I am beginning to become concerned with the medias treatment of this stuff.
It appears to me as though some pure bull poop is being put out, disguised as "official" information.
Every soldier in the US Army is taught how to pull the pin on a grenade.
Every soldier in the US Army is given a demonstration on the effects of the various grenades.
I never knew a "mechanic" that would have any reason or need to be trained as a "demolitions expert", unless that person was a member of the Special Forces, the members of which are crosstrained in a variety of areas.
This so-called soldier was a mechanic. Period. Nothing wrong with being a mechanic in the US Army.
The bull **** of the matter, though, is the medias glamorization, if you will, of this bozo as a "demolitions expert".
What was his MOS? 63B? Or was it in the 12 series?
Combat Engineers are "demolition experts", but not necessarily explosive demolition experts.
They are trained to "demolish" anything, using bulldozers, cranes and if need be and haste is an issue, explosives.
So again, how does a mechanic, which is what all the media has reported that this guy was, get into a "demolition" scenario, other than changing the roller pins on a D-7 under field conditions? Perhaps