebration - too many words but in honor of those that paid the price of Liberty on April 19th, 1775 or the Marine in Afghanistan 2012 we took time to tell stories and fire a volley in honor of them as we taught marksmanship and heritage.
Reputation proceeds me, and you do know how difficult it is to live UP to the tales of how wonderful you are, don't you? There were so many people at the dry farm in Bickleton, WA that I remembered from years and many Appleseeds ago. I was welcomed in the dark on Friday night then walked towards the parking lot to find a space to park and go to sleep, driving four and a half hours makes me tired. I was startled by an energetic teenager jumping out at me in the darkness, he was happy to see me, and after I slowed my heart back down I was glad to see him, but his voice is deeper and he has another inch in height. His sister finds us and then the rest of the family and other instructors show, the host worries about my sleeping arrangements and offers a cot (how many years did I sleep on cots - many, many). I would sleep in my Caravan and breakfast in the morning. Coffee coming from all directions - many thanks!
As we set up the target line and started preparing for the first day of the shoot, there were lots of helping hands with more driving in or coming up from the camping site. By eight the registration table and assignments were set up. It wasn't very long before we were starting the introductions and safety briefing, preparing to bring rifles to the line. I helped instruct and gave my sage advice to the other instructors and the shooters. Way too much advice but it was what I had to offer.
As with most Appleseeds, there were many shooters with family and friends, many repeat Appleseeders (some of which had already made Rifleman) and many shooters that had never fired their rifle very much before this first day. Instructions were many, points of instruction often hidden inside of lots of padding and missed. I remembered my first Appleseed, and I can't recall ever being taught Natural Point of Aim (although it must have been part of the instruction) just I missed it for worry about my rifle or lack of focus. There were a lot of Red Hat instructors and the lines were safe and tips and reinforcement and coaching constant. I concentrated some of my efforts with Mike and his Mosin, liked his attitude and how vigorously he worked at learning that fine old firearm. We did get one AQT done on the first day in the blazing Sun and steady whirl of the big blades of the wind farm (do you have any idea of how much noise they make?) After closing for the first day and cleaning the line of brass and getting most everything packed up for Sunday, the Shoot Boss had the instructor meeting and we talked about what went well, could use some improvement, and suggestions for making it smoother in the morning.
I had noted the beauty of the night sky as I started to go to sleep Friday night, almost wishing I had a moonroof on the Caravan, but not enough to cut one out. On my second night I watched the stars come out in the Heavens above my head, then looked at the horizon and noted there were a lots of red blinking fallen stars circling our position - those whirling wind mills continue into the darkness - cutting the air to produce tornado and hurricanes in our future. I sleep deep and hard until almost daybreak, when I would have a library dream, my supervisor cut my access to the internet and I left a yellow sticky saying something about how I would tell him I quit but I no longer had email. Woke up to a fine Sunrise, and Cinnamon Rolls made by Helen our hostess. I unwound about three in the morning savoring them slowly. The field sermon was fine and we prepared to have another great day of Appleseed. My coffee came from Nick (French Press) and Joni, perked perfectly and enough because the remainder of the day was to drink water to stay ahead of dehydration.
The firing line got set up, shooters organized, rifles brought to the line, and reviews of yesterday's materials starting with safety, then the particulars of marksmanship as we checked the first Red Coat and then sighting squares. I became the coach of a boy named Austin, and he had a lever action with open sights and no sling. But he was paying attention and worked with me to become better. When he had troubles, shooting his father's target or shooting during preparation time, he got very upset with himself and tearful. But I talked him through what had happened and how he was going to fix it so he didn't have those problems again that day. He was very eager to be better, to show his parents and friends what his targets looked like and ran to and down the target line. His father thanked me for my patience and coaching, later his mother did also and as I said he was a fine boy and it was what we did with the shooters - her eyes teared up a bit and made me uncomfortable (it wasn't a big deal helping shooters, nothing to cry about). This wasn't the first time I had run into ladies that got emotional about something about the way Appleseed worked.
I was worn out by the afternoon, and spent my time scoring AQTs for the shooters, finding out that I grade hard and that I can still make arithmetic errors - might as well, they can be filed with all my other types of errors. Over all shooting got better as the day went on, repeat Riflemen (Troy, Ty and others) and many shooters that were doing better than they had earlier - until the heat and the tire got to them. Travel time also cut into their day and they started departing a bit earlier than the last rounds on target. Still the last Red Coat targets were impressive and everyone reported to have had a great time. I read about Lexington from the British point of view from the book Fusiliers, the story of the 23rd Infantry, which would go from Lexington to Yorktown supplying officers and fighting in many of the major battles of the American Revolution.
A short Instructors' meeting and clean up of the range and packing up and out, the farewells take the longest and most of us know we will meet again on the trail, and are looking forward to those days. Appleseed and the Revolutionary War Veterans Association are worth my time and best efforts, hope it all comes together.
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