The Military Thread

If you need a melee weapon, then by definition, anything you can get your hands on is a melee weapon, including your rifle.

There's at least one instance in the history of naval warfare of a coffee cup being used as such. Actually, it might have been a ranged weapon.

Also the only instance I'm aware of where an enemy submarine attempted a boarding action on a ship of the United States Navy.

There was also that one time where the USS O'Bannon's sailors had to throw potatoes in a bid to keep a Japanese submarine crew from manning their deck gun...

edited 9th Dec '16 7:30:50 AM by Krieger22

The same reason why no one uses traditional flamethrowers.^note modern flamethrowers are now incendiary rockets like the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RPO-A_Shmel Shmel

I want to kill that motherfucker, that motherfucker is far, bullets and rockets can go very far.

Priceless.

Traditional flamethrowers for a time had an effective range equal to most rockets and bullets you'd find on the bleeding edge of the front lines. Few hundred yard long stream of the kind of liquid burn you usually only experience after a successful time on leave in Wichita Falls, TX.

The reputation for flamethrowers being overglorified blow torches was because movies and television tended to use, well, overglorified blow torches as flamethrowers because it was less likely to burn down Warner Brothers Studios. You don't see them so much any more because they were big and bulky and like all interesting objects, tended to draw fire.

Yeah if you've ever seen actual flamethrowers they're more like firehoses. But with flame.

My inner child still a raving pyromaniac, I can't think of flamethrowers without opening up a huge grin.

So, firehoses, then.

And they're perfectly legal for civilians to own in 49 US states. (Only California requires a license.)

Why would a civilian wish to own one? Controlled agricultural burns, melting ice off of airport runways... or simply because they're cool as fuck.

edited 9th Dec '16 10:55:32 AM by pwiegle

A so-called journalist working for The Blaze tweeted about participating in Iraq as an unlawful combatant, putting the lives of actual journalists at risk.

Edit to add: I used to work as a reporter in college. This bullshit has me fucking livid.

edited 9th Dec '16 12:04:14 PM by AFP

Isn't working for The Blaze an immediate disqualifier for being called a journalist, in any case?

Still, that's probably a new low from someone claiming to be one...

Maybe he'll be volunteering with the International Red Cross next.

Well. That'll do wonders for the safety of journalists in war zones all across world.

The Blaze is Glenn Beck's personal news site isn't it?

Update: dumbass in question withdrawn back to the US.

Hallow: Contrary to some comments melee weapon combat is still taught in the US military to varying degrees. The E-Tool is still commonly demonstrated as both a tool and a weapon inside the USMC. The Marines are also big on bayonet fighting and using the rifle itself as a melee weapon. They also cover club and basic knife fighting these days. Then there is the weapons of opportunity training. Basically a way of learning how to turn anything you set your hands on into a weapon.

An article about US military personnel stationed aboard the French carrier Charles De Gaulle

Well, the training given to Uncle Sam's Misguided Children is quite different from all other branches of the Armed Forces.

At level 3 and above, Army Combatives does teach using knives and e-tools. But unless you're SF, 11B or have it required by your command, most soldiers don't get that high.

We had a unit (THAAD) that had no equipment but needing to fill the training calendar. So a bunch of soldiers got sent to combatives to learn. So they ended up with privates being level 3 and 4 trained.

One guy got out and is now teaching combatives at an air force base making much more as a civie than he did as an E-4....

@the stupid Blaze reporter: I find the Blaze to be meh but that guy was 31 flavors of Too Dumb to Live. CNN coddled dictators but even they were never that stupid.

pwiegle; True. Even non infantry MOS for the marines learn a lot of that stuff.

The US is starting to attach aim correction thermal sites to their heavy weapons such as the M2 and MK-19 as well as the M-240 MG. Basically it helps you predict where the shots will land and via a wireless HUD allows you to possibly fire it even from cover provided you can trigger the weapon still.

edited 9th Dec '16 9:01:53 PM by TuefelHundenIV

No word if the sight is called "replay"?

Sorry taira this one is rather boring. Still seeing a HUD where your rounds will splash will make using the MK-19 a lot easier.

The MK-19: "See that guy? Fuck him and his neighbors 30 meters around him."

Mk-19. Because fuck you and everyone near you.

One of my favorite weapons to fire.

edited 9th Dec '16 10:34:39 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Aside from the M249, the M2, "Ma Deuce" is my fav. Just remember to put LSA in it. ^note We had a less delicate term for it-monkey nut due to the cream color

That loud "THUD" when the thing fires. It's just so heavy, it reeks of corditie and LSA, and it's the best thing to fire. Watching the round just fuck up what every is down range is pure awesome.

The M249 is allright, you just have to remember to fire in short bursts.

My drill has us chant "I killed a family of six" as a way of timing the shots to keep the SAW from overheating.

It's easy to aim as a rifle-saw a girl do the "hit two targets with one burst" thing-I fell in love, sadly she was spoken for. The problem was the hot brass, another girl did the "hot brass dance" when a stray case got into her DCU's (yes I am old).

Their is a semi-auto version of the M249 for the civie market...and it's as cool as the Christian Rock music played at a school assembly.