.50 cal BS I heard....

[Grmlin]

I had to give classes as we prepared to leave for the Gulf War. One was on the use of weapons. In my prep for the class, I found no restrictions on the use of the .50 cal. When I gave my class a young Lt tried to tell me I obviously hadn't done my research, didn't know what I was teaching and the .50 could not be used on people. I held up my references and asked him for his the CO weighed in on that. In prep for the Iraq war the same Issue came up and again put to rest.

I guess now it would be called hazing. Ax qual, sending people for flight line, truck line, can of beep, ID10T forms, remove the winter air and replace with summer air(tires), and it goes on. But giving false information in training or allowing someone to think false information is correct is not acceptable.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

But giving false information in training or allowing someone to think false information is correct is not acceptable.

My pop and my wife were in the Army. I am amazed at some of the things they were taught that were flat out wrong. Why folks would hamstring their fellow troops with incorrect information that could result in them being less combat effective isn't just unacceptable, but downright stupid.

 

[Driftertank]

Hey jorg, thank you for the concise, well worded and well referenced explanation to dispel the myth. I don't mind having my misinformation corrected, especially when the correction is presented with good references.

 

[Grmlin]

Why folks would hamstring their fellow troops with incorrect information that could result in them being less combat effective isn't just unacceptable, but downright stupid.

You got that right. Alot of times people just don't know, that's the way they were taught and they just pass it on and some just don't care or figure they get rid of the competition. When ever I was doing trianing I always went to the sources the same with updateing orders, manuels, ect. The term "thats how we always did" never went over well with me, but thats how I was trained. I had a lot of good people before me and hopefully effected others in a positive way. It did get me into trouble sometimes because I would say no to things that violated the orders, I guess I didn't know how to say no correctly.

 

[Ditchtiger]

NAVYLCDR,
My favorite was when we gave a reservist an oil sample bottle and told him to get "air samples" from air compressors. We ran him all over the place right up until we sent him to the XO and he shut down our little game.

The best part was we had a guy with when he was taking the "samples" and he kept telling the reservist to close the lid quicker because all the air was escaping.

My son tells me about sending newbs after batteries for the chem. lights

 

[marksman13]

In artillery units we always sent green privates out for chem light batteries, grid squares and fried chicken. The first two of course were fun and games. That last one though, that one was serious.

 

[exavid]

Man, it's a wonder we all didn't get killed by shock in basic training when low crawling up the infiltration course with .50 water cooled MGs firing three feet over our heads. Admittedly it was three feet overhead but even then the shock should have knocked us out for the count. It was interesting to hear the pop of he bullet passing overhead dragging it's little sonic boom along. It was pretty at the night run through the course watching all those tracers floating away downrange.

 

[Captaingyro]

As an ex-Air Force pilot, it's hard for me to believe that soldiers would consider .50 cal illegal to use against troops. Any troops in contact who have called in air support have to know that they're directing much larger weapons...20mm, 25mm, 30mm, and sometimes larger, against the enemy. A strafe pass with a Vulcan or GAU-8 is serious rock-n-roll, and makes .50 cal look like spit wads. Get a gun ship in the neighborhood, and you're looking at a steel thunderstorm. Hell, the shrapnel will be bigger than .50 cal...

 

[allaroundhunter]

As an ex-Air Force pilot, it's hard for me to believe that soldiers would consider .50 cal illegal to use against troops. Any troops in contact who have called in air support have to know that they're directing much larger weapons...20mm, 25mm, 30mm, and sometimes larger, against the enemy. A strafe pass with a Vulcan or GAU-8 is serious rock-n-roll, and makes .50 cal look like spit wads. Get a gun ship in the neighborhood, and you're looking at a steel thunderstorm. Hell, the shrapnel will be bigger than .50 cal...

I showed my grandfather this thread and he laughed (being a former pilot himself). Of course, he flew before the GAU-8 came into play, but he does get a kick out of seeing the videos showing it do its thing.

 

[SimplyChad]

Being the Doc i never got the stupid games. But we did give the Lt a few. We had him get exhaust samples, get us some flight line. But the best was check his Humvee for weak spots. My sgt had him hitting it with a hammer and the circling his "weak spots" with pink chalk. or sending him to my SFC to get his prick E-7 report.

 

[essayons21]

I did a tour as a .50 gunner. The BS about Geneva/Hague prohibiting shooting personnel is a well known myth, and is not being taught. Actually I remember a mandatory "Law of War" class in which that myth was specifically dispelled.

I am also an Army Small Arms Instructor. The army considers the .50 cal (and Mk19) small arms. The 3 inches myth is also specifically dispelled in Master Gunner school, but yet I still hear it from old farts.

Some of my favorite pranks

Chem light batteries

A box of grid squares

Humvee exhaust sample (the best example of this is when an enterprising young E5 didn't take kindly to the supply sgt messing with one of his PV2s and took a crap in a plastic bag, tied it up, labelled it exhaust sample, and left it on the supply sgt's desk)

3 inch board stretcher - One time we sent a private looking for one of these (because a board was cut too short of course) and he ended up asking the XO, who then spent the next 30 mins asking everyone in the unit where we kept the board stretchers before we finally let him in on the joke.

 

[Freedom_fighter_in_IL]

Sending the rooks out for 20 yards of "gig line" was always a popular prank. Saw a MC send a 3rd class out for a bucket of steam. Then of course the always popular hit "go pull me some brightwork"

 

[Husker1911]

What, not a single "belt-stretcher" or "sky-hook" in the bunch?

 

[Cesiumsponge]

Being naive and being ignorant are two different things. One is willfully ignoring facts and the other is simply not knowing better. Rumors, old wive's tales, and incorrect info exists everywhere. A friend who was a SAW gunner in the 75th Ranger Rgt repeated that a 50BMG passing near the head would suck out your brains. I'm not sure why there is such a mystique about the .50.

 

[mljdeckard]

esayons, I WAS taught in 19k school that it was against the Geneva convention. This was echoed in a JAG brief I got.

I saw when I zeroed .50s on the short range on paper targets, it's just a hole.

However, I was also told, and I am more likely to believe, that projecting from the muzzle on the 120 on the M-1, there is a cone, which if you were within it when the gun was fired, it could rip your skin off or worse. But this is an order of magnitude more energy than small arms. I could see that the story would have started here.

 

[scythefwd]

I have seen someone sent to get a box of grid squares. He came back at the end of the day.. looking like he just woke up with a map, cut on the grid lines, in a box. Told the SSG it took him all day to find them. He won that one.

Grinding sparks.

 

[mljdeckard]

Don't forget to send them to the medics for a set of fillopian tubes.

 

[zdc1775]

I was actually told that if a .50 passed within 3" of your head it would give you a concussion while I was in infantry training.

I have also sent my fireteam's know-it-all new guy to the comm shack to tell our SGT that we were just waiting on a PRC-E5 (prick E-5) and if he wouldn't mind bringing one with him when he came. That was kinda funny

 

[Jeremiah10:23]

My son tells me about sending newbs after batteries for the chem. lights

We sometimes asked for batteries for the sound-powered phones.

 

[Just One Shot]

While stationed in a Persian missle unit in Gemany our unit was split up with 1/2 of the batteries up the hill and the other 1/2 at the bottom. We once sent a newb for a fallopian tube tester. He went to all the batteries on the hill and they told him it was him down the hill. He was gone for quite awhile as he had to walk a couple miles to reach the rest of the unit. He came back red faced after someone down the hill clued him in.