Stupid GI Tricks

[Targan]

Welcome to the forum Panther Al. More active duty stories like those, please!

[Panther Al]

Heh. Not sure that they count as stupid tricks or not but I have a few I could share..

About a month and half into Iraq we ran out of 556 and could not get any for love of anything (a story there as well for another time). So we started using what ever we could, such as a 12 man patrol with 8 240's. Anyways, about this time my gunner and loader joined the German Army. 1hat this you might ask? Well we found a trio of weapons we decided to use and furthermore decided that we could do without our helmet covers. The trio? A 8mm MG42, a very beat up but good running MP40, and to my own surprise, a MP44. Not much ammo for it, true, but fun till they took them away.

[pmulcahy11b]

And we'll have fun, fun, fun till daddy takes the machineguns away...

[dragoon500ly]

My dad tells a story out of Vietnam, his platoon had engaged a detachment of VC and had requested a resupply of ammo, water and C-rats, they got the C-rats and the water, but the S-4 sent forward several cases of 7.62mm, ammo for M-14s, wouldn't have been a problem, but they had turned in their M-14s over a year ago....

[Abbott Shaull]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

My dad tells a story out of Vietnam, his platoon had engaged a detachment of VC and had requested a resupply of ammo, water and C-rats, they got the C-rats and the water, but the S-4 sent forward several cases of 7.62mm, ammo for M-14s, wouldn't have been a problem, but they had turned in their M-14s over a year ago....

One would of thought the S-4 would of had this problem sorted out before hand...

Maybe he was waiting for emergency such as this to push the ammo on someone...Ugh...

[HorseSoldier]

Originally Posted by Abbott Shaull

One would of thought the S-4 would of had this problem sorted out before hand...

Maybe he was waiting for emergency such as this to push the ammo on someone...Ugh...

Even in peacetime I've seen crew served training scrubbed because someone ordered ammo for the M85 (?) 50 cal machinegun in the cupola on an M60 rather than ammo for M2s, and the two machineguns use different and incompatible links (note: no clue what genius decided M60 tank commander's MGs should use unique links, but obviously they should be dragged out behind the Pentagon and beheaded).

I've also seen a Nat'l Guard unit that was still equipped with M16A1s try to zero and qualify with M855 green tip ammo. Official DOD guidance on that combo is "war time only, and then only within 100 meters" -- from what I saw with rounds keyholing on the 25 meter zero range I'd venture to guess DOD was being generous saying you could use it effectively in combat at 100 meters.

And was on a sniper course where someone at Ft Bragg dug very deep into the very back of some ammo bunkers and issued a mess of M118 Special Ball instead of the newer and better M118 Long Range ammo -- a lot of it with some ancient red white and blue eagle logo packaging from when 118SB was competition ammo.

[Abbott Shaull]

Originally Posted by Panther Al

Heh. Not sure that they count as stupid tricks or not but I have a few I could share..

About a month and half into Iraq we ran out of 556 and could not get any for love of anything (a story there as well for another time). So we started using what ever we could, such as a 12 man patrol with 8 240's. Anyways, about this time my gunner and loader joined the German Army. 1hat this you might ask? Well we found a trio of weapons we decided to use and furthermore decided that we could do without our helmet covers. The trio? A 8mm MG42, a very beat up but good running MP40, and to my own surprise, a MP44. Not much ammo for it, true, but fun till they took them away.

Common there no way they would run out of 5.56 ammo...and the rest of the story why so many troops were running around with capture AKs...lol.

[Panther Al]

Originally Posted by Abbott Shaull

Common there no way they would run out of 5.56 ammo...and the rest of the story why so many troops were running around with capture AKs...lol.

You would think it would be impossible, but it was a issue with the first wave troops. 5.56 ball was ver y hard to come by (tracer on the other hand). Being a armoured cav unit (M1A2/M3) we was last in line since it was assumed we would never do dismounted ops: hence we was only given the basic draw: 210 rounds per M4. But at least we had 7.62 coming out of our ears. On my track I had some 20k rounds, being a tank has its advantages I guess. The brad guys had even more.

[Legbreaker]

I can believe it for armoured troops. Back in the day our armoured crew fired their personal weapons on exercise about once a year - they'd be throwing their issued blanks at us infantry. Mind you, we were very glad to get it as there seemed to be a serious shortage of blanks for training for some unknown reason - we'd go for days with only 1 mag while supposed to be conducting offensive actions (which chew through the ammo if done right). Most of the time we were reduced to yelling "bang".

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

I can believe it for armoured troops. Back in the day our armoured crew fired their personal weapons on exercise about once a year - they'd be throwing their issued blanks at us infantry. Mind you, we were very glad to get it as there seemed to be a serious shortage of blanks for training for some unknown reason - we'd go for days with only 1 mag while supposed to be conducting offensive actions (which chew through the ammo if done right). Most of the time we were reduced to yelling "bang".

And MILES? I saw that only for major exercises, or the time that for some reason we got it for a joint exercise in the National Guard with the Air National Guard Security Police. And I mean MAJOR exercises, such as an NTC rotation or Team Spirit in Korea.

[pmulcahy11b]

I remember the times on ranges where we were told to burn (i.e., waste) ammo just so we would not get a lesser allotment the next fiscal year. Though I did get to do fun things like fire at pop-up targets on automatic, fire M16s on M60 ranges, and fire extra M202 rockets. Fun, but wasteful.

[Abbott Shaull]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

And MILES? I saw that only for major exercises, or the time that for some reason we got it for a joint exercise in the National Guard with the Air National Guard Security Police. And I mean MAJOR exercises, such as an NTC rotation or Team Spirit in Korea.

Speaking of MILES I remember when it was discovered all one need to do was to pull cocking handle of the M16 back and let it go when the laser on the end of the barrel was on. The jolt would register as the weapon being fired. It was an interesting field exercise that time out...lol Yeah it was funny that it seemed to only really come out for the MAJOR exercises so it was like twice or three times a year...