Robert I presume you meant "in combat." From the appearance of the terrain and the fact that they're in up-armored HMMWV's they appear to already be in-theater. I suppose they could be at 29 Palms but that looks a lot like the Middle East to me.
If I was a guessin' man, I'd guess that this is some kind of ad-hoc, informal live-fire exercise by a unit heading into combat and for that reason the normal range safety duties were not assigned and procedures not followed. Certainly I don't see any safety officers in that video. As someone who's pulled RSO duty more than a few times I can tell you that people moving across the line of fire while weapons still have ammo in them is a strict no-go (in fact, the RSO should have set up the range so that the firing points were in front of the road, not behind it.)
As someone who's pulled RSO duty more than a few times I can tell you that people moving across the line of fire while weapons still have ammo in them is a strict no-go
Most definitely, which makes me all the more disappointed by the sloppiness on display in this video. Negligent discharges are such high-profile incidents these days that there really is no excuse for the safety violations in this video. Either enough care was not taken during the planning of this exercise, or the operational tempo has accelerated beyond the ability of 3-shops to get SNCOs and junior officers the training they need to keep troops safe at the range. I suspect there's a little of both at work here, but the second cause speaks to a more profound problem.
The more I think about this video, the more I think it might be a pre-deployment convoy lane training exercise at Stumps. Note the chocked wheel of the Humvee to the gunner's left; I don't think I ever saw a wheel chocked in Iraq. Also, as far as I'm aware, most units simply fall in on their gear once they arrive in-theater these days. My unit pulled trucks and howitzers off MPF ships in early 2004 for OIF II and conducted training/calibration at Udairi Range, but I think we were one of the last units to do so. Any training exercises like this would likely have been conducted prior to deployment.
Robert I presume you meant "in combat." From the appearance of the terrain and the fact that they're in up-armored HMMWV's they appear to already be in-theater. I suppose they could be at 29 Palms but that looks a lot like the Middle East to me.
If I was a guessin' man, I'd guess that this is some kind of ad-hoc, informal live-fire exercise by a unit heading into combat and for that reason the normal range safety duties were not assigned and procedures not followed. Certainly I don't see any safety officers in that video. As someone who's pulled RSO duty more than a few times I can tell you that people moving across the line of fire while weapons still have ammo in them is a strict no-go (in fact, the RSO should have set up the range so that the firing points were in front of the road, not behind it.)
As someone who's pulled RSO duty more than a few times I can tell you that people moving across the line of fire while weapons still have ammo in them is a strict no-go
Most definitely, which makes me all the more disappointed by the sloppiness on display in this video. Negligent discharges are such high-profile incidents these days that there really is no excuse for the safety violations in this video. Either enough care was not taken during the planning of this exercise, or the operational tempo has accelerated beyond the ability of 3-shops to get SNCOs and junior officers the training they need to keep troops safe at the range. I suspect there's a little of both at work here, but the second cause speaks to a more profound problem.
The more I think about this video, the more I think it might be a pre-deployment convoy lane training exercise at Stumps. Note the chocked wheel of the Humvee to the gunner's left; I don't think I ever saw a wheel chocked in Iraq. Also, as far as I'm aware, most units simply fall in on their gear once they arrive in-theater these days. My unit pulled trucks and howitzers off MPF ships in early 2004 for OIF II and conducted training/calibration at Udairi Range, but I think we were one of the last units to do so. Any training exercises like this would likely have been conducted prior to deployment.
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