Iraq vets, your expertise, please...

[Dave Markowitz]

If he is able to get issued an M9 as a backup, then a good thing to send him would be several good magazines. This should be OK but make sure that you won't get him in trouble by doing so. One of the big complaints about the M9 has been the poor quality of GI mags.

 

[possum]

no personal firearms allowed, if he has an awesome chain of command than they might let him get away with using a confiscating weapon, but highly doubtfull. it isn't worth the money and the rank that can be lost because of it. it sucks i know i wish i could carry a personal sidearm.

 

[Warlokke]

I got back from a second tour in Iraq this year after leading a transition team, and most of the units we worked with were Army RSTA squadrons and troops...their SAW gunners had M9s but I didn't think to ask where their sidearms came from. Their SAWs were the short, stubbie modified SAWs though....saw a bunch of 240s chopped down the same way....great MWO for the soldiers that carried those short stubbies and the grunts sure loved those short MGs in the canals when chasing BGs. Lots of shotguns in the hands of squad and team leaders too....

 

[doc2rn]

MOS?

I need to know what his MOS is, and service affiliation before I can give much more than broad advice.
-Some guys where allowed to take personal sidearms over-Some where told they could not bring them back however.
-Some guys say to hook up with unit being relieved and by a .45- so some just took ammo usually 2 boxes & $250-$400.
-Some guys get allocated sidearms due to MOS, docs get side arms, truck drivers, and other fields where you need to use hands alot like in EOD, even MG&SAW gunners who's weapons where used at prepaired positions where given M9's.
-Mostly it depends on if he is offense or defense-offense can sometimes get away with carrying battlefield drops. My whole platoon had AK's at one point, when asked it was to secure the weapon and retrieve ammo for the MG (which was 100% true at one point) take enough ammo it runs out quick in a firefight.
I have found that take just what you need and have the rest shipped is the best policy.

 

[Capstick1]

I think this is the second time I've seen this question come up in this blog. As an Air Force veteran I can tell you with 100% certainty that if you attempt to bring your own personal weapon with you on a deployment and are caught doing this, you will end up becoming special friends with your first sergeant and start being on the recieving end of some career ending paperwork. This is not a good idea. No matter what branch of the military you're in the military wants you to use the weapon that's issued to you. I know that the M16 based rifles and the Beretta M9's don't have anything near the knockdown power of JMB's .45 or the M14, but that's just the way it is in the armed forces.

 

[Warlokke]

Don't know when it was added but GO # 1 prohibits using captured enemy weapons in lieu of issued weapons unless in case of emergency and it has always prohibited personal weapons being brought into theater.

Even the SOF guys carry issue weapons, they just have more money in their budget, and can buy what they want and issue it to their folks - yes even the guys behind the fence and from the Ranch.

Everytime a new MNF-I CG, MNC-I CG, MND CG, or BCT CDR transitions it is mandatory training for the troops just like monthly EOF training and LOLW training, so I gave this briefing ad nauseum between Jan 2006 and Feb 2007 in Iraq.

Convictions for violations of GO # 1 usually result in a quick trip to Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks, very close to where I work here in CONUS.

GO # 1 applies to all military personnel and there is another GO that applies to contractors that is different from GO # 1 in several aspects (some more limiting, some the same, some looser) - whether they follow it or not is the problem, along with very few folks that know what the rules are pertaining to contractors.

Hope this helps clear up this topic a bit....