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We had gun fire today at the job site.

oldtanker

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2010
Messages
463
Location
vining mn
Occupation
Ret
My instructor taught ten guys who just graduated from Marine Corps boot camp, just before they headed off to Iraq. It was his gift to a family friend whose son was in the group.

When they finished, all ten told him that what they did in his class was head and antlers above anything they did in boot camp. I'm guessing that basic training errs on the side of making training as safe as possible, with as little investment in the actual instruction.

I hear that gun skills are far better with most special forces types, but the kind of stuff available to law abiding civilians is very impressive indeed.

Specops have a different budget. They get far more money per man for training and equipment than regular units like Armor, Infantry or Artillery.

The Military gets a budget as you well know. But congress in it's alleged wisdom doesn't just hand them money. They get told X amount for troop housing. X amount for equipment repairs. X amount for this that and the other thing. They get told how much they can spend on training ammo and how much on go to war ammo. So you can find out that your unit has plenty of money to repair equipment but lacks the fuel to do maneuver training. Or you can afford repairs and fuel for maneuver training and are out of money for ammo. Down at end user level it can be frustrating. You can know that your troops need range time but no money for that. Last BN I was in the new Commander said we would do a maneuver exercise. One tank broke a final drive and that was it. Exercise indexed due to exceeding the budget for repairs. And then because a final drive deadlines the tank the BN CMD has to go to explain to higher just why he has emergency repairs and needs extra money for a repair. Right after I retired a new Division Commander, guy with 2 stars for you who haven't served, reported the division as C3 "non combat ready" due to there being no money for repairs. That was part of the cuts made in the mid 90s. One of my friends still with the division told me that they had one tank in the company of 14 that would start without a jump because they didn't have the money to replace batteries. Bad part of that is the turbine engine in an M1A1 eats fuel even at idle. So if you start them and just don't shut them down you burn an enormous amount of fuel. So basically the former commander fudged the C reports to make himself look good. When there is no money there is no training. Training now from what I hear is better but still lacks due to budget issues.

Kinda like with boot camp. They get X number of training days. Yet congress mandates X amount of hours for "Child and spouse abuse" classes. Because check to bank is mandatory today they have to have X number of hours of financial management too. There are others to, about 1 week's worth. This all takes away from mission oriented training. And congress doesn't want to extend basic because then it cost more for each individual service member to be ready to join the forces.

Sorry for being long winded.

Rick

Rick
 

Puffie40

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 5, 2010
Messages
208
Location
Southeastern B.C.
jmac, you can walk in to Kmart or Walmart and walk out with a Remington 870 shotgun, it's a great defense weapon. You can't have it loaded in a vehicle but I don't believe there's a law against having it on a machine. There are plenty of vehicle mounting brackets that could be adapted to a machine, just don't forget to take it with you at the end of your shift. I'd recommend some tactical training if you decide to go this route

We were in the back of a sawmill looking at a old Cat No.12 grader, and I spotted an old rusty shotgun receiver in the cab. I figure if it wasn't "hidden" in there over the years while it was sitting, it was put in there by the grader operator as a defence for if he had to do a bathroom break in the woods.
 
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