'Disturbing Trend' Seen In Negligent Discharges Of Weapons In Afghanistan

[mfree]

Yes, put rifle racks in the barracks, and fill them with training guides... green plastic copies of M-16's or M-4's that function exactly the same except they fire one single spring loaded paintball. A private presents a weapon without a paintball, they're hosed. Someone presents with an orange paint splatter on their BDUs or person, they're hosed too.... for being situationally unaware.

 

[mrcr0603]

Originally Posted By Jeff White:
That said, weapons handling training in the military is non-existant in many units. The FMs only pay lip service to it. NCOs and officers are often as bad about it as the soldiers they are in charge of. Ammunition is strictly controlled in training environments and rule 1 is routinely ignored because it's very rare for soldiers to ever have ammunition. Ranges are not usually hot, they are usually strictly run and the only times weapons are handled while loaded, there is plenty of supervision to make sure they are pointed downrange. Tactical live fire exercises are most often set up with so many safety procedures in place that they lack realism.

It's an institutional problem that won't be fixed until the chain of command at the top levels changes the mindset of the big Army.

Jeff

An excellent, general assessment.

I used to catch M-U-C-H sh*t for training my soldiers in combat skills, and even though I'm on terminal leave for retirement, I STILL get P*SSED OFF thinking about it.

Hell, wear ANYTHING other than the bare minimum on your LBE/LBV and the POS pogues will talk sh*t about you.

Didn't stop me from training my guys though, but it did make it very difficult at times.

I could go on and on but I won't, because I'm NOT going to get myself worked up about it.


MSG Chris Reindle