Look carefully at the photo and let me know if you see what is wrong with this picture. For those of you who've used AR/ M16s, you may see what I'm talking about. I'm glad she didn't have to engage the target....
On another note... a favorite topic of mine came up again the other day. What kind of knife should a person carry for work? Now, if you go back many postings, I wrote about what knives I carry at my police job...but what about for military deployments to places like Iraq?
As soon as this topic comes up, I think of a "killer" soldier we had. He joined us during our mob training for Iraq. He was a PFC (E-3) in the XYZ National Guard. When we went out in the field for training at Ft Lewis, he had all kinds of extra gear he had purchased...including a few big ass knives. Some of these things had blades over a foot long. He would say things like: "when I worked with the Special Forces...bla bla bla, this is what they carried."
After so much of this, I asked him one day what his MOS was. He was a cook. He had no "Special Forces" patch or jump wings or anything else...so my next question was when did he work for Special Forces.... uhhh, then he got kind of flustered. (usually an indication of a person not telling the truth.) Finally he came up with: "Well, I served some of them food one time."
When we got to Iraq, PFCwannabespecialforces guy lasted about 1 week. Then he complained that his knee was hurting him. They sent him back to the states to have his knee looked at. The doc told him to loose about 5o pounds and his knee would feel better. Then about 11 months into our tour, they sent him back to Iraq. He wanted to use my M9 pistol when he went out and he asked to borrow other gear I had....Nope, I needed it.... I got kind of tired of this kid after about 15 minutes.
Why do I NOT carry big ass knives in wars? Because I've seen so many troops cut themselves by accident. One Joe stuck his big ass knife in a leather sheath into his boot. He was just walking along and tripped in hole. The knife cut through the sheath and into his ankle. I've seen lots of Joes and a Jane cut themselves pulling the knife out or trying to put it away in a hurry.
The old issue bayonet for the M16 caused more friendly injuries than not.
I have a large knife collection...some long ass knives. The big knives stay at home in my collection, I use a locking folder that I can open with one hand.... it's safer.
Oh, if you can't figure it out...the cop in the picture has the rifle magazine in backwards. Don't laugh too hard...I've seen this many times in Iraq and police work. Maybe the M16 type rifle is just too complicated for some people...or maybe they need more training? I can load it etc with a blindfold on. Maybe some people are in the wrong business?
3 comments:
Dude-
As soon as I looked at the picture, I knew the clip was in wrong....must be my airsoft training.
I think I'll keep my new knife out of my boots.
-P
1. Got some sympathy for the poor woman.
2. First go-round used 20 round magazines. Could change them lightning fast. The big problem was loading empty magazines off the stripper clips in a fight, when you were out. Massive fear until they were reloaded.
3. BDA was seven magazines and two bandoleers. Extra space went for water.
4. Second go-round, never was as comfortable with the thirty round curved magazine. Just didn't fit my hand right for some stupid reason.
5. On knives -have years of field time. Carried a medium size shears and a small scissors.
6. Was constantly being asked to loan out one or the other. About the only thing anybody ever used a knife for was to clean their fingernails.
7. Have heard a couple fearsome stories about the use of bayonets, but! Never saw anybody do anything but behave stupidly with one. (No hand to hand for yours truly -except at the EM club)
8. A couple Army units I was in kept them in the armory.
9. Marines always issued them.
10. But Marines always carried live rounds. Was winked at. Holding brass was a courts martial offense in the Army. No winking that I ever saw.
11. Great commentary. Look forward to each new entry.
V/R JW
Our "basic" load for Iraq was supposed to be 7 30 round mags...but the Reg Army unit we got attached to forgot to get ammo for us in Kuwait. So, when my team was sent to Fallujah to help the Marines, they gave us all the ammo we could carry. I had 9 mags (loaded with 28 rounds to prevent jams) and bandoleer with fully loaded mags to keep in the humvee. On the army camps, we kept weapons empty, on the boarder with the marines, we kept weapons loaded at all times. If you had a negligent discharge on the camp, you were treated like a retard.
Even with the unloaded weapons, I saw and heard of more army folks have rounds go off into clearing barrels etc....due to poor or little training.
I didn't see too many pigstickers issued in Iraq...mostley because the supply folks were afraid they'd get lost.
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