User Panel
Quoted: I take ears. Sometimes I shit in their mouths. Depends. Apart from ears the corpses generally don't have anything worth keeping. View Quote The real pro move is to shit in their mag pouches after appropriating any mags that fit your weapons. You know, leave a little surprise for the next guy that comes along checking bodies |
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Weapons, Radios and ammo are turned over to S2 along with personal items.
We turned over bodies to the local security forces/district chief etc. Kit/LCE and knives might find their way in a tough box, but not personal stuff (rings, wallet, pics etc). |
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My understanding is generally no. But there’s a reason why the Finns kept using Soviet standard rifle and MG ammo...
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If I'm lying dead on the battlefield, I doubt ill think any less of the commie who killed me after he grabs my shit.
I would think the same if the role is reversed. |
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Take what you can...give nothing back!!
And turn the cameras OFF when you piss on them |
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Quoted: The real pro move is to shit in their mag pouches after appropriating any mags that fit your weapons. You know, leave a little surprise for the next guy that comes along checking bodies View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: I take ears. Sometimes I shit in their mouths. Depends. Apart from ears the corpses generally don't have anything worth keeping. The real pro move is to shit in their mag pouches after appropriating any mags that fit your weapons. You know, leave a little surprise for the next guy that comes along checking bodies Nice. I'll work that in. Thanks. ETA: And now a musical interlude. Warren Zevon- Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner (cover by Lauren O'Connell) |
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It's basic military disciple to police the battle space and collect weapons, ammo, explosives, vehicles, radios, maps and other sensitive items from the enemy dead. And your own...
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Bodies are checked for items of possible intelligence. Our men don't loot. Maps, letters, photos, watches, rings (unit, organization identity) or anything else that could be of use to Intelligence.
OK, read Blont's book Foot Soldier or Inside the Battle of the Bulge. That guy always went ahead of his unit presumably to scout and disarm booby traps but in reality to loot. Just read an 82nd Airborne Paratrooper's book and he had a German gas mask container filled with jewelry and precious metals. A surprise raid routed them and he lost his loot. |
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If I were fighting a war, and standing on a field of enemy dead, I would loot corpses for valuables and weaponry.
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Quoted: Do you really loot enemy soldiers once you kill them (for ammo and weapons...assuming a lull or stop in combat)? Do you leave them or have to bury them? I would think it would suck to be looted after being shot on the battlefield. I would think it would also suck to get shot while looting an enemy on the battlefield. Are our enemies worse than us when it comes to this kind of thing? View Quote |
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loot for intel, destroy weapons and ammo or it will be used again.
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Definitely collect intel, weapons, and ammo. Anything else government-issued is fair game. Personal effects are off limits.
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All the enemy dead bodies I have handled were searched for usable intelligence. I took pictures of the body...what was left of it, pictures both front and back of any available ID, and pictures of any handwritten notes or anything else that appeared suspicious. If the body was in the middle of the road the bodies were dragged to the side. Weapons were unloaded, made safe and tagged.
I always wore rubber gloves, dead bodies are medical waste and I treated them as such. No posing with the body or anything idiotic or looting. |
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Quoted: Historically, yes. Especially insurgents or poorer nations' soldiers. The famous photo of the soviets raising their flag over the Reichstag had to be modified because they had numerous German watches on their arms. Some countries based their weapons off their most likely enemy's so that they could use captured ammo. Finland did this. View Quote NOPE. As Finland had been part of Russia, their arsenals were full of Russian made arms...until 1917 when they took the opportunity to cede from the new Soviet run Russia. Being a new country from 1917 on, they had little cash to spend on anything new, so seized and captured guns were fixed up and put into service. Some arms were also donated by other countries, such as Germany. Post-war, the stockpikes were further fixed up, then improved on, then changed in quite a few ways to the original item - such as a reduction in bore size in some cases, better stocks, better triggers, better sights, etc. Not just small-arms, the Finns had about a dozen officially issued helmet patterns in the system. They bought whatever they could at the lowest price in the post-WW1 years in order to equip their new forces; such as a few million rounds of .303 tracer from the UK, etc. Now the fact that some of the UK WW2 9mm guns may have had use of captured German 9mm ammo in mind is another story. |
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If you end up in the company of strangers with enemy personal property on you, well, reap what you sow.
