The Military Thread

@Mark - What happened, if you don't mind me asking?

dRoy: some dbags who ordered food like pizza and such didn't clean up their mess and now the whole battery can't use the day room with the TV and cable.

Just one in a long line of such bullshit.

mark: You can thank Pvt Smuckatelli of course.

I forgot about the Royal Marines. My mistake.

In any case, I wasn't trying to get into an Interservice Rivalry/dickwaving contest, just providing historical support for the notion that the Army was involved in its fair share of amphibious operations, even if the Marines get most of the credit in the popular media.

And, besides, you can't even deploy a new port-a-potty without "joint service" nowadays.

Tuef: mmhmm.

Man can't wait until I ETS. This week's gonna SUCK because the Sgt. Major of the Army, SMA Chandler III, is gonna visit our battery on the 14th.

Which means obsessive cleaning details during down time.

Mark: Ahh shit. VIP visits suck big hairy donkey dick. Intensive cleaning and obsessive sentry duty.

I know the dog faces did their share of amphib.

I find the comment about Joint Operation amusing.

Personally I am pretty much joking with interservice rivalry crap. I have my share of friends in all the branches.

edited 8th Sep '12 4:08:27 PM by TuefelHundenIV

We use the M870(A militarized Remington 870 with an expanded magazine (7+1 shells) and a pistol grip. It also has a rear sight, where as most shotguns have only a front sight, this allows for a bit more aiming capability. We use regular old double 00 buckshot, as well as slugs. Our main use is that we keep them at the gate, if you have to engage a target at the gate, your shots that miss could go off into civilian land and cause problems. Our shotguns are loaded with buck/buck/slug/slug/buck/buck/buck. The idea behind this is that the first two buckshot rounds are for shots at the windshield/driver, and the two slugs are for trying to penetrate the engine block if that doesn't work. Regardless, you don't get the same distance on a shotgun if you overshoot, so no shots going past your target and off into a residential area off-base.

So we went over some new changes to the primary AFI(Air Force Instruction, AKA "The Rules") that pertains to my career field. AFI 31-207, which was our Arming and Use Of Force instruction, is now obsolete and gone. They got rid of the Use of Force model(the rainbow staircase) and made a series of interesting changes. Keep in mind, these changes have a goal in mind, they are aligning our policy with FLETC policy in an effort to make it so that Air Force cops can lateral transfer as federal law enforcement. We are already accredited by FLETC, but not to a level that allows us to lateral. If this is done, then we'll be the equivalent of FLETC graduates. Able to conceal carry anywhere, and for Guardsman/Separating MP's we will be able to lateral to federal police officer jobs without having to go to the academy as a new hire. Some changes:

Airmen are now allowed to transport government firearms in their POV(Privately Owned Vehicle). This will let us do things like drive to the range in our own cars if the bus is full, or go to the big navy base for lunch if we're on duty, without having to go to the armory and disarm.

We can now carry firearms with a round in the chamber on the M4/M16/M870 with the safety on as a primary duty configuration. This won't happen at most bases, but it's nice that it's going to be an option for commanders.

We are now allowed officially to draw our weapons and take them off safe if we feel that there is a threat that warrants it, but cannot immediately see it. Per the old instruction, we were to go to "Ready Pistol" which was flap open, hand on the pistol with the safety off, in the event that we were looking for a threat. It put us at a severe disadvantage.

The clause about lethal force being a last resort was taken out. Now it's essentially, after the legalese about Objective Reasonableness and such, "If you feel you need to use lethal force and can articulate it, you don't have to escalate from verbal/taser/baton/OC, just do it." The old rule used to say it was a last resort, which was interpreted by some to mean that in a situation where lethal was common sense, you had to use your non lethal options first if it was remotely possible. Damn glad this was removed.

@Mark - Ah, I see. You have my sympathies. I hate people who do not clean up.

From what I heard from those around me back in Korea who finished their service, surprising and annoying amount of time is spent on cleaning things. I guess I like keeping things tidy so that much wouldn't bother me. Then again, there are plenty of possibility of having to clean up messes that I did not make so who knows.

Lets put it this way, if the military were an RPG, by your 20 year endgame you would have max level cleaning skills, and mid-level combat skills.

Your post is so going to my Quote Collection.

edited 8th Sep '12 5:30:29 PM by dRoy

Barkey: how true that is.

Army don't teach you to kill, unless it's killing germs.

XD

Why did the discussion go from shotguns to the participation of the US Army with amphibious operations? LOL

Well, over here, it was mostly a US Army affair since Mac Arthur made things personal. Also featured the biggest airborne operation (11th Airborne) in the Pacific theater (since one regiment is bigger than two battalions lol).

And your patience stat maxes out insanely fast. Or at least, it will have to if you hope to get anywhere.

Yeah. On the way home from our exercise on friday everyone was getting all squirrely and impatient/frustrated because we had some snags in the plan and got off the route a bit.

I don't always achieve this, but I kind of went into zen mode and just patiently stared out the window for 5 hours. It involves lots of deep breathing and "Getting pissed will make it worse.. Getting pissed will make it worse.. You can't do anything to get us home quicker.." thoughts.

Perfecting this train of thought and making it an on/off switch has been my primary focus of late.

That kind of mentality sounds like it would be useful for life in general, really.

I found that the difference in how stressful my military career was went way down when I started doing that a few years ago. I used to get batshit pissed at things that didn't make sense or I felt were stupid, which is something you have in abundance in the military. Then I learned to shut my mouth and just go with the flow, and life got so much better. The ironic part is now I have the rep to actually speak out and say shit is fucked up, but I just decide not to more often than not, because thinking too hard about the issue runs the risk of losing that zen patience.

The Philippine Marines Force Recon would be featured in History Channel tonight apparently. I don't know if it would be the same for those in other countries, but it's today at 10pm.

edited 9th Sep '12 1:39:20 AM by entropy13

I doubt it. History Asia's programming seems to be separate from History in the States (we get a whole day of Ancient Astronauts. Joy.)

Anyone want to tape this and share the wealth?

We don't have cable TV at home, so there...LOL

Picture Related.◊

Regarding cleaning, back when I was in A and C schooling for my rating (Fire Control Technician), the joke among the classes was that the rating's initials, "FT", really stood for "Floor Tech", as we had to sweep and mop the floors with FT classes on them.

Presumably the Sonar weenies had something like "Sweep Tech" or somesuch, but there wasn't much interaction between the students of the respective ratings during the school day, so I wouldn't know for sure.

Well, just a couple of weeks after I've been to Singapore, History featured the Fall of Singapore. lol

I liked the hitler channel better than the hurr channel

the military channel is what i watch for actual history stuff now.

When I were but a lad and had only been in the Territorial Army for a short while, I used to deal with the tedium of travelling back to barracks from distant camps by getting on the back of the luggage four tonne truck, getting into my sleeping bag (as canvas sided four tonners can be a tad cold) getting out my cleaning kit, cleaning my rifle and then getting some sleep. My seniors at the time didn't mind too much as long as I didn't wreck my fellow soldiers' kit.

Made coming back from Barry Buddon or Cultybraggan or Garelochhead Camps bearable. I seem to recall they eventually cracked down to the dreaded curse of health and safety legislation and made us all travel back in minibuses or coaches that were a lot more cramped.

edited 9th Sep '12 12:29:04 PM by TamH70