Thursday, April 11, 2024

Holy crap, this is an indictment of the clowns in charge of training,

and why nobody in the Navy spotted a captain holding a rifle with the scope mounted backwards.
Another big reason why our troops seem to suck with small arms is the fact that the Generals and Admirals in Washington, DC would rather spend billions on new toys than invest in rigorous training. The United States Army famously removed the ubiquitous grenade throwing qualification from Army Basic Training because their new recruits were too weak and uncoordinated. The Army still issues grenades to the troops, but they are supposed to get the skill to use them somewhere else. They also dropped the requirement to successfully complete the land navigation course.

So, how is the Army going to fix weak and uncoordinated troops? Spend more money on toys, of course. The Army has allotted $331 million to purchase the “Next Generation Squad Weapons” and newer, more expensive ammunition. The new rifles and squad automatic weapons are larger and heavier than the M4 or the M249 SAW. So the new troops are weaker and more uncoordinated, but the solution is buy them bigger and heavier guns and ammo. Okay, got it.

I'd imagine some people are very unhappy with this situation, and a lot of others are unhappy with people talking about it.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

And this dipshit commander has Expert medals in rifle and pistol. I guess you can pencil wag your own weapons quals at a certain rank.

Phelps said...

The marine who handed him that rifle knew EXACTLY what he was doing, and hated him enough to do it anyway.

MageOhki said...

If I recall correctly (caveat, while I am from a Navy Family, I was the rebel, and went Army), Destroyers don't HAVE Marines on board(well, usually), and even then, it'd be the Master at Arms (which is usually a Navy Petty officer, with the caveat above). Which is arguably WORSE, for that Commander (both uses here), as Marines love making Navy officer look foolish anyways. But having one of your Petty officers humiliate you? Err, that command climate has to suck. Suck badly.


Dave said...

Was it a Marine, or was it a Navy Gunner's Mate?

Anonymous said...

Are you sure?

Anonymous said...

this was my first thought as well

Anonymous said...

An active duty relative sailor of mine said, "They hate their CO." It was a photo op chance to make him look stupid.

Anonymous said...

I’m 93 and fear our country is going downhill for the same reason Rome fell, high birth rate outside the city, greater wealth inside made immigration their destiny.,

Cato Renasci said...

The marine who handed him that rifle knew EXACTLY what he was doing, and hated him enough to do it anyway

Speculation or knowledge?

Anonymous said...

Reply to Phelps: absolutely! The gunners mate who set up the rifle knew what he was doing. I wonder what kind of commander the officer is that he would be so embarrassed by his crew that way.

fast richard said...

The Officer in the picture was also incompetent enough to not see the obvious problem. Even if he didn't look very close at how the scope was mounted, he should have seen what was wrong as soon as he looked through the scope. The image looking through the wrong end of a scope is not like the image looking through the correct end.

Arthur said...

I first thought that was an "AI Photoshop job" because there are no scope rings. The position of the vertical foregrip was also suspect because it's too close to the magwell to be useful.

I was wrong - a visit to Trijicon's web site showed that Trijicon's VCOG sights come with an integral mount, "no rings required" which they tout as A Feature.

I concur - that was either:
A) An armorer who dislikes the command structure and/or its members enough to put them in disrepute, which may, or probably will, have consequences, or:

B) An armorer who is insufficiently trained to Know Better and sloppy enough to not care.

At the end of the day, however, it comes down to the individual shooting the rifle to know enough about The Task At Hand to demand proper assembly.

The Navy has not covered itself with glory here; if the brass does not know enough to recognize a scope is mounted backwards it must be asumed they also do not know enough to operate, and certainly not enough to command, ships.

All I can say is "Holy F*@&, we're in really deep $#@&" and start saving money for Mandarin lessons.

Carlos the Jackal said...

Except for all the untrainable losers that the military seems to be hiring these days.

Anonymous said...

Years ago, my Scout group toured a nuclear submarine at Bangor. While waiting on the dock, the officer of the day was coaching the guard relief, showing him the safety on his M-14. The guard was also wearing his protective mask carrier backwards, with the opening to the rear. There's never time to train your people on things they will need, but lots of time and effort toward things that check blocks on 'career development'.

Anonymous said...

Photoshopped all the way. Trijicon makes a scope base with no rings, but it’s for a different style of scope, the ACOG, which is not a traditional “Tube” scope design. The scope pictured is a Tube style scope that required Rings to hold it on. Also, the bell housing on the front of the scope, facing rewards, is messed up somehow, it’s like cut off, no sunshade at all it just kinda ends. Plus, I don’t care how stupid you are nobody is going to try to aim and fire a weapon with te scope on backwards. Has to be photoshopped by someone ignorant of firearms. In any event, bottom line: egg on face event.

Phelps said...

Why would the Navy shop a photo on their own official Instagram? Exercise some critical thinking.

Anonymous said...

The obvious problem isn't all he didn't see. The lens caps are still on the scope. The shooter was only able to see a black piece of plastic in front of his eyeball.

Anonymous said...

It's a Trijicon VCOG ... here is a link to the Trijicon VCOG page, scroll down to the section that starts "No Rings Needed".
https://www.trijicon.com/products/subcategory/trijicon-vcog-riflescope