Comments on: “Interest in the war is waning back home, I’m told, which may explain the thinning ranks of reporters over here. Ironically, with fewer reporters here every day, it’s even more critical to keep the few sources of news on the ground working.” http://rightvoices.com/2007/08/02/interest-in-the-war-is-waning-back-home-im-told-which-may-explain-the-thinning-ranks-of-reporters-over-here-ironically-with-fewer-reporters-here-every-day-its-even-more-critical-to-keep-the/ in all matter of opinion, our adversaries are insane. Sat, 20 Mar 2010 21:38:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: FrmrArtyOffcr http://rightvoices.com/2007/08/02/interest-in-the-war-is-waning-back-home-im-told-which-may-explain-the-thinning-ranks-of-reporters-over-here-ironically-with-fewer-reporters-here-every-day-its-even-more-critical-to-keep-the/comment-page-1/#comment-645798 FrmrArtyOffcr Tue, 07 Aug 2007 02:07:59 +0000 http://rightvoices.com/2007/08/02/interest-in-the-war-is-waning-back-home-im-told-which-may-explain-the-thinning-ranks-of-reporters-over-here-ironically-with-fewer-reporters-here-every-day-its-even-more-critical-to-keep-the/#comment-645798 We've lost weapons in every war wherein we've armed the local military. It's a fact of military operations in 3rd world countries. Hell, we lose weapons on training exercises here in the US. I had a soldier find an M16 that a soldier from another division had lost on a training exercise the month before. There is not now, nor will there ever be any way to completely and totally account for every single weapon that goes into a war zone. For that matter, 95% of those weapons might be exactly where they're supposed to be, in the hands of the Iraqi security forces. The other 5% might have been destroyed, were scavenged for repair parts, stolen, sold on the black market, etc etc. Noone knows for sure. In a combat zone, it is simply not possible to maintain the kinds of inventory control that exists in a garrison environment. We have no way of knowing how many have been destroyed during the hundreds of attacks on Iraqi police and military units. Hell, the UN lost over 2 dozen white Land Rovers in Mogadishu to theft by UN employees for sale on the black market. Do you know that I never saw a single bayonet while I was a battery Arms room officer? According to records, we had 150 of them assigned to the arms room in the sealed box in the corner. We never counted them, we didn't want to break the seal because if we broke the seal, we'd have to count every single bayonet in the crate everytime we unlocked the arms room door. Hell as far as I know, the crate contained 50 lbs of bricks, but the inventory sheet said bayonets, so the crate was counted as bayonets. You really do not want to know what military policy is towards accounting for small arms ammunition. If the Range OIC and NCOIC aren't incredibly honest, they could walk off with thousands of rounds at the end of the day. All they'd have to do would be empty the crates and turn in a bunch of fired brass of the correct caliber. The ammo depot doesn't check anything but the approximate weight of the brass being turned in. As long as it's close on the scale, it's good enough. You also never turn in live ammo from an open crate. If you try to, you'll have to account for every single round that was in the crate. For a case of M16 ammo that would be over 2500 rounds. Anytime there was uncrated live rounds left over, we'd take the firing line hot and blow it all off. It was one of the perks of being tagged to be a range OIC every few months. We’ve lost weapons in every war wherein we’ve armed the local military. It’s a fact of military operations in 3rd world countries. Hell, we lose weapons on training exercises here in the US. I had a soldier find an M16 that a soldier from another division had lost on a training exercise the month before. There is not now, nor will there ever be any way to completely and totally account for every single weapon that goes into a war zone. For that matter, 95% of those weapons might be exactly where they’re supposed to be, in the hands of the Iraqi security forces. The other 5% might have been destroyed, were scavenged for repair parts, stolen, sold on the black market, etc etc. Noone knows for sure. In a combat zone, it is simply not possible to maintain the kinds of inventory control that exists in a garrison environment. We have no way of knowing how many have been destroyed during the hundreds of attacks on Iraqi police and military units. Hell, the UN lost over 2 dozen white Land Rovers in Mogadishu to theft by UN employees for sale on the black market.

Do you know that I never saw a single bayonet while I was a battery Arms room officer? According to records, we had 150 of them assigned to the arms room in the sealed box in the corner. We never counted them, we didn’t want to break the seal because if we broke the seal, we’d have to count every single bayonet in the crate everytime we unlocked the arms room door. Hell as far as I know, the crate contained 50 lbs of bricks, but the inventory sheet said bayonets, so the crate was counted as bayonets.

You really do not want to know what military policy is towards accounting for small arms ammunition. If the Range OIC and NCOIC aren’t incredibly honest, they could walk off with thousands of rounds at the end of the day. All they’d have to do would be empty the crates and turn in a bunch of fired brass of the correct caliber. The ammo depot doesn’t check anything but the approximate weight of the brass being turned in. As long as it’s close on the scale, it’s good enough. You also never turn in live ammo from an open crate. If you try to, you’ll have to account for every single round that was in the crate. For a case of M16 ammo that would be over 2500 rounds. Anytime there was uncrated live rounds left over, we’d take the firing line hot and blow it all off. It was one of the perks of being tagged to be a range OIC every few months.

]]> By: Kelveo http://rightvoices.com/2007/08/02/interest-in-the-war-is-waning-back-home-im-told-which-may-explain-the-thinning-ranks-of-reporters-over-here-ironically-with-fewer-reporters-here-every-day-its-even-more-critical-to-keep-the/comment-page-1/#comment-645762 Kelveo Mon, 06 Aug 2007 18:11:32 +0000 http://rightvoices.com/2007/08/02/interest-in-the-war-is-waning-back-home-im-told-which-may-explain-the-thinning-ranks-of-reporters-over-here-ironically-with-fewer-reporters-here-every-day-its-even-more-critical-to-keep-the/#comment-645762 It's bad enough that we're creating terrorists, but do we have to arm them too? http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2142884,00.html It’s bad enough that we’re creating terrorists, but do we have to arm them too? http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2142884,00.html

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