Quote Originally Posted by jcustis View Post
...has it ingrained in his head to "seek cover and return fire". ... Where those texts fail is in not describing it as "aimed fire."

There is a lot of full-auto fire going on, and it looks as though they really had not idea where to send it, as evident in the POV guy's lack of any commands or orientation until more rounds crack overhead and he finally calls out a direction. it's pretty clear that he isn't even achieving the stock weld necessary He alsi starts out firing at the hillside that looks to be close to 500m so that appears to be an attempt to satisfy some notion that getting rounds out - any rounds - is better that waiting to ID the threat target. That's an example of our training problem.
One thing that I often wonder about but have just managed to articulate is pressure to return fire, especially social pressure. It seems to me that often one would have no idea, or only a vague idea, where fire came from. I can imagine feeling totally confused yet also feel like a bit of a goose sitting there doing nothing and wondering what's going on - like at school. I can also imagine a sergeant yelling at me to start firing, everyone else is firing, so I just do what everyone else is doing. Don't want to be accused of cowardice or something later...

Now I think about it, I wonder how much of that is going on on the other side as well. How much of the 'Taliban' fire is bravado, a feeling of 'I've got to be seen to be doing something', or just some larrikins messing with the soldiers' heads to get a rise?