What is the most stupid thing you saw somebody do with a weapon in the military?

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new Zealand, cross training, live fire setup, city ops. lots of our, and their, brass standing at the start point, or back , of this range. We were told over and over again, to go into a door, straigth in, spray and fire, and then pull stragith back out the doorway, without spinning, or arcing of any kind, as when we do this, our weapons will at some time, may point to all the brass standing and observing. One idiot goes wheeling in , sprays live rounds, and then pulls out the door, does a 180 degree turn , to get his back, backed up to the wall.
The NZ sarntmajor , flipped his switch, and screamed at this guy for the next 10 minutes.

also think this was the same dude, on the live fire open range, who put his 203 into op, and forgot he had a cleaning rag stuck in the end of it. Round came out like a parachute, and barely went down range, out of danger zone.
 
First, almost got my face blown off by an E-5 supply sergeant who picked up a live 50 cal. round to pound on the tip of another linked round to break a belt at Wildflicken (sp.) Yes I was holding the belt at eye level, maybe I was the Dumba$$ for trusting him to know what he was doing, and not check to see that it was an expended case. Lucky he had bad aim and did not hit the primer, and I was smart enough to explain the situation to him, (respectfully of course).

Second, saw results of a drunk paratrooper who decided to repel out of his third story barracks room with 550 cord. Cord broke(no kidding), lucky the pull up bars caught him after falling two and half stories backwards,lol. If I remember this prevented him from going to the SF Q course (lucky for the SF).

Third, by me an a number of others. On our final trip to firing range before unit is deactivated, night time, lots of rounds. We will never see these M-16's again. Must fire all the rounds, barrels glowing under the hand guards, rounds cooking off if you pause in your shooting. We keep going, and going, and going..... Well we wake up to find that we are not being deactivated, but instead being shipped to the Gulf with the rest of the VII Corps. I was sure glad that I got issued a SAW not one of those M-16s

Cleaning rod and blanks, yes they stick into the sides of German pigs. But don't throw blanks into fire the FNGs have built to keep warm, it affects their ability to get some sleep ;)

Not military, but related. F&@*'n dumb-a$$ at a gun show here in Houston six weeks ago, decides that the rules don't apply to him, and carries his handgun into the show, past all the LE that do the safety checks, past a half dozen signs telling him not to. Well as you can guess, he is not the brightest nail in the pouch, and while pushing the gun into a holster to see if it fits before buying it, launches a round into his hand. That was the quietest moment I have ever been witness to at a gun show after that round let off.

http://akeyboardanda45.blogspot.com/2007/06/man-injured-in-accidental-shooting-at.html
 
A moron in my company fired his 203 about 20 feet in front of him into the dirt while were at the range in Iraq. Ended up with a piece of shrapnel in his foot. He was trying to show off by shooting it from the hip. He lost some rank and pay for that stunt.

Had a green gunner ride 20 miles through Karbala, Iraq with an unloaded (as in feed tray was up) M2 .50 cal because his TC didn't show him how to load it before we left the FOB. He never thought to ask anybody while we were on the road.

Saw an Iraqi soldier blow his helmet off his head when he was standing his AK up against the wall. Left a pretty good cut between his eyes and put a clean hole through his helmet.

Lot's of dumb stuff happens with weapons in the military because many of our soldiers don't have any experience with weapons before they enter the military.
 
Third, by me an a number of others. On our final trip to firing range before unit is deactivated, night time, lots of rounds. We will never see these M-16's again. Must fire all the rounds, barrels glowing under the hand guards, rounds cooking off if you pause in your shooting. We keep going, and going, and going.....
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National Guard MP unit. I have been there for a year after getting out of the Corps.

They announce that we are turning in all our A1s for A2s, and none of the old ammo will work in the A2s (Mostly true).

Only about 50 guys show up for the drill weekend at the base with the range because it was a big football weekend.

Ammo came out of everywhere at the armory. I had a pile of preloaded 20 rounders that I had to fill my pack with to get them to my hole.

It was a night shoot, and the barrel got so bright that I could see to change mags by it. My hands were in those old thick leather gloves, and even so I had to hold by the mag well.

Getting from the bolt release to the trigger resulted in a cookoff several times.

