The Army's New Land Warrior Gear: Why Soldiers Don't Like It

[August]

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

There is a golden rule to the soldier - he doesn't like anything that adds even an ounce of weight to whatever he has to carry around.

Ain't that the truth. We even used to cut down the handles of our toothbrushes to save weight.

With that said, if you travel the marching roads of Fort Lewis and bother to look in the bushes, you can find whatever you like, from fully loaded M-16 magazines, to grenades. Soldiers apparently chuck em on their marches to lighten the load

This part i disagree with. Maybe on the battlefield but not in training.

[Heibges]

With that said, if you travel the marching roads of Fort Lewis and bother to look in the bushes, you can find whatever you like, from fully loaded M-16 magazines, to grenades. Soldiers apparently chuck em on their marches to lighten the load

This part i disagree with. Maybe on the battlefield but not in training.[/quote]

I agree. While on manuevers, I had a buddy who was stationed in Germany, whose driver took his knife and threw it into the snow, just to try to screw my friend. His whole unit stayed out there going through the snow until the knife was found. I don't remember if the driver was Article 15'd or Court Martialled. I have heard, although I never went there myself, that losing a weapon in Europe was a particularly big deal.

Still, I would also say that back in the old days it was a common practice to chuck unfired ammunition when returning from the range because it was a bear to turn back in.

The order always came down from the Battallion Commander that absolutely all ammunition was to be fired before you left the range. Generally it was expended, but sometimes you just didn't have time to fire it all because another Battalion needed the range, so I have seen ammo thrown into bushes and into streams.

Mostly .50 Cal Ammo and 7.62mm for the M-240, but also grenade simulators, artillery simulators, and the MILES simulators for the tank gun.

But when I was going in the Army was really clamping down on this, and I know a few units that spend weeks unbelting, cleaning, rebelting and turning in ammo that they got busted for discarding.