When I was young, my father who fought in the Belgiumicon Bulge, taught me marksmanship along with the caring and feeding of the 1911A1. One of the tasks I was assigned was to practice field stripping in the dark since, according to "Murphy's Law, if one would have a lockup, it would be in the dark.

To reassemble after stripping, he taught me to hold the slide back while inserting the slide stop pin through the frame, (learning in the process how to make sure the barrel link was captured). Next pressing the "catch" end against the finger relief cutout, sliding it up the frame, holding force against the frame until the catch end hit the slide (thus making more pronounced the scratch), then releasing the slide slowly until the catch slipped into the slide stop notch, and through the frame. Once assembled, I was instructed to rack the slide insuring the process was successful.

When I finally could field strip and reassemble in less than one minute, blindfolded, he credited me with being "proficient" in that phase of my training.

I am somewhat surprised that I have not heard this story from anyone else, even though I grew up thinking all the soldiers sat around in the barracks, before sack time, practicing (and enjoying it as much as I did.

My father is now 88 and was able, with much assistance from my brother, to make the Honor Flight to the WWII monument. Since they arrived during the government shutdown, he was able to add another "war story" to his repertoire.