Question for Iraq veterans

You're probably mistaking ANA (Afghan National Army) or Iraqi army troops for US soldiers. Both of those forces use a mix of M16s and AKMs and often wear US style/surplus uniforms.

I have two Son's who fought in both of those theaters, Marine and ANG!

First of all, their are some stringent engagement and arm's guidelines that specify what weaponry, and ammunition can be used or carried by a US soldier. So no, you are mistaken, it doesn't work like that at all. In fact, both of my Son's told me about soldier's who got CM'ed just for modifying their ammunition, drilling a HP into it. Unless they have an AK slung over their shoulder for any reason, other than having confiscated it from the enemy, would get them into serious, no, make that very serious trouble. And had better be made safe, not locked and cocked.

While in a very hot zone, one of my boys fellow soldier's managed to drop his M4, it actually got ripped out of his hands by a big branch or something while driving down a very narrow and heavily brushed in levy, almost pulled him out of the HV, I got to see the video. Of course, several other soldier's had to go with that soldier to retrieve it after it had been grabbed up by a local, they saw him pick it up and run with it. So my Son gave him his M4, and everyone left him in the HV alone with only his 9mm, and the 50 cal. which was useless, due to the heavy brush all over, and around the top of the HV. A group of the thought to be "good guy locals" were helping to defend his position, being that he was left all alone and all, and offered him an AK, which he had to decline the offer by rules of engagement stuff. BTW, they got that M4 back real quick and in a hurry.

As for reliability of the M4's and the other weapons, our guys are given the best of tools to do their jobs. My boys told me that before a mission, they would go out and run a few magazines through their weapons, just to make sure everything is running good, 50 cal. included, and rarely do they have problems, unless it's their own fault, in which case they would get a butt chewing from the other brother's, they take it very serious, of course.

GS

We had AK-47s from time to time purely for familiarity training. We shot them at the ranges when we could to make sure we all knew how to use, strip, clean, assemble, and maintain them. That was it.
LOTS of other folks had them, and we were in integrated units with lots of folks with AK-47s and AK-74s all the time. Not one legit US mil member used an AK with regularity that I saw during nearly two years in Iraq all over the country.

Mac-v-sog.....

In SE Asia, the elite "special operations group" also called the Studies & Observations Group, would sometimes use Warsaw Pact weapons recovered from Viet Cong & NVA troops.
The special ops & special forces were ordered to stop using the AKs & 7.62x39mm because SOG units would do recon missions, find caches or armory stockpiles of ammunition then use sabatage or booby traps to injury-kill enemy troops. The commanders wanted the VC & NVA soldiers to feel unsafe with the firearms & not to trust it.

In SW Asia/OEF, many spec ops(SAD, SF, ACE, SEALs, STS, ISA, etc) use AKs but not a lot of regular army troops.

The only time we used AK's was during familiarization training. Like someone stated above, we did train (and in some cases arm with M16A2's, A4's & M4's) the new Iraqi army, so you could possibly seeing them with our troops.

A lot of times we would have indigenous weapons when they varied. The feeling was that it was a show of confidence in the firearms of the locals while engaged in training and support of their operations.

Then there is simply the scenario where - if allowed and sometimes regardless - it would be an upgrade.

We carried our M4s and EBRs but some guys may or may not have grabbed AKs from stashes after firefights. Also our American Terps would carry captured AKs from time to time (Or so Im told, officially I never saw it myself) in really really hairy areas and times.

Here is a pretty good image of ANP (Afghan National Police) officer's weapon and a very typical uniform. No questions about the red nail polish, I didn't get it either.

ANA usually carried an AK clone but with different uniform color, we didn't see them much. US troops never used or even carried AKs, unless for evidence. Our interpreters were not armed with long guns. When they did get firearms it was a pistol.

In the above picture, he's carrying an AMD-65 which is a Hungarian AK variant.

You will find a mix of weapons and components these days, but all US Issue or authorized. When I deployed during storm/shield with the 24th ID we all had brand spanking new M16-A2s. No optics, just here is your rifle and be happy. Plus M16a1 bayonnet.

