For some reason or other, when I was a senior in high school I joined the National Guard (Infantry). The roll taking routine was that all riflemen would shoulder their weapons and when their names were called go from right shoulder arms to order arms, the butt of the gun on the ground next to the right foot, the barrel held close to the right thigh. In order to get the gun off your shoulder in military fashion, you pull the butt sharply towards your hip so the barrel is thrown forward. As the weapon approaches the vertical, the rifleman twists his wrist so that the piece will fall neatly into the left hand. As soon as my name was called, in other words, I'd yell "Here, sir!" while making the weapon fly off my shoulder--at first, almost always striking my helmet liner (light-weight plastic-like helmet shaped head cover which fit snugly inside helmet). The M-1 would hit my helmet liner just as I yelled "Sir!" I would blink. I developed a conditioned reflex to blink every time I shouted, whatever I was doing, for many years afterwards. I haven't noticed it lately, but--I guess--even conditioned reflexes require reinforcement, and I have managed to avoid clobbering myself with a goddamned gun for 40 years now.

--seedexplainingtosqueakwhysheducksinsomeprobablydatedpsychspeak