He looks sleepy.


Aviator  [img]www.milpubs.com/aviator.gif[/img]

[:O]
I don't see a soldier.

How come he has both the SAW and an M16?  I figure a SAW gunner would be excused from carrying the M16.  By carrying two weapons, I would think his menouverability (sp) would be highly handicapped.  Makes little sense to me.  Any takers on this puzzle?

JRB

It's so he can execute the SAW if it gives him any sass.

radioman

My guess would be that he's holding someone else's rifle for one reason or another.  I was a Marine (not infantry), and as I recall, SAW gunners are only issued SAWs and not M16's, for obvious reasons.  Let me see if I can recall the weapons issued to members of a fire team:

Fire Team Leader:  M16A2 w/M203, M7 bayonet
Automatic Rifleman:  M249 SAW, K-Bar
Assistant Automatic Rifleman:  M16A2, M7 bayonet
Rifleman:  M16A2, M7 bayonet

If any grunts out there see any errors, please point them out.

SeMPer Fi

youre pretty close. more than likely he isnt the SAW gunner. he's manning the gun and that is probably his weapon at cross body sling arms. you never know they could be practicing moving wounded and that is the weapon of the casualty. or maybe the SAW gunner is about to take a shot with an AT-4, or maybe that motivated PFC is so bad he needs a weapon for each hand!

Generally military units have weapons assigned to them based on their authorized strenght. That means an M-16 for ever soldier, plus spares, plus SAWS, M-240's, M-60's, LAWS, M-203's etc. So if you are a MG'er you still have to have an issued "personal weapon".  Part of it is because if a unit is deployed they take ALL their weapons, none are left where the can't be used.

When I was an MP every 3rd person was assigned an M-60. Every third person had an M-203. We also had 1 90 mm recoiless rifle per platoon and a Ma Duece in the company. So basically only 1/3 of the company had "just" M-16's.

I had an M-16A1, M-60, and a 90 mm rifle assigned to me............My assistant gunners both had M-203's.

Plus crew served weapons go where they are needed.......

Well, I was a sawgunner for about a year and a half, and I loved it. Light and fully auto.  (Doctrine is changing a little now but this is how it was when I left Hawaii) A fire team consists now of Team leader with M4 Bayonett, Paq-4 (IR Laser in case someone does not know), PVS-14 (3rd Gen optics Monocular), 3X scope for Nods, M-68 Reflex sight.   Grenadier has M4 w/M203, Paq 4, PVS-7B or 7D, M-68.  Saw Gunner has M-249, Paq-4, 100 Rd soft pouch, PVS 7D.  Rifleman has M-4, paq-4 PVS-7B or 7D, M-9 Bayonett, An/PSN-11 PLGGR (GPS System), M22 Binos, M-68, and locally bought 9-12X scope.  BTW, all waepons had a Modular Weapons system that added Rails in place of the handguards made by Knights Armament.  Highspeed, I liked em.. made putting stuff on much easier.  Was hell on fingers putting 105 of those things on though.  Bloody fingers...

The doctrine is changing it looks like cause the Team leader is carrying M203 now, and has 2 riflemen.  Also every man is carrying a radio called an ICOM.  Can hold many many freqs, but has pretty limited distance. half the size of one of those Motorolas the cops use.

Having that M-16 slung on his back like that is going to make it difficult to get into his assualt pack if he has to.  I love the way the army and military in general found ways to attach things to soldiers.  "Lets put a strap on it, and they can just sling it on their shoulders."  I had 10 and 15 things slung sometimes..  It was a maze.

Chewie

Army of one[(:)]

A both the M16A2 and M249 is considered an individual/TO&E weapon,  Per Marine Corps Regs, you can be assigned and issued 1 TO/E weapon.
Machine guns like the M240G, Mk19 and M2 are crew served weapons and not individual weapons, they are issued to a crew, it members retain their TO/E weapon.

Doctrine refers to the written theory of warfare.  What you are referring to is Tactic, Techniques and Procedures.  The practice of having the fire team leader also the grenadier is a common practice.

Here in Australia we use the ADI version of the Minimi, called the F89A1(P).

It has a thick barrel, and is fitted with a near copy of the MAG58 flash suppressor.

Also, no iron sights, as the bbl has the front sight mount not even milled.

A standard 1.5X scope (also fitted on the F88SA1) is used, but with the Picatinny rail, a varierty of scopes are used, such as AN-PVS types, along with the Cdn C-79 Wildcat too.

In general the weapon is isssued two per section, and is issued personally, so no extra weapon to be carried, such as this bloke has his M16 with him.

As for the Minimi's M16 mag housing, we no longer use it, as we only had old 20rd mags, and only one issued with the weapon. Steyr mags obviously don't fit.

Overall the receivers are FN made, but most other parts are ADI made in Lithgow, which also helps keep our small arms industry in operation.

1feral1
Sydney

I love the SAW. I think it's one of the best weapons in the US, small arms arsenal.  I have never had a problem with one.
When the army first got them, they complained that they were unreliable, because they did not work well when using blanks, fed by an M16 magazine....  [:E]

The reality of the story is that the genuine SAW gunner was too ugly, so they grabbed this guy to stage the pic.[;)]  The USMC is great at public relations.  Heck you'd think they've actually been doing something in this war by all the news footage of them everywhere.[:D]  

Ross (who's just poking fun at the "other" ground combat force)

Air Force, SF, SEALs, Recon -all support units for the Marine's MEU(SOC)s that are parked off of Pakistan, and in the Gulf.

I went to our (Army Aviation) advanced course with an Indonesian Major (we train many foregin students).  He understood fine about why we had a Navy, an Airforce, and an Army.  Even why we had a separate Marine Corps (though under the DoN).  It got harder for him to understand why the Navy had it's own airforce, the Army had it's own navy and airforce, the USMC had it's own airforce, and that there was a second navy called the Coast Guard that also had it's own airforce.  The farther into the subject we got, the more confusing it became.  He fully understood the concept of why the assets were needed to support each service, but not why they needed to always come from that service.

It got even better when we tried to explain that the Air Force used to be part of the Army until they declared independence and that's why we in the Army couldn't fly armed fixed wing anymore.[:D]  

I don't know if he ever understood it the way we explained it, but he knew it worked out for us.  By the end of the course, he understood it better.  At least better than he understood Holloween.

Ross

Why the A-10s don't belong to the Corps, I'll never understand.
(yeah, I know the wings don't fold -so what?)[:)]

Being a former 0331 MARINE!, I can say categorically that this is NOT a picture of a soldier.  However, I would also doubt that he is the owner of that weapon.  I must concur w/ the earlier post that he is probably taking over the weapon in some sort of exercise..  I would not want to carry two weapons, as the saw was my weapon as well.  

Or maybe his buddy is releiving himself.

It's obvious...the 16 or the SAW belongs to the guy taking the photo.  One way or the other.