Kentucky Derby Museum trophies

A couple of weeks ago, I went with Jonathan on his Herald-Leader assignment to Churchill Downs where they were relocating all of the trophies from the main floor exhibit cases in the Kentucky Derby Musem to a vault at Churchill Downs. I took my camera along so that I could get some non-Army shooting in. I took some shots, but I was also trying my best not to get in neither Jonathan’s nor the tv station videographers’ way since I wasn’t shooting it for an assignment. It was a fun day, thanks Palmer!

Trophies were removed from the Derby Museum in order to protect them during cleanup following the recent flood in Louisville.

Derby Museum workers relocated a variety of trophies from the museum to a vault inside Churchill Downs.

Exhibits coordinator Brenda Kiefer removes trophies from their case in the museum so that they can be transferred to a vault in Churchill Downs.

Graduation

1/46th Infantry Delta Co. cadets graduate from the Leaders Training Course.

LTC Commander Col. Jay Dymek addresses the cadets during the graduation ceremony.

Family Day

On a rainy Wednesday, the day before graduation, cadets are reunited with their family members.

Worship Service and Barracks

Cadet Hank DeMott says goodbye to chaplain candidate Lt. Momo.

SSG Mark Taylor oversees mail delivery in the barracks.

MOUT

Similar to the STX lanes, cadets planned and executed attacks on MOUT cadre in the fictional town of Karjackistan, set up to resemble Iraq and Afghanistan. My favorite lane to shoot, by far, was the marketplace. Here, cadre dressed up as citizens selling their goods in the marketplace. The cadets’ objective was to find their target and obtain information from him. It was a challenge because the citizens kept distracting them, and then a sniper from one of the buildings opened fire on them. This caused some of the squads to get distracted and so caught up on killing the sniper that they forgot their objective, and then ended up with a large number of casualties that they had trouble getting out of the field.

The marketplace station was definitely the most involved. In the other stations, the cadets would attack either a building or a road and either find the enemy firing back or a resident who may or may not be armed with a bomb. It was an exciting day, for me and the cadets.

Photos are property of the U.S. Army PAO and Kristin Sherrard.

STX

Cadets took their combat skills to the woods where they planned and executed attacks with paintball guns against the STX lane cadre.

Photos are property of the U.S. Army PAO and Kristin Sherrard.

PT Test

The biggest thing I learned from the PT Test: Times change.

The test was scheduled to start at 5:30, but at a different location rather than the drill pad. So, I decided that I would get there when the cadets woke up to make sure I didn’t miss them. I got to the barracks around 4:45… and found out that the test had been moved back to 6:30. Awesome.

Anyway, I’m glad that I went and shot the test at the later time because there was obviously more light than the first 3 or 4 times I came out.

Photos are property of the U.S. Army PAO and Kristin Sherrard.

Squad Tactics

Squad tactics was one of the more exciting things to shoot. Cadets began the day learning how to high and low crawl in the dirt. While it would have been awesome for there to have been a huge mud pit instead of the dry dirt, that may have meant I would have had to deal with the rain and keeping my camera dry… Solution: I really, really need to get a good bag to put over my camera so then I won’t have to worry about it!

Afterward, the cadets were able to apply what they had just learned, as well as how to “cover and move” with a battle buddy. The cadets covered and moved throughout the course, hiding behind various trees, logs, and rocks. They also had to climb over a couple small walls and crawl underneath some wires.

Not only was it fun to shoot, but also fun to watch. “I’m up, they see me, I’m down” was yelled constantly by the drill sergeants who stalked the grounds, trying to keep the cadets moving and covered. It amazed me the number of times there would be a whole cluster of cadets who would all attempt to hide behind the same log. Seriously? It was extremely frustrating for some when they would be low crawling (which basically means lying flat on the ground and moving your leg up slightly to move yourself head first in the direction you want to go) to cover and to have it stolen by one of their fellow cadets! Definitely a fun experience.

Photos are property of the U.S. Army PAO and Kristin Sherrard.

Obstacle Course

Photos are property of the U.S. Army PAO and Kristin Sherrard.

Basic Rifle Marksmanship

Cadets take what they learn in the classroom and apply it to the gun range. For BRM 4&5, the cadets must learn how to group and zero before moving on to BRM 11&12. Here, cadets must hit a number of targets in order to qualify.

This was a little frustrating to shoot because it was hard to get faces. Why? Because I couldn’t stand in front of them while they were shooting (obviously), and from the side, it was either covered up by the M-16 or by their battle buddy who was supposed to be watching their breathing and trigger squeeze.

However, one thing that I will always remember is that MSG Painter let me shoot one of the M-16s, and I actually did pretty well grouping. I wanted to shoot the moving targets as well, but they ran out of ammo

Photos are property of the U.S. Army PAO and Kristin Sherrard.