And there I was thinking that the point of a machine gun was suppressive fire — so supporting troops can maneuver into more advantageous position. I was also under the impression that it’s best to shoot from behind cover. Or at least concealment. Standing in the middle of a street? Not so much. Armchair warrior. What do I know?

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37 COMMENTS

  1. Had a CO one time who called me in because the Training NCO complained that I had cheated during an exercise which my troops won. The CO asked if we had succeeded in retaking possession of the nuke and freeing the hostages. The Training NCO said we did but we cheated. The CO said, if it worked, how was it cheating?

  2. Hmm…. yet we couldn’t get the ING we were training to even pop their heads up long enough to get a proper sight picture on their AKs. That trooper right there deserves an Impact Attaboy award.

      • Some of the ANA were like that, some weren’t. The 3-2 205th were horrible. Rampant corruption, desertion, and cowardice. The 1-2 205th were fighters. When we got assigned to them, we started with 260 men, and ended up with 80, in a year. And those guys still went out and chased the enemy.

  3. Spent 2 1/2 years in Iraq doing security on DoD contracts. Had some exciting moments next to the Kurds who worked with us. Yup . . . some crazy SoBs for sure. Not saying I’d do it, but it seemed to work for them.

  4. Every time I see these guys my heart bursts with pride.

    It took them a while, but the finally get it – nobody is going to help them but themselves.

    These men want to be there and they are hard men.

  5. Watching this brings back memories of trying to get the firat shipment of those fucking uniforms in country back in 2006. The tantrum the National Police commander (guy named Adnan) threw when his XXL pants didn’t fit.

    Also I wonder if that gunner ever watched Lord of War and thought, “I must have the gun of Rambo.”

  7. Come now, KPV’s aren’t that heavy; try showing the poor thing some respect 😉

    Am I the only one confused by what the strategy was, here? I think the film editing dropped some key scenes, or something. A rag tag band of guys, apparently armed with PKs exclusively, dump belts in the general vicinity of a rubble pile with a KPV perched on top of it, I assume scaring off or killing the gunners long enough to detach it & drag it back to base to be mounted in a pickup-bed, or something? Can’t complain on the results, I guess, but not sure what’s noteworthy or whatever here; setting up machine guns at impassable crossroad barriers is nothing new. I wouldn’t expect anything fancy in the way of bunkers or cover, since I imagine that piece of ground changed hands eight times today; it’s very slow going over there.

    Related question for folks who’ve been over there; do belt boxes just not exist, or something? I’m surprised these guys weren’t tripping over themselves or pulling their beards/clothing into the action. The other question, is why the heck are these police taking out heavy ordnance manually? Seems like army duty, or like they should at least have some mortars. Also uniforms, one would think, unless they are partisans, rather than police.

    • I can recall doing a foot patrol once in Al Hillah carrying a 249 saw that had a belt ammo box attached. It fell off and tripped me up twice and I finally decided to just sling the ammo, not to much later a new litunent told me not to carry that way and that I wasn’t John Wayne or Rambo. I decided after that point just to carry my M-16A2 on foot patrols.

  8. Well, taking a machine gun nest is a lot easier when you have your own bullet hose that you can bring into play.

    This brings up a good counter-argument to the gun-grabbers who say things like, “You don’t need a machine gun.” Aside from our canned response about “needs”, a very simple and potentially compelling response is: if a foreign country like Russia or China ever decided to attack the U.S., the first thing they would do is detonate missiles over our military bases … you know, those installations where you will find ALL of our soldiers and ALL of their MACHINE GUNS. Once those are destroyed and Russia or China begins to march into the U.S., I will NEED a machine gun to stop them. And this video illustrates that very point.

    • I don’t disagree with the need, bit I kinda doubt Russia or China will be the problem. More likely it’ll be Islamic terrorists who either obtain their guns here, or bring selective fire weapons from the cartels they are cooperating with in Mexico.

    • “… if a foreign country like Russia or China ever decided to attack the U.S., the first thing they would do is detonate missiles over our military bases”

      Wrong.

      The first thing they will do is blind us. Mil satellites in LEO that pass over them will ‘disappear’ (be destroyed).

      Next, all sub-sea fiber and cable will be cut.

      All of this will happen in a very short timeframe, a few hour max.

      If they want to get really pissy, they have a high-altitude EMP to employ.

      90 percent-plus of the US population will be dead in one year…

      • Goeff PR,

        First of all, I was referring to an attack that the enemy limited to “conventional” measures (non-nuclear which excludes nukes over land as well as EMPs 50 miles above ground).

        Yes, an enemy attacker will take measures to make sure that their missiles arrive at their destination and will want us as “blind” and “deaf” as possible. That likely includes taking out satellites as well as terrestrial communications and radar installations. Having said all that, such measures would also tip their hand and remove the element of surprise which might be a compelling reason to NOT do all of that.

        Regardless, in short order such an enemy would attempt to destroy our military bases which is where our service men and women and machine guns are located. After that, it would be up to all of us to stop an invasion force. And for that, I really need a machine gun in various circumstances.

    • 2nd Amendment is only slightly more pointed to defense against foreign invasion than it is about hunting. The fathers knew the real long term danger was the our own government becoming tyrannical and enabling the people to destroy it. In order to fully subjugate the people they must disarm us, what they seem to not realize is we will resist.

      • I would argue the ONLY reason the second is there, is as a line of defense against our own government attempting to infringe on our natural right of self preservation. It had nothing to do with hunting or foreign attacks. The founding fathers knew all to well who the most dangerous enemy was…

  9. One of my buddies trained with Iraq police. He said most of them were cowards and they often got friendly fire from them because they would often sling their AK over the top of a wall and blind fire. Because aiming is for p*****s.

  12. Am I the only one wishing that I owned an MG barrel supply business in Iraq?
    Delivery service might be an issue, though.

  14. The police are wearing typical police blue and grey digital camo.
    That works great as recognition that these are police in camo uniforms
    The only time it is effective as camo is in cinder block rubble.
    Here it seems more effective than the woodland camo some of the officers are wearing.

  16. One thing that came to my mind watching this is that I sure do wish the morons that constantly claim how ‘powerful’ the AR-15 is would watch this….and TRY to understand rifle ballistics at least just a tiny bit rather than repeating nonsense.

    Heard it just this morning…that a marine on-site at The Pulse recognized the sound of “such a powerful weapon.”

    Sorry, but I doubt many Marines would say that…unless politically motivated to do so. Regardless, the person repeating the stupid lie should STHU since she obviously does not know what a “powerful” rifle is vs is not.

    I am so sick of the “other side” having complete control of the narrative.

  17. I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t care to stroll out there by yourself, in the open, and cut loose like that if bullets were coming from the other direction. Just sayin’.

    Makes for a pretty awesome film clip, though.

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