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Most people are not trained to deal with the stresses of combat. In fact, I would postulate that as much as 1/3rd of the trained INFANTRY do not perform their duties properly the first time they are in combat. Many studies have been conducted on the actions of trained individuals and their responses to combat conditions. In the Civil war, soldiers would load their weapons, point it at the enemy, believe they fired, and then start reloading.... but never having taken a shot. Often ending up with a very dangerous situation of having 5 or 6 loads crammed down their barrels. In Vietnam, soldiers would often not even attempt to fire at the enemy, simply firing into the air. The point is, if TRAINED soldiers react this way the first time they are in combat, can we honestly expect support personnel to behave like seasoned front line troops?

I'm afraid the results of this "study" have been conclusively discredited. Soldiers do fire their weapons - even the ones with minimal training. (There are some who go into a fetal position, but those are a tiny minority). If anything, they're too liberal about firing their weapons unaimed, which is why they keep on running out of ammo. However, even with the trained soldiers that we have, it is possible to fire thousands of rounds without hitting a single person. This is what happened in a recent blue-on-blue incident documented by Michael Fumento. Americans fired 300 rounds at Iraqi troops, who replied with 1700 rounds. Fortunately they all missed. The fact that she couldn't handle the stresses of combat well enough to even fire her weapon indicates that she isn't cut out for the army - most soldiers will fire back even if they don't hit anything.