During my years as a Navy pilot, the closest anyone came to shooting me was on the small arms range—by a Navy nurse. The lesson learned that morning was again, never take anything for granted—especially safety.
In the process of getting ready to go to the fleet, all of the pilots in our class had to re-qualify with small arms. Our orders read to meet at the range at 0730.
On arrival, all was as we expected. The range was prepared; Smith & Wesson 38s were at each station with the cylinders empty and open. Next to each was a box of rounds. The chiefs and petty officers were not present, probably off drinking that last cup of coffee before having to get to work.
We A-7 pilots stood around doing what a bunch of pilots would normally do in such a situation: we were talking about shooting, flying, upcoming dets and assignments, and yakking more about flying. Then we all fell silent. Suddenly…
There she was. Kind of cute and clearly out of place—but she looked marvelous in her khakis—she filled out all the right places appropriately. Which elicited the common remarks from all of us and one question: “What is she doing here?”
“I didn’t know nurses needed to know how to shoot,” someone said. “I thought they were supposed to repair the bullet holes, not create them.”
As we stood around waiting, it was soon evident our lone nurse had just enough knowledge about revolvers and none about range procedures or safety. And she was either impatient or bored, maybe a little of both.
The next thing we pilots knew, she had taken a weapon, dropped in six rounds, closed the cylinder, cocked it, and then swept the line of us. With the weapon held and aimed about mid-gut level.
I have never seen a bunch of pilots disappear so quickly. We worked together to disarm the nurse, then we unloaded the weapon, placing it back on the bench properly with the cylinder again empty and open.
All accomplished—before the senior chief and his petty officers came on scene to see what was happening. I always wondered if he had seen everything from afar, and never mentioned it.
Later at the O’ Club, there was much laughter and jokes about the danger on the range. “At least we would have had medical personnel on scene immediately,” someone joked.
As I hit the rack that evening, once again I thought of the importance of safety procedures and how they apply to many more facets in our lives other than just flying.
More than anything, I was glad our nurse had shot no one.
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© 2010 J. Clark
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