The other Mothers are the problem...
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Originally Posted by
William F. Owen
Really? No former SOG 1-0 I ever met was hard of hearing and I doubt JMA, Ken White, Gian Gentile, Reed Dyer or any of the other guys with high time in combat are either. If so, then a pull a percentage disability based on testing.
Ummm, I can't speak for those others but my third and still more powerful set of Hearing Aids and those of my many contemporaneous former serving friends suggest you may be slightly over optimistic on that score. It's the cumulative effect that gets you, thus his older Officers and NCOs. The explosive and firearms noise are a minor problem but turbines and engines contribute far more nowadays...
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Do we stop parachuting because we may have to pay out?
No, we pay out to keep people parachuting in spite of a loss every now and then. :D
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Rat Mate, I think we have to separate the real issues from the worthless excuses.
I agree but what is worthless in your eyes or mine are not in the eyes of politicians and the western variety of that species is perhaps way too attuned to the Mothers of the world...:rolleyes:
Yes in Korea, no in Viet Nam in my observation
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Originally Posted by
Pete
Change of subject -- did G.I.s in Korea and Vietnam really make range cards for their MGs...
Though I sure didn't see all units in either war even with more than one tour in 'em. Due to the nature of the wars, range cards in Korea only appeared after the lines stabilized. Turnover in Viet Nam and few set piece defenses led to no seeming pressing need.
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I'm trying to sort out the infantry things that are really important versus the things that the manuals say are important that few guys actually do.
Good luck with that. You can get five Infantrymen sitting around talking and get five different opinions, all based on their varied experiences in varied wars.
Generally speaking, the books from the 50s and 60s are the best for giving a what's important in conventional operations, mid 60s for COIN. Most 70s through 90s stuff is poor though there a few exceptions -- the 1984 edition of FM 21-75 is the best yet and a Troop really conversant with it would be a fairly well trained infantryman. The '93 edition of FM 21-26 was the best ever.
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When I was in the artillery a first sergeant used to say before ARTEPs that he'd do the range cards; it was then a skill that circa 1980 wasn't taught, even though it was in the tech and field manuals.
What is taught has little bearing on what is important. Check the books and it's all in them, a lot is not taught for three prime reasons. In order (1) If it produces a low 'Go' rate and makes the trainers look incompetent. Makes no difference if it's a task or knowledge proven to have a slow learn rate. (2) If it entails a lot of hard work on the part of the trainers. (3) If it takes an inordinate amount of time, thus limiting details and impacting other training events deemed more important.
MG range cards fail to make the cut for institutional training on points 1 and 3. They get tabbed out for 'Unit Training' -- where they generally don't get taught due to such important things as Rape Prevention training, an occasional review or parade, family day or such like. Not a big problem, we don't defend very well in any event...