Right Between the Eyes

I've been TAD (temporarily assigned duty) this week on-board for the "Between the Life-Lines" class, held by MA1 (Master at Arms - Navy police). It's an introductory course for new check-ins on important stuff we need to know for standing sentry duty. We had lots of power-points, but they were all explained pretty well. I was the one hitting the button for the next slide. :) It was today that was the big event: getting one stream of OC (military grade) pepper spray across the forehead/eyes. Tomorrow we'll take a written test (thank goodness!) and then we'll be certified that we know what it's like to get some of that stuff in our eyes.

We had over a dozen getting sprayed today, so I was very thankful I was second in line. I didn't want to wait around watching other people writhe in pain, so I was front and center when we got started. This demonstration wasn't too bad really; they let us close our eyes and hold our breath when the stream came in (from about 4 feet away). This takes away the potentially dangerous effects... I wouldn't want to be that guy who tries to do anything to antagonize a watch-stander.

Some people said they didn't start feeling the effects until the 4th or 5th event we had to complete after getting sprayed. I wasn't so lucky... I took it right on my eyebrows, and it hurt instantly when I opened my eyes; I could barely see during the first event. I kept going though, hitting everything I could with the foam practice baton, until they said stop. Then we went over to the side of the gym and I was told to hold a stream of water from a hose over my forehead as I leaned forward and looked down. Once that stopped, it really started hurting. But that only really hurt for 15 minutes or so. I helped a couple others lending my dry washcloth for dabbing. If you rub your eyes or swipe with the cloth, the tiny OC crystals will make lacerations in the skin, making it hurt more. So I was very careful about that.

It felt like it would never stop... but it did. We had to wait 2 hours after the last person finished, and I'm glad. It took just about that long for my left eye to really open up and stop bugging me. I read a few chapters in Black Beauty as we were waiting. Lots of people chatted about the experience. The guy next to me said it was like bacon sizzling in his eyes, even before he opened them. lol!

Once we were let go, I headed over to the NEX to get baby shampoo (on recommendation), then took my shower at the base gym. I let water fall all over my face and head (leaning into it) for a long time. It did re-flash, but with an extremely milder reaction. Our instructors knew what they were doing when they told us how to clean up. For some odd reason, the only other part of my body that flared up when cleaning up was a couple of my fingers on my left hand. Must have contacted it somehow.

I'm glad my duty day was yesterday. It was pretty low key, with a short drill, some training, some sweepers, and then lots of time for me to finish my NKO weapons courses and do my laundry. The only problem was the bad timing for getting my period just the day before. Oh, well.