Move forward +-20 years. I got to visit my stepson deploying to Afghanistan from the same unit, except renamed at Ft. Stewart. In one company I saw a mix of A2, A3, M4, M203, Hk 40mm launchers, Acog, Aimpoints, standard furniture, Magpul furniture, and what have you. But no Aks.

I think you're either seeing local troops or US Special Forces in that footage. Local troops carried all kinds of weapons, with the most common being the AK. Special Forces would often carry an AK to be more like the locals they were training. I did 3 one year tours there and never had the opportunity nor inclination to trade my M4 for a an AK, and have no heard of anyone outside SF doing so.

Kind of on this subject, lately throughout this Israel vs Hamas thing, Ive seen very few of the Israelis carrying Tavors in all of the screenshots. Mostly m16 looking rifles as far as I can tell.

I mirror what the others have already said. However, I will say for me personally, I tend to favor the Ak74 over any M4 I have ever handled. Not sure why that is but it just seems to fit me better when it should be the opposite.

TrickyDick said:

In the above picture, he's carrying an AMD-65 which is a Hungarian AK variant.

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Nearly every AK I saw over there were cannibalized parts from multiple countries. Probably all of them as I am not that well versed on what country makes what.

I assure you we would not be the most powerful nation in the world if my country supplied me with substandard weapons.

Is that Harry Potter in an ANP uniform?

ms6852 said:

Is that Harry Potter in an ANP uniform?

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Only if his Arabic name is Azir. And he doesn't have a lightning bolt scar on his face.

In SW Asia/OEF, many spec ops(SAD, SF, ACE, SEALs, STS, ISA, etc) use AKs but not a lot of regular army troops.

Click to expand...

Where did you see this? I have yet to see any American SOF forces carrying Soviet weaponry in Afghanistan. The only AKs I saw over there were captured weapons awaiting destruction or being appropriated for ANA/ANP use.

We captured/ confiscated a few AKs but were never issued any.

As mentioned, there are some very stringent rules about what we can use.

Iraq vet: Baghdad '03, Balad AB '04, LSA Anaconda '05.

Potatohead said:

Kind of on this subject, lately throughout this Israel vs Hamas thing, Ive seen very few of the Israelis carrying Tavors in all of the screenshots. Mostly m16 looking rifles as far as I can tell.

Click to expand...

Probably part of the $3 billion a year in military assistance we give them. Or they haven't ramped up Tavor production yet.

The Tavor is in their pipeline the same way the M4 was in ours a few years back. Trickling their way down the pecking order for units to get them. Otherwise they mostly use M4/M16 rifles.

I served in Iraq in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. The pictures of individuals with US forces who are carrying the AKs are the interpreters, or representatives of the Iraqi Army (IA), Iraqi Special Forces (ISOF), Iraqi Police (IP), or the Afghanistan Army/Police, etc. working in cooperation with the US Army.

It's been awhile since I've thought about this topic, but it was either illegal or highly frowned upon to carry or use non-issued captured weapons. Our allies were definitely carrying the AK platforms, and we provided many of them (the origins of which I can only speculate). Having said that, we did have a few in our SF armory. I was issued a captured Browning HP when we were short on Beretta M9s.

I believe we destroyed a lot of caches of captured weapons and ammo. We probably also (hopefully) gave these over to the Iraqi Army and Police. But I have no idea really what happened to these caches. I know some cooler pieces ended up on display down range in various offices and TOCs... some may have been demilled and brought home for display in units....

I do believe that we SHOULD have kept them, allowed units to hold them for emergency weapons and training, and even keep them in inventory. The AK platform and other platforms are outstanding.

I think that some units, mainly special ops, may have kept captured weapons and ammo for backup weapons (perhaps they had no way of disposing of them, or perhaps they realized the merit in keeping them around).

I recall thinking many times that many military policies and rules were and are simply stupid.

Here are examples captured caches... where these ended up I have no clue.