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Uh...yeah?
They might have cool stuff that I....want. I did once have to carve DEEP into a burnt enemy thigh (KabarFTW) to find what I needed (moist DNA). |
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Quoted: Do you really loot enemy soldiers once you kill them (for ammo and weapons...assuming a lull or stop in combat)? Do you leave them or have to bury them? I would think it would suck to be looted after being shot on the battlefield. I would think it would also suck to get shot while looting an enemy on the battlefield. Are our enemies worse than us when it comes to this kind of thing? View Quote Man 2020 just keeps giving nonstop. Think about your question. It's not looting. It's acquisition of supplies. You damn right you take ammo and weapons if you get a chance from the dead enemy. Looting what a damn joke please go away. |
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I highly doubt US soldiers are looting insurgents for useful weapons and ammo because they need weapons or ammo. Rather they probably want to remove as much of the enemies equipment so it can't be used against them again. (In theory)
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Quoted: Historically, yes. Especially insurgents or poorer nations' soldiers. The famous photo of the soviets raising their flag over the Reichstag had to be modified because they had numerous German watches on their arms. Some countries based their weapons off their most likely enemy's so that they could use captured ammo. Finland did this. View Quote I always figured it was because the Finns had Russian weapons from the beginning. They split from Russia during the revolution. They had armories full of Russian guns because they were Russian armories. I want to say they had one of the Russian Mosin factories but it was moved back to russia rather hastily during the breakup. The commies weren’t strong enough in power to hold on to the Finnish turf but they came back for it repeatedly later. |
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Quoted: What did you decide to keep at one point? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: I had souvenirs for years but felt weird about it and tossed them in trash can a few months ago. One of them had blood on it still and just really bothered me. What did you decide to keep at one point? Only kept the AK mags. Cause I have a AK even those I tucked away. Just feels weird even holding them. It’s hard to describe. |
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Why wouldn’t you? They may have resources that you need.
Or something else cool to take. I don’t think looting a corpse is that horrible in war. Plenty of other worse things you could be doing. |
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Quoted: And the Soviets even designed some of their support weapons so they could fire NATO rounds. View Quote Pray Tell, which weapon systems are you talking about? |
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My granddad told the story of one of his buddies taking the ring off a dead German in WWII. He said when he went to pull the ring off his whole finger came off. My granddad had a pocketknife he took off a dead German soldier, my dad has it now.
He never did say if it was Germans they killed or dead Germans they came across. He would talk a lot about some things and not talk about other things. |
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This is what my my WW2 Vet Father in Law told me. He said he would never take anything off of dead bodies out of fear they were booby trapped. If he saw a German soldier killed then they would take the loot from him
He carried a bag of loot. He had watches and jewelry and a lot of this was taken out of the bedrooms of German houses while the residents laid in bed. He buried his bag of loot in the basement of a house in Elbenau Germany just before being captured after crossing the Elbe When he left the basement he threw all of his personal possessions on to a piece of canvas and he was looted by the Germans. Unlike the US Army, German officers got first shot at the loot instead of the enlisted man RIP Frank ETA....He said that when guys went on leave back to Paris everyone would kick something in from their loot bags to finance the trip |
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I had to give up several Marines from my platoon to assist with enemy body recovery after Fallujah II. I selected Marines who I felt were the most grounded and resilient since they would have to reconcile it later. For inexplicable reasons, this has bothered me, since I knew what they would be exposed to along with the danger of the assignment. Burden of command I guess, IDK.
Was behind some of the forward elements during the 03 invasion and we occupied several areas after recent engagements. Bodies and fighting holes were searched and weapons collected. Bodies were buried in pits (by others) and GPS marked. I have an AK bayonet for my troubles. |
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