Gents,
Please take the time to read this article:
http://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=38540
I used to make my squad practice mag changes over and over and over again...to the point that some worthless E-6 from another unit within our Brigade complained about it, saying we weren't supposed to have magazines in the weapons inside the wire, and I told him to mind his own business while I trained my squad. This was in February, 2003...2 months before the incident the wounded warrior Marine detailed in that article.
That worthless E-6 went all the way to our Brigade Sergeant Major to complain about me training my men, and the BDE SGM came to personally talk with me about it. I told him I would continue to train my men, and by the way, what's up with the lax security at the airfield we were at? He didn't have a good answer for me...later in the deployment, he lost his M9 pistol, and was relieved of his duties. 
The biggest problem I have with that incident is that he entered and attempted to clear a courtyard ALONE!!!!!!!!!!! The mag change drill just amplified the mistake of being one man in a gunfight versus a numerically superior force. What about grenades????? One is none, two is one. That is why I focus on team-level live fire exercises in my courses.
But yeah, practice changing mags quickly from realistic gear in stressful situations, while on a knee, the prone, rolled left, and rolled right, while walking, then running. We did this the most in my 1st Scout Platoon during our Immediate Action Drill training, but line units rarely, if ever, practiced it.
Since the military is filled with career "professionals" who know jack and squat about combat, these mistakes are more likely to be repeated, not learned from.
One specific thing you can do when involved in "contact is imminent" scenarios is to have one of your mag pouches open, with the cover tucked behind the mags to maintain tension against them, preventing loss of the mags. This will make your emergency reloads quicker. Nowadays, there are all sorts of open-topped pouches with elastic retainer bands and tabs, so the gear is more suited to short-duration CQB work, but having a simple plan for your mag changes from different positions is a good habit to have for those who are in a career involving fighting with firearms, and those who prefer to train for these scenarios.
Most importantly, train as a Team and never let that battle buddy concept die with basic training...it is the foundation of tactics in the real world.
sounds like count rounds when ya count 29 press mag release hold the weapon with strong hand allow mag fall were it may insert new mag with weak hand the whole time strong hand keeps weapon trained to threat, continue fire once mag is reloaded train in multiple postions ignore mag on ground. "may" police up empty mag mission dependant and optempo of events. Not a easy drill to perform or get into Soldiers heads. Prior to training event have Soldier postion pouches on IBA or vest to be accessable in any postion...... NAHHHH never heard of such a silly thang and why would ya want to do that.... LOL
Useful information. Thank You for posting
I have a friend who is was in the army. If I had a dime for every time he asked me if I was going to get some training, with whatever weapon we were discussing at that time, I'd have a good sized savings account. Training, training, training. No wonder-weapon will save your life if you haven't learned how to use it.
Thanks for posting this.
A little off topic, but I arrested a SGM for stealing ~$2 worth of S clips...haha. Good times.
I agree with you though. Being an MP in theater, I had access to tons of stuff that most didn't. So any ammo that I came across, I would store it and then get with my SF buddies who were having troubles finding ammo and do a swap... Training for me, ammo for them. I was shocked that they never did anything alone. Not like the video games that you see now a days that are the "real deal". If you were caught without your partner, you died. Plain and simple. So I agree with you, it needs to be learned from most definitely.
Clearing a courtyard alone does seem like the primary issue. In boot camp and mct/itb they now teach us speed and tactical reloads wearing full body armory. Useful stuff. When im bored ill practice speed and tac reloads. This video comes to mind. http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%...2_qo5_wSa8
Yut,
Your link didn't work, but this is the video that came to my mind:
[video=youtube;Hx0JzYcwUiY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx0JzYcwUiY[/video]
Also this one:
[video=youtube;7IEOtvupVnE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=7IEOtvupVnE[/video]
[video=youtube;C2_qo5_wSa8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?nomobile=1&v=C2_qo5_wSa8[/video]
How could anyone complain about real training. A Sgt. that I worked for at our academy was a Tank commander in Desert Storm. He offered our services to a friend who was still in and about to be deployed. We were going to train a Signal corps group in some of the CQB tactics we used. I spent most of my time arguing with their CO (Major) about some of their practices that would get good people killed but retain (empty mags) equipment. I know alot of that has changed, but the event taught me that idiots tend to have high rank and no common sense in the military as well as LE.
