I think everyone here is familiar with the concept of a "blood chit," right? As far as I know, the AVG pilots who flew for the Chinese prior to our entry into the Second World War started the trend of having a multilingual identification scarf handy in case they went down on the wrong side of the lines, but RAF and AAF pilots carried the idea one step further by adding an escape map -- just in case.
Well, we've always carried escape maps, but they're so detailed, they're too big to be worn as scarves, and that's about all I should really say in an open forum such as this one. And we've never really had a reason to carry a multilingual ID for E-and-E purposes, because if we had to PL (okay, "Precautionary Landing") in the hills, we had a working agreement with the Cav guys -- if they went down in our AO, we were there for them, and vice-versa.
That's changed with the drawdown
*waving good luck to my Cav buds*
and nothing quite hammered that idea home like being issued our own personal blood chit.
It's not as fancy as the ones the AVG or the AAF guys carried -- it's cotton, not silk, for one thing -- but it'll do.
However, I have to wonder about the one I was issued, even though I'm told it was ordered specifically for me.
It's nice to know I have friends.
The dirty bastids...
Well, we've always carried escape maps, but they're so detailed, they're too big to be worn as scarves, and that's about all I should really say in an open forum such as this one. And we've never really had a reason to carry a multilingual ID for E-and-E purposes, because if we had to PL (okay, "Precautionary Landing") in the hills, we had a working agreement with the Cav guys -- if they went down in our AO, we were there for them, and vice-versa.
That's changed with the drawdown
*waving good luck to my Cav buds*
and nothing quite hammered that idea home like being issued our own personal blood chit.
It's not as fancy as the ones the AVG or the AAF guys carried -- it's cotton, not silk, for one thing -- but it'll do.
However, I have to wonder about the one I was issued, even though I'm told it was ordered specifically for me.
It's nice to know I have friends.
The dirty bastids...
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Which is a giggle, considering that our AF brethren on the FW side won't even fly in the pattern unless they're carrying an M-4 and a couple of mags.
When you say "nope" on the weaps, does that mean not issued, or not allowed?
Which is scary in light of the handgun *training* some were given when Rummy decided that ALL military personnel were to be pistol qualified. Officers at Edwards were given manuals with pictures (think Chilton's) showing how a gun was broken down, cleaned and put back together. Never.once.touched.a.gun.
Instant pistol qualification!
I was always amazed at the number of fellow officers in artillery units (and more senior officers in Armor and Infantry units when I was serving as a Fire Support Officer) who regarded carrying a weapon, much less practicing with it, to be a tedious chore, vice a fundamental practice.
And who *still* had that officer arrogance about being an "expert" marksman.
I was brutal in disabusing them of that conceit when I was in charge of the ranges.
Probably not. The AF has a few...quirks I've noticed about their flight personel having to get their hands dirty.
A movie scene involving a handgun in the middle of combat is springing to mind: "Prepare to defend yourselves."
So, too, is a real life horror scene, of Nidal Hassan popping away with... a handgun.
The point is, sometimes there comes a time when a servicemember *may* need to be able to use these things. Leaving aside my puzzlement that anyone would consider weapons training a chore... I don't get the *expert* qual when you don't shoot expert?
Two thoughts:
1. Considering the diminishing effectiveness of each pistol, I'd damned well *better* be able to put a round through someone's eye at 20 meters if I had to and
2. All things considered, the Army made a supremely bad decision when it went with the 9mm.
You don't -- some senior officers *do*. It's a brag thang for them and an integrity thang for their scorers.
BTW, you can outshoot about 98% of the AF types I've coached on the range over the years.
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Multiple threads of bad logic were at work. Officer's weapons are their troops, right? And, ammo is expensive. So why actually encourage officers to use their weapons...
So, the gentlemen and ladies would show up to the range, talking about what great shots they were, and promptly have trouble hitting the target. So, of course, it was all those crappy WWII-era M1911A1s that were at fault. Everybody knows you can't hit the broad side of a barn with them.
