Do soldiers in the US military pick their own weapons/gear?
January 6th, 2010 by eranio
Ok, I was always wondering this so now I am going to ask. If you are a soldier in the Army or marines, when you get deployed into the middle east and go into combat, do you pick what your primary weapon is,(like a SAW machine gun, the m4 or m16) the mods on the gun, and how your gear is arranged?(such as the vest magazine pouches and things like that.) Or do the commanders or whoever is in charge of that stuff do it all for you.
Posted in military weapons
January 6th, 2010 at 5:37 am
In short no. I used to have an M4 Carbine for about 6 months. Then about 4 months before deploying my section’s SAW Gunner injured his arm pretty bad. I was immediately sent to the M249 range to zero and qualify.
Now I am the Gunner for my section.
Most units are different but in mine specifically, if you qualify with a 35 or higher you will get an ACOG no matter what your rank is. Any lower than that and your still running around with the m68CCO red dot.
Beyond that if you get to go to the Squad designated marksman program, you will be trained on different weapon systems.
January 6th, 2010 at 5:37 am
Infantry are teamed up into fire teams and each person has a specific task and role to carry. Whatever role that person is, the type of weapon he carries/uses reflects that.
January 6th, 2010 at 5:37 am
If you go in to Special Forces, you can choose your weapon of choice
January 6th, 2010 at 5:37 am
Almost always you are issued the weapon you are going to have dependent on your MOS…Most soldiers and Marines only have one weapon and no secondaries…I know for a Marine platoon there is X number of Marines with a SAW, x number of Marines with m16a4/M4, x numbers of Marines with a Golf (M240)…All weapons available in an armory are issued depended on the type of MOS and the number or Marines in a platoon..So a grunt unit you will have a whole arsenal of weaponries to include mortars but if its a comm platoon, they for surely won’t have a weapon such as the mortar..
But if you are getting at is if you can choose your own weapon, the short answer is no..Unless you are buddy buddy with your senior staff nco in which case you might get what you want
January 6th, 2010 at 5:37 am
I use a plasma rifle and bouncing bettys.
January 6th, 2010 at 5:37 am
Depends on your job. And usually only the Special Ops guys pick their own weapons, or they customize them.
January 6th, 2010 at 5:37 am
Gulf War veteran with 10 years of Active Duty time from 83 til 94. The unit commanders determine 95% of your gear, they determine how much ammunition each soldier will carry, weapons are designated by platoon type and are assigned by position.
Very little discretion in extra gear – you can carry extra knives, but not extra, unauthorized firearms or unauthorized ammunition.
The Iraq War changed some things; but still unit commanders would decide on weapons and gears.
Modifying vehicles with additional weapons or armour would have to be approved even at the lowest (Captain-Company level), but most likely the decision to add-on extra armour, like the beginning of the Iraq War was probably decided by a Colonel-Regiment/Brigade level.