Talk about muscle memory with your second video LR.
rkflorey Wrote:How could anyone complain about real training. A Sgt. that I worked for at our academy was a Tank commander in Desert Storm. He offered our services to a friend who was still in and about to be deployed. We were going to train a Signal corps group in some of the CQB tactics we used. I spent most of my time arguing with their CO (Major) about some of their practices that would get good people killed but retain (empty mags) equipment. I know alot of that has changed, but the event taught me that idiots tend to have high rank and no common sense in the military as well as LE.
Ahemm it would surprise you the number having X-fer'd from a field that does view this as the upmost basic of skills.
Jason Falla was Australian SASR guy before coming to the States. He side-kicked with LAV for a while on Tactical Impact...good dude. The fastest mag-changes I've seen were done by Kyle Lamb though. His shooting is really a religious event to watch...
[video=youtube;FaCpOt9xVy4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaCpOt9xVy4[/video]
I suspect the communists achieved their stated goals long, long ago in penetrating our military and national command apparatus, so that only members of the solidarist movement are promoted to the decisive levels of command, or incompetents are purposely promoted to weaken the world's most powerful military.
They certainly achieved this with the CIA, since the NKVD flooded its ranks with doubles before it was even started. When I learned about that, it sent chills throughout me for about a minute or two. Everything about Langley finally made sense.
I can't tell you how many complete incompetent CO's, BC's, and BDE CDR's I had. It was as if only a few low-level leaders and most of the entry-level soldiers understood what was going on, and occasionally, a General. In between, there were complete buffoons. I had to fight the chain of command in order to conduct battle-focused training on a weekly basis, even when we were deployed and preparing for missions!
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YutYut Wrote:In boot camp and mct/itb they now teach us speed and tactical reloads wearing full body armory. Useful stuff. Not sure I see speed reloads as being really useful for other than 3-gun competition. In all of the videos I've watched of Iraq and Afghan combat, there has not been a single instance of speed reloading. Even in the incident in the OP, the Marine would've had his rifle reloaded quickly enough if he had stowed the empty mag in his trousers cargo pocket instead of trying to put it back into the mag pouch.
stanc Wrote:......the Marine would've had his rifle reloaded quickly enough if he had stowed the empty mag in his trousers cargo pocket instead of trying to put it back into the mag pouch.
HUHH???????????? in the cargo pocket????????????
Man I really have to hear the reasoning on this
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sgt_murf Wrote:HUHH???????????? in the cargo pocket????????????
Man I really have to hear the reasoning on this From the linked article in the post #1:
" There was one instance during a training exercise before we deployed where a British Royal Marine, who was part of a team doing a training evaluation on my unit, demonstrated how to reload our rifles quickly and put the empty magazine in our cargo pocket so that we wouldn't waste time trying to put it back into our super-tight standard-issue mag pouches."
stanc Wrote:From the linked article in the post #1:
"There was one instance during a training exercise before we deployed where a British Royal Marine, who was part of a team doing a training evaluation on my unit, demonstrated how to reload our rifles quickly and put the empty magazine in our cargo pocket so that we wouldn't waste time trying to put it back into our super-tight standard-issue mag pouches."
thats before Marines were getting issued the big mag dump pouches. So it was either try and fiddle with the tight pouch or cargo pocket. In response to the OP, yea he should have either just dumped the magazine or stuffed it in his cargo pocket. But he also should not have been clearing a building by himself as LR pointed out.
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stanc Wrote:Not sure I see speed reloads as being really useful for other than 3-gun competition. In all of the videos I've watched of Iraq and Afghan combat, there has not been a single instance of speed reloading. Even in the incident in the OP, the Marine would've had his rifle reloaded quickly enough if he had stowed the empty mag in his trousers cargo pocket instead of trying to put it back into the mag pouch.
Stan:
Very astute observation. So far I haven't met a guy who had to do a speed reload because he was about to be shot if he didn't. Not sure if this little saying is still around but it went something like "Change your magazine when you need to, not when you have to", or something of the sort.
I also question the wisdom of trying to retain a five dollar empty magazine when someone's life is at immediate risk. However, in training they really do have to hold on to that empty magazine and I figure they will do in combat what they do in training. In this case, perhaps the Marine was just doing what he was trained to do?
LR55
As i was taught in boot:
Speed reload= Eject mag, insert new mag. The ejected mag is NOT retained.
Tactical reload= Eject mag while inserting new mag. Ejected mag in retained. A tactical reload is performed during 1.) A lull in the firefight. 2.) If an indivual is about to clear a building and he is unsure about how much ammo is in his present magazine, he performs a tac reload and saves the ejected mag.
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