Except that I and the armorer had refurbed each.and.every.one of them, much to the annoyance of the DISCOM bubbas. But that's a different story.
So, I would take the offending weapon, empty a magazine rapid-fire, all into the 8 ring or higher, hand it back to them and say, "Yep, must be the pistol."
Thus creating the need to learn.
When I was done, everybody had actually "qualified" vice "familiarized" and only three of us shot "Expert." Mind you, the criteria for 'expert" wasn't that high, though I can't remember it at the moment. I used the earlier edition of these charts to help the shooters diagnose their problems.
*high five* on those expert quals - tough to do with a pistol. Not everyone can go for the head shot... but it's the most effective.
And about that target. *Thank you* - I was actually really disappointed in that. Pissed me off. But that was using a weapon I'd never fired before. I much prefer wheel guns, and it was so cold my hands were frozen solid and ice kept forming on my sunglasses, and if it weren;t for the rangemaster spotting me shifting my grip, little pieces of my thumb still would be scattered at Blackwater.... yeah, yeah. Excuses, excuses. On the M16, however... yep. Shot expert. The only one in the battallion. But girls have a hard time with unsupported rilfe firing, mostly due to upper body strength issues. Pays off to grow up slinging hay bales! : )
Don't. Get. Me. Started.
Except that I and the armorer had refurbed each.and.every.one of them...
Could've used the two of you in the Joisey Guard -- the M1911 I drew for qual in 1979 went full auto on me due to a worn sear. But I still kept it on the paper for all seven rounds...
/brag
So. It looks as if we have ourselves a shooting team. We should issue a smack-down challenge against a randomly plucked squad of USAF killers.
Sorry, but teach the proper shooting stance and technique and that is a non-issue.
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Sez the gurl who grew up fighting wildfires in the woods with a shovel.
I think there's a sub-badge you can dangle off the Expert badge... Malfunctioning Weapon. I'll see if I can find one... Other than that.... serious brag rights. You can be first on the rotating team captaincy.
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Nnnoooooo! Really?! 0>;~} Honestly, she's not had that much opportunity to shoot with us being stationed (until recently, that is) in SoCal for the last several years. We're hoping to change that, though, in about 18 mo.'s -- for all of us.
"In a week's time, I think I progressed from blowing up my foxhole to blowing up the DI who stood barking instructions from oh, mebbe 10 yards away...."
*snort*
Please don't say that the DI was behind you.....
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Nope - the DI was taunting us: "Can you hit me? Ladies, I said, can you even hit me?" Yes, I did want to reach for the M16 at some point and say, "you mean, like this...?"
The M60 was fun, too. Whole lotta fun.
"Well, it's keeping the thread active...."
"Let's offer a mud pit..."
"No - Jello! Yeah, that's it. Jello!"
heh
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"{john and bill emailing furiously in private}
"Well, it's keeping the thread active...."
"Let's offer a mud pit..."
"No - Jello! Yeah, that's it. Jello!"
*snort!*
And probably all too true knowing them.
Hey - JTG was moving perilously close to getting his butt in a bind, challenging me on terminology, in public.
Somebody please 'splain that to the guys that got whooped by the strong presence of girl shooters this year at the National Legion match.........
http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=5063
Training. Conditioning. Been known to work. But not standard in the culture.
http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/distinguishedStory.cgi?distID=9453
Gurlz can shoot! Probably because they listen to instructions better than guys who "know all about shooting."
Of course girls can shoot. My own expert qual badge, being one of the items I would save in a fire, is a case in point. I was talking about unsupported rifle shooting:
But girls have a hard time with unsupported rilfe firing, mostly due to upper body strength issues.
So.... we go into a mall, and pluck 6 teenage girls at random. We then go to a 5-day-a-weaker gymnastics team, and pluck another 6 teenage girls. All without prior weapons experience. Gee... wonder who would do better with rifles?
Depends on whether or not they are taught proper stance and technique.
Aaaannnnddd......we've come full circle.
Next!
