> --- Ryan Gill <rmgill@mindspring.com> wrote:
If you actually were in the military and actually did drive a truck, you'd
find yourself about neck deep in shit the first time you left your rifle in
the cab of a truck. The rule is arm's length, and the US Army's NCO Corps is
pretty good at enforcing this rule. The first time you would have gotten the
crap smoked out of you, you'd start taking that sort of thing seriously. The
second time you'd be in about the same amount of shit, but head first.
FWIW, I had an M-16A2 in Kosovo that didn't leave my
side for any reason whatsoever--the only time I broke
that rule was when I was in the shower, and it leaned in the corner of the
latrine about 5 feet from me. Yeah, it was a pain in the ass. But better that
than letting some Albanian reject decide he liked it and walk off with it. Did
I actually fire it? No. Never
had to--we got enough respect from the locals that we
only had to threaten a few times. Were there some times when I had a round in
the chamber and my thumb on the safety? Hell yes. And that would not have been
the time to decide to leave it somewhere "convenient".
Damn, John, there goes the job at Department of Sate I had lined up for
you...
Seriously, You have to try and cut some slack here. A lot of people (say
an Ex-Zoomie like me) never carried a weapon except the 4 hours on the
firing range and in class (no shit, 4 <deleted> hours, total) the whole seven
years. And I was not unusual in that.
Add in the guys who never had the privilege of serving and you have a lot of
people who don't understand the 'reality' of this kind of detail.
I would love a PDW that didn't get in my way tracking, moving and delivering
supplies to the line units (scratch most rifles, most carbines, and some
SMG's;) that was light (realatively) and small
(relatively) - scratch the rest of them; and that could kill somebody at
reasonable ranges (at this point all the remaining pistols/revolvers on
my short list drop off and I wonder if I could kill somebody with a blank
piece of paper...)
I could list several other things I want that are equally fantastic but 1)I'm
married and 2)There are ladies on the list. Some decorum is called for at
least occasionally. <grin>
Gracias,
Glenn/Triphibious@juno.com
This is my Science Fiction Alter Ego E-mail address.
Historical - Warbeads@juno.com
Fantasy and 6mm - dwarf_warrior@juno.com
On Fri, 1 Feb 2002 18:58:09 -0800 (PST) John Atkinson
> <johnmatkinson@yahoo.com> writes:
> --- Glenn M Wilson <triphibious@juno.com> wrote:
> At 6:58 PM -0800 2/1/02, John Atkinson wrote:
> If you actually were in the military and actually did
Gee John sorry I don't fit your mould.
But I have to point out that in spite of your best experiences in Kosovo,
there are privates that do this and there are NCOs that aren't up to par. The
general gist is that the PDW is meant to be compact and replace the need for
pistols and full length rifles for the REMFs.
The PDW concept also work great for Armor crew given their typically compact
enclosures they run around it. Ballistics folks seem to think that something
along the lines of 5.7x28mm is far better than a M3 Grease gun or some other
pistol based cartridge that has trouble penetrating a PASGT vest, let alone
hard cover.
Everybody has to have/be a role model. <grin>
Gracias,
Glenn/Triphibious@juno.com
This is my Science Fiction Alter Ego E-mail address.
Historical - Warbeads@juno.com
Fantasy and 6mm - dwarf_warrior@juno.com
On Fri, 1 Feb 2002 22:48:26 -0800 (PST) John Leary
> <john_t_leary@yahoo.com> writes:
> --- Ryan Gill <rmgill@mindspring.com> wrote:
> But I have to point out that in spite of your best
Yup. And they get a wakeup call the first time they are in the field and
someone "secures" their weapon for them. Our mechanics were pretty alert about
this for this reason. And one of our mechanics carried a
SAW in Kosovo--it wasn't unusual to see him under a
track with his SAW sitting up on it's bipod next to him.