Editor-in-Camo vs. The M2

This weekend's National Guard duty handed me a new challenge: the M2 .50 caliber machine gun. Or, as I like to call it, "the gun that grows you chest hair on contact."

Seriously, this thing isn't so much a weapon as it is a personality test. The second you touch it, you're expected to sprout a beard, start driving a lifted truck, and casually refer to deer season as "harvest."

Clearly, the M2 was not designed with women - or anyone under 200 pounds - in mind.

The first lesson? Keep your fingers far, far away from the chamber and bolt carrier. One of my peers nearly learned this the hard way, a...