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Tactically Inept

Why don't the Army finally change.....


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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/02/atCarbine070219/

 

Army Time's article on the HK416 including many rebuttals from the military.

 

This story makes me saddest.

 

Perhaps the most well-known incident of M16s failing in battle involves the 507th Maintenance Company in 2003 during the opening days of the ground invasion of Iraq.

 

Enemy forces ambushed 507th soldiers outside Nasiriyah, killing 11 and capturing six, when the unit became separated from a supply convoy.

 

Several of the 507th soldiers later complained that their M16s, and other weapons, failed them during the March 23 ambush.

 

The Army responded by revamping Basic Training to make sure soldiers knew how to better maintain their weapons and perform malfunction drills.

 

What?s not so well known is how then-Pfc. Patrick Miller earned a Silver Star for keeping his M16 from jamming long enough to take out an enemy mortar position.

 

?We were taking fire from everywhere,? Sgt. Miller recalled in a recent Army Times interview.

 

Enemy fire had knocked out his five-ton truck, forcing him to fight on foot.

 

He dove for cover behind a dirt berm and spotted an Iraqi soldier manning a mortar position across the road.

 

?It looked like he was trying to drop the shell in the tube. That is when I fired the first shot and the guy went down.?

 

When he pulled the trigger again, nothing happened.

 

?After the first shot, the round ejected. When the next round went to go in, it froze up,? he said. ?It didn?t feed all the way into the chamber.?

 

Miller pounded on the forward assist, a tiny plunger on the M16?s receiver designed to manually push the weapon?s bolt into the chamber.

 

He fired his rifle once more, and it jammed again. Miller tried the immediate action drill he learned in Basic Combat Training ? he slapped the bottom of the magazine to reseat it, pulled the charging handle back to look into the chamber. When he released, the bolt wouldn?t chamber the next round.

 

Changing magazines didn?t work either.

 

?After the third magazine I decided it took longer to change mags than to beat on the forward assist,? he said.

 

That worked, but his weapon would only fire a single shot and jam again.

 

?I was beating that thing with the palm of my hand four or five times for each round,? he recalled.

 

Miller managed to fire about eight times using this frantic sequence under enemy fire.

 

It was a valiant, but futile, effort. His fellow soldiers were trying to fight, but their weapons failed them as well.

 

Miller turned around and shot at a target behind him.

 

?When I turned there were about 40 Iraqis that had moved up on the road? approaching his position, he said. ?At that time there was not much else I could have done.?

 

Miller put down his rifle and surrendered.

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