Fun stuff. With all that the old A1 only jamed a few times.

Ours did get turned in, and we all got A2s the next month.
 
When I was in Korea during a training exercise my fire team leader got out of the HMMWV to take a smoke break. Rested the muzzle of his M16 against the top of his boot to keep it out of the mud. Well then he decides to see if the safety is on. Rather than use his thumb to feel for the safety, he pulls the trigger. Because we were in threatcon Delta we had full magazines in and a round chambered. Well his M16 wasn't on safe. Fortunately for him, it was only a blank and the blank adapter didn't give out.

While at Balad a Warrant Officer walks up to the clearing barrel outside of the chow hall, pulls his M9 out, points it at the clearing barrel and pulls the trigger. Nice new hole through the top of the clearing barrel.

Back at Laughlin someone decided to break procedure and turn their M16 in by just going in the armory and putting it up instead of clearing it and handing it to the armorer. She racked the bolt back, no round in the chamber, releases the bolt, and then goes to put the weapon on rack safe. For those of you that don't know what rack safe is, the weapon is cleared, then placed on fire, and the trigger is then pulled. She did everything right except for the crucial second step of clearing the weapon, she left the magazine in. Another clearing barrel ruined.

And there were a lot more that I didn't actually get to be there for, guy shot a generator while guarding a U2, guy blew a hole through his partners knee, and a few more I can't recall right now.
 
They wouldn't let us shoot full auto. One guy did flip the switch, but he got sent back for the stunt.
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When I was at ITR/ITS at Camp Pendleton during Marine Corps basic there was this series-wide tracer fire with a nearby hill as the aimpoint. 250 recruits shooting tracers at a single aim point looks really cool at night. A few lucky soles were told to fire full auto, but most of us were told to fire semi auto only. I was a little miffed I wasn't selected to fire full auto, but being the wise guy I am, I decided to anyway. Tracer ammo was being handed out at the back of a truck, one box per customer. But it wwas getting dark and we all looked the same, so I kept getting into the line and getting box after box of ammo. Then I borrowed some extra mags from some of the other guys and loaded them all up. When the order to commence fire was given, I unloaded everything I had on full auto. The DIs were none the wiser and I had a blast going off on full auto.
 
Acera; i was one lane over ,and directly behind the guy at the gunshow, he blew his middle finger off, and was standing there, holding his hand, looking up at the vendor at the table, looking back at his hand, etc. cops asked him, " we asked you if you had any ammo or mags , right?" he said yes, they arrested him on the spot. blood and finger parts all over the guys nice table.
 
It was a long time ago when I did my basic training, but I still remember the incident like it was yesterday.

Our first visit to the range and the range officer, our Staff Sargent, gave the usual safety shpiel about handling, shooting etc. If your rifle jams he said, put it down and put your hand up.

About 300 of us on the range and about 20 to 30 in firing position and rows behind them awaiting their turn. So this idiot's FN FAL jams and he immediately stands up, rifle in hand and, wouldn't you know it, his rifle is virtually pointing at the range officer.

Well, that started the fireworks. The range officer was screaming and cussing as he ran towards, him, threw him to the ground and then stomped on his back. Chewed him out and then threw in a few more kicks for good measure. Fortunately nobody got hurt, except for that idiot who I'm sure had a sore back and a few other bruises for a couple of weeks.

It's a good thing that it wasn't here in the US or I'm sure that he and his family would have sued the army, the range officer etc.
 
Quote:
An E-5 inspecting a joes M9 by looking down the business end.

Yeah, that's what you do after you clear it.


Quote:
An E-7 loading M16 mags with a speed loader, stripper clips and all.

So?

DRZinn, if you don't mind pointing a pistol in your face, go right ahead. And an M16 mag will not feed with twenty rounds of ammo still attached to stripper clips inside the mag.
 
Me, I clear the weapon and then look into the barrel. I'm certainly not going to disassemble every weapon to check it.
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Let us know how braking the 4 gun rules works out for you in the end. Sounds like a good way to shoot yourself in the face.
 
rangerruck, you and I must have been only a few feet away from each other. I am surprised that we can still buy ammo at that show.
 
