Military weapons and numerology, the lessons of waking up at 5:56 am
Just as I do every morning, this morning I rolled over and glanced at the alarm clock. The digital face read 5:56 am. Four minutes to six. No special meaning, unless you’re a veteran or a gun enthusiast.
The numbers 5.56 happen to be the size of the military’s combat rifle weapon system in millimeters. The round dates back to the Viet Nam War and the M-16 rifle. There have been multiple offshoots of the weapon since and countless civilian versions, all firing the same round.
My gun enthusiast friends tell me 5.56 ammunition is virtually impossible to buy. That and other popular bullets. It seems lots of folks are stockpiling it. Or perhaps manufacturers are deliberately curtailing production so they can raise prices, which my friends also tell me has happened.
I don’t pay much attention to ammo prices. I haven’t had a need to buy any lately. I haven’t gone pheasant hunting, or goose hunting, or rabbit hunting in over a decade now. Although I love properly cooked game and grew up on the plains, hills and hollows of rural Illinois hunting with my dad, I just don’t care to kill small animals anymore. I’m not real trusting of other hunters anymore either. And certainly not since former vice-president Dick Cheney shot a fellow quail hunter in the face with a shotgun.
Although I spent over thirty-five years in the American military, the last eighteen or so I seldom fired one of the 5.56 variants. Once I got promoted to lieutenant colonel, my issue weapon was the M9 Beretta nine-millimeter pistol. Even in Afghanistan I carried the nine-millimeter. None of us old guys cared for the Beretta. We much preferred the ancient but reliable M1911 Colt .45 caliber. It fired a much heavier round with more stopping power.
The 1911 was adopted for use by the US Army in, oddly enough, 1911 and was the standard issue pistol until 1985. The Colt I carried as a young officer was manufactured in the 1943 and, I’m sure, had fired far more rounds during its then forty years of service, than most soldiers would fire in a career. After firing the first few rounds with it, I grasped that one needed to aim it about two feet over the target to score a hit. After learning that lesson, firing expert seemed natural.
Awakening at 5:56 am this morning seemed natural after dreaming that I was re-entering the military. Although standing there in civilian clothes, the supply sergeant handed me equipment and weapons to go to the field. It’s probably all the news stories about US and NATO military supplies flowing to Ukraine, US soldiers deploying to Europe and Ukrainian civilians undergoing military training in preparation for war with Russia that brought on the dream.
Logical explanation, but why awaken at 5:56 and not 5:55 or 5:57? Odd how those seemingly random numbers pop up at the most unusual times. Every now and then my wife and I will be discussing a family related matter, she’ll glance at the time and it will read 7:04. She says: “Thank you, Mimi.” Mimi is our younger son’s nickname for his maternal grandmother. Her home address from 1940 until she passed away in 2006 was 704. It jars me everytime it happens. Likely just a coincidence.
Just to start a spirited discussion among old veterans everywhere, I much preferred the M24 Remington 7.62 millimeter sniper rifle to the 5.56, but they’re different weapons for different purposes. The non-NATO designation for the Remington round is .308 caliber. The day I retired from the military to run for Congress, the US Post Office issued me PO Box 308 for my campaign committee.
In 1969 my draft card number got replaced by an Air Force serial number. What are the odds of that eight-digit number popping up again? If it does, I just may take up numerology.
© William L. Enyart 2022
www.billenyart.com Email: bill@billenyart.com
Audio production by Tom Calhoun at www.paguytom.com