I see pictures of soldiers with ACOG's and Aimpoints.  I was just wondering what the protocol was.

And unfortunately some troops are buying Tacpoints. My local gun store informed me that they sold a bunch of Tacpoints to a bunch of Utah guard guys getting deployed. I own a Tacpoint. I figured it would hold me over unitl I can get in on the ta31 group buy and then it can go on my 10/22. I just think our troops deserve something with a proven track record and they should not have to pay for optics out of their own pocket.

What can we do to better support out troops??

Steve

Quoted: What can we do to better support out troops??

Send them some optics.

As soldier in currently in Bagdad, I can only speak about my unit. When we deployed from Texas, quite a few of us went out and purchased aimpoints, ACOGs, and other scopes. Why? Because when we asked our higher  HQ about optics, all we got was a shrug. Fortunately when we arrived in Kuwait for staging there were more than enough aimpoints and a couple of ACOGs TA31s waiting on us. Now every combat and most of our support guys have some kind of optic. The worst part is, a couple of guys bought $800 dollar scopes just to be given one 2 weeks later by the Army. The short answer is.....the Army is issuing many more optics now than it was a year ago.

A Good friend of mine is being deployed here in a month or so. Kept asking the higher ups for optics and always got a " no " . So he went out and bought a Eotech 511 and ended up bringing it to work to show the guys. Soon as the commander saw it he ended up ordering some 30-40 units of the 552 series. The majority of these then fell into officer hands only.

Genral rule of thumb is they are issued.  That being said I was in an Infantry unit, and we all had them.  Armor units and such do not even have many rifles, let alone optics.  Guard units are getting them issued very heavily.  The Army really started issuing optics in a large way in roughly 2000.

When the current war in Iraq began, it is true that most armor units didn't have very many rifles. However, with the current rotation of units all soldiers deploy with either an M4 or M16. As an example my armor battalion actually has 30 more rifles than soldiers to replace battle damaged/destroyed. 85% of those have either an M68/Aimpoint or ACOG.

I would like to make one statement... all of these members who have responded are Guard or Army... The Marine Corps is still lacking the Funding for these Optics... Not 1/3 of our infantry have optics... Some Officers do, some Infantry, Mainly the Generals Security teams have the required equipment and the units just now showing up from conus... those of us who were here in iraq fo 81/2 months last year werent given any optics and this year Ive been here 81/2 months sofar I saw my first Marine Corps issued TA31 yesterday on a LtCol's rifle...

The armed services used to protect the United States are Vastly under funded...

I purchased a NIB ACOG TA44-5 a couple weeks ago while my unit has been mobilizing for heading to Iraq.  Yes it was a pretty heavy outlay of cash, and maybe I'll get issued one once we get there.  But since there are no guarantees of getting anything, I figgure'd I'd guarantee me having one by going out and buying one.

Hopefully I won't have to use it while I'm there.  Otherwise, it's like insurance; better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

I was over there for almost a year.  The troop's that have them go out and do mission but yes some some troop's need them, but there are troop's that NEVER leave camps do not need sites.