Battalion's Birthday Celebration

Okay so today was Jeremy's Battalion (69 Armor) 69th Birthday. So to celebrate the day they did a family day with live firing. It was boring just because it was not plan out to well. I got the email and it explain family day with family chances to shoot, vehicles rides, kids activities and so much more. Sounds good, but half of that was not there. Okay so I had to be at the battalion at 0800 (haha 8:00 am) to catch the bus since it was out on the actual range so the tanks can fire. So Jeremy was told last night that he could not ride with me on the bus, so i kinda did not want to go alone but all well. Anyways Jeremy had to be there the same time as me so we parked by the battalion but there was no one there, so I walked with J over to his company. Yeah there were family members standing around with their soldier so that was good. That is when Jeremy found out that if you do have family then you have to ride the bus with them....so YAY! So anyways the buses did not leave till about 8:40am so it was alot of sitting around, boring! So when we get there after about a 30 minute ride on a buses. Now, that bought back the memories!!
So we got there and walked around for awhile. They had all the vehicles that are use in this battalion on display. The kids can climb in them and all that fun stuff. Jeremy's M88 was out there, he had to drive it out there the day before. There is a picture below of that. Anyways, so they announced that they were going to start the program soon and for everyone to come and have a seat on the benches. So of course we did, 30 minutes later the show never started. I was debating getting up and walking around because it was noon and the sun was straight above with hardly any clouds and there were NO shade at this range at all. People were sitting under the benches just trying to get some shade. The Bradley and Abram practice shooting but it was so boring sitting there. Then the guy (sorry don't remember the rank and name) came out and said "We will be starting in 5 minutes". HAHA! After another 15 minutes he comes back and says, "We will be starting in 2 minutes". At this point I looked at Jeremy and ask him jokey, "Army does alot of things different, are minutes longer then 60 seconds?". Finally the show started, it was cool. They even cut the cake with the sword. Again it was cool. Then they had the food I was expecting just normal hamburgers and hot dogs but they had that plus ribs and chicken and it was good!! Then they let family shoot the guns but I did not do it there was a long line and my ears were already hurting cause I did not put in my ear plugs during the show so I did not want to shot anything.
So anyways here is some cool army things!

Bradley doing donuts! I thought it was cool to see tanks doing donuts!

These are Snipers in there Gorilla Suites. There really worked!
They laid down in that field and I could not see them at all.

This is a Bradley shooting.

Here is an A1 Abram going though the mud!

This is Jeremy's M88. I can't believe he actually drives this thing!
It is basically a tow truck.
No, he is not in the picture, he was with me
so it is his SGT and the other recover guys showing the kids the vehicle.

Now here are the videos:
Warning they get kinda loud but picture what I went though...LOL!
Also, epically on the first one sorry about the shaking but every time it shoot I could not help but jump no matter how hard I tried not too.. LOL!

1st) This is the Abram (A1) shooting stand still. This one is really loud cause we are so close!
You hear Jeremy say it but notice you see the flame before you hear the bloom. Also, I tried to let you see how far it shoots on the last shot but could not see.


2nd) This is a video of the Abram in offense position. That means it is shooting while not stopping.


3rd) This video was cut short because my camera batteries died but here is what is going on. The snipers killed their target and was leaving the area so they set off a smoke bomb (the purple smoke) so they would not be seen while leaving and then the Bradley comes up to take over. They use the smoke to hide as they get out of the Bradley. What is going on is there is another Bradley on the left (you cant see) and then about 10 gunners in between. The two Bradley go up and shot when it is clear the gunners jump out and make a line in between them and shot then when clear they move up another 100 feet or so with the Bradley next to them. Kinda cool I wished I would have gotten it all on tape! Sorry!