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http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2010/03/girls-beat-boys-as-tcu-wins-ncaa-rifle-championship/
Have I said how much I love Phantoms, F16s, and all that other cool equip, and how grateful I am to the USAF for turning the tide in Korea , and... : )
And it isn't *bad-mouthing* if it's true.
I saw the manual.
Held.it.in.my.hands.
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I am not even close to being in the same league as any of you folks. My AF Reserve time ended 20 years ago. I was an Aerial Recon Weather Officer on a hurricane hunter crew. We were all required to qualify with a pistol regularly (even though if we were activated it would have been as trash haulers and only the two enlisted crew members would carry arms). My last time at the range, the sargeants on either side of me must not have had much faith in my ability to qualify because I ended up with about 4 more hits than rounds...
Ah the good old days.
I'm not getting into the AF discussion. I'll stick to my own little Army bailiwick, which I mostly pan vice support, when it comes to marksmanship.
I'm something of a "gravel-belly" in terms of importance placed on it - though I'm not to the level of "if you can't hit 'em in the eye at 100 yards you ain't a shooter."
I'm more practical than that in what satisfies me.
Oh, and I'm totally with the Armorer on having evverbody qualify with personal weapon.
Did y'all know, that if you're a Swiss citizen and you don't qualify with your rifle every year, you don't get to vote?
In fact, I really don't spend too many brain bytes on what other USAF communities--recce, strat lift, tac lift, strat attack, strat strike, or fighter/interceptor--consider appropriate.
Fact is, if the powers that be tell crews to carry "M4s and a couple of mags around the pattern" then, when you go through the life support room to suit up (or throw on whatever, say, C-130 guys throw on for a hop) then there'll some airman there waiting to hand your your weapon and ammo. You dutifully ensure the chamber is empty before holstering it in your survival vest (I'm speaking as a (very old, retired) Hog driver now) and that the clips are loaded and secured in self same vest. Otherwise, you have to explain the airman why you're not complying with Sqdn/Wing/higher HQ guidance. This, of course, puts the airman is the position of having to say, "Colonel, why aren't you willing to take the weapon?" At which time you have to come up with some lame and/or unprofessional excuse as to why you're bucking the system when it's really not necessary. So, you TAKE THE F**KING 9mm and drive on. The only problem I had with it was that it was a 9mm POS. Never liked those things. Doesn't matter what you're doing that day...it's The Law. This isn't necessarily a dumb thing, either. Train like you fight, especially in theater. Who's to say you won't get a real-world tasking while on a training flight? I have been there and done that, which is why we always, at a minimum, had a full load of 30mm in the jet when overseas. Period.
Anyway.
We qual'd with the personal weapon annually. Yes, there were some who were not very good at shooting but I, and my other moth-eaten A-10 crowd enjoyed keeping everything in the 9/10 ring. Is annual too little? Probably not, in peacetime, but I don't waste too many brain bytes over that, either. Believe it or not, some USAF types know how to shoot. I started when I was twelve (local rifle team) and have loved the feel of a well-made firearm--handgun, rifle, shotgun--ever since. So, don't underestimate those USAF sissy-boys.;)
One day, I hope to show up at the Armorer's house and plink from his porch. I probably won't hit much anymore (eyes are going) but I'd have a ball. I just hope he has a Barrett I can try. I think that'd be the most fun, especially if I accidentally hit one of those pesky coyotes--nothing left but mist and maybe an eyeball. Oh, yessss.
The 23rd was a great way to start a Hog career...and there still may be a P-40 on a stick at what used to be the main gate.
...and my present employer bought Madam Chang Kai-shek's post-war company, Flying Tigers Airlines several years ago. Just can't get away from those guys. Of course, given the Chinese economic saber-rattling these days, maybe we need to start carrying the chits again...
Bill, I thought they were keping sharp objects out of your reach.
Seriously, I agree with you on doing away with the 45 autos. Very stupid move. It's very interewsting that the SOF troops have some version of a 45 auto available to them. I think Delta adopted a modified version of the 1911. SEALS took up the H&K USP in 45 ACP.