Posted: 8/24/2010 5:20:31 PM EDT
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This is a question more specifically to combat MOS's but anyone who's been deployed to a combat zone may be able to answer.
While you are overseas is there any additional "onbase" combat training being done/offered? If the base has a range are you allowed to use it at will? Are you afforded any "training" ammuntion? Does a typical infantry or other combat unit practice reaction drills, SOP's and whatnot when they are not on a mission? What about medical/trauma training? Sorry if I didnt use the propper acronym's Im just a lame assed civilian... |
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Typically you will do a range when you get in country, really to confirm zeros and qualify on any weapons that you are falling in on. (IE for us, M240s, M2s, and CROWS) We also did a CQB range in Kuwait before hopping the border. Not a whole lot of training per se during the deployment itself - we did "rehersals"/rockdrills prior to every single mission. "If so and so's truck blows up, what does the third truck do?" kinda stuff....more refreshers. |
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Quoted:
He said training!
You're training begins from the time you get off the plane, to when you get back on it. This is for combat MOS's only. Is there reallly no downtime? I mean even if its marksmanship training or simply pacticing changing a tire like a nascar pitcrew |
| There are ranges and depending on where you're at you might have ammo specifically set for training. But that really depends on where you're at. On Bagram the only real range was run by CJSOTF and you had to block off the road or else the AF MPs would come contribute to the fight and harass you. In Iraq, my range was the side of a mountain with 55 gallon drums. |
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we had a small zeroing range (25m) we set up outside of our platoon COP. We could pretty much do whatever we wanted....after we zeroed we'd confirm at known distances from our fighting positions to make sure lasers, optics, etc were dead on. There wasn't really a limit on how much we could shoot..we just kept it "reasonable." We shot so much anyways that it wasn't that fun anymore but any time someone wanted to recheck their zero it was allowed. I can't really complain about that. As far as real formal training classroom style or like the official ranges we did stateside there was none of that. If anything shooting overseas resembled more of an ARFCOM get together than something army. (That's a good thing)... |
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When I was in Kandahar, my guys trained every Friday, since it was a downday for the locals. We were able to get all the ammo I wanted, and that was a good thing, since so many guys showed up for my second year who were untrained on the weapons systems . Both Walton and CNS had their own ranges. My medics contributed to the weekly training sessions. No reason to keep them out of the training loop.
When I was in Helmand in '08 we had a half-finished range we trained the local ANP on. We got in trouble for using it on July 4th because we had so many rounds leaving the range because it was incomplete....glad I opted to sit that range day out..... When I went to Kabul to finish out my second year, I got the opposite answer and was told that there was no such thing as training ammo in-country, which I knew after being tehre for a year and a half was a bogus answer....... Phoenix was putting on CLS classes in '08. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
He said training!
You're training begins from the time you get off the plane, to when you get back on it. This is for combat MOS's only. I hope MPs count cause we were the same way. zero down time. missions 6 days a week. It was 7 a week for us. Sure, we had time to fuck off, but it was in 4-8 hour intervals between patrols. |
| no shit the command got so bored the last few months of our deployment they contemplated running EIB, after that idea fell through they ended up getting BRM and ARM pushed through. the day i saw soldiers being ordered to use 550 cord to park 20 humvees perfectly straight and then later saw a platoon doing a ruck march around the wall of the FOB with PT belts and all i knew that we had ran out of things to do in iraq. |
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Quoted:
no shit the command got so bored the last few months of our deployment they contemplated running EIB, after that idea fell through they ended up getting BRM and ARM pushed through. the day i saw soldiers being ordered to use 550 cord to park 20 humvees perfectly straight and then later saw a platoon doing a ruck march around the wall of the FOB with PT belts and all i knew that we had ran out of things to do in iraq. fucking this 
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