I was on the range here in Oz for qualification with the M60 GPMG one time, waiting my turn, when a mob of kangaroos chose their moment to cross the forward slope which backed the range we were using. They were about 400 yards out, and rather higher than the targets set at 100m. All of a sudden there were ten lines of tracer arcing above the targets to meet them, and long bursts too. The DS went ballistic, threatening charges and violence and all sorts of terrible consequences if any roos were dropped, and almost immediately the proper targets were being engaged again. The odd thing was that not one roo was hit, despite probably 200 rounds being sent their way :uhoh:

BTW that range area was notorious for the number of roos. They were in plague proportions, despite all the small arms and anti armour and mortars and everything else fired on the place, and any number of vehicles were damaged from collisions with them. Woe betide any digger who shot one though:rolleyes:
 
Mt Fuji training area 2003. Company SMAW rocket launcher shoot. First man up fire his spotting rifle tracer rounds and proceeds to set several thousand acres of range on fire. We didn't ever get to fire our SMAWs that day because we spent the rest of the time trying to put the fire out. Of course while chasing the fire line we came across multiple unexploded mortar and artillery rounds. Fun day.
 
i have a story. it's not mine, but i'm allowed to tell it. it's a bit long.

in 2006 my buddy was (and is) a 23-year army reserve medic stationed in Iraq. fourteen months into his 17 month tour, he has just stepped out of his clinic and was about to cross the street. itis 7pm.

BANG!

a bullet rips through his left calf. spurting like a struck lizard, he nevertheless leaps up, runs 20 yards to nearby cover, throws himself under it, then proceeds to holler bloody murder.

they figure it's a sniper, so the base's rapid response team gets deployed to scour the surrounding areas. they do so extensively, searching and returning only after two hours later. the base is locked down for the remainder of the night. jorge gets dragged into the clinic where he starts yelling at his own nurses when they bungle his treatment.

the next day, the "sniper" is discovered.

turns out a young marine about 50 feet away had been bored with guard duty (do we see a common trend here?), so he decided to play with his m16, tossing it into the air and then catching it. this got tiresome after a while, so to spice things up he decided to including spinning the rifle, magazine and all, john wayne-style as well.

either he didn't have his safety on, or he must have flipped it off somehow, because the end result was that he managed to put send a bullet skittering a few feet off the ground and putting a nice through-and-through into poor jorge.

the marine got hell for his antics (they did a round count and he had one less round than he should have had) things got much worse when the rapid response team found out that he had done it, and worse yet, not told anybody while the RR team went out for a two-hour wild goose chase.

when he told me this over the phone in december i ddin't believe him.

so when he got back in april, I asked to see the bullet hole. sure enough, there's a tiny (the size of a pencil eraser tip) dent in his calf. the most memorable thing, he said, was that he KNEW he'd been shot but he felt like he could have run down the whole street on hands and knees to get under cover.
 
We had a tough river crossing in Viet Nam, some guys went across set up security and then some of the guys dumped their rucksacks and rifles and came back across forming a line across the river with their arms and hands linked together. I was one of those guys but on the opposite bank pulling troops who had made it across the river up the bank. I reached down for one soldier and pulled him up holding on to the forearm of his M-16 with the barrel pointed at me when I noticed it was on Rock and Roll or full automatic. He had come across the entire line of guys across the river with his rifle on full auto. We had an interesting argument!

In one firefight on the side of a heavily jungled mountain, the M-79 Grenadier decided that Charlie was to close for his ammo to arm itself so he fired straight up, it landed about 20 feet behind us and was a miracle as no one was killed or wounded. He heard about it!

Another time our company was used as a blocking force for another company doing a sweep, somehow our companies mistook each other for the enemy and we got into one hell of a firefight before some Sergeant or one of the Officers figured it out. You never realize how tremendous the amount of firepower you have until you use it on yourself!

I could go on and on, but needless to say Combat is the perfect environment for Mistakes!
 
A quarterdeck squid twirling his pistol like Wyatt Earp....and putting a round through his foot. The round hit the steel deck, went back through the foot and broke his wrist.
 
can someone confirm a story I heard about that idiot from "Massive-taxes" John Kerry and how he almost offed himself screwing around with an M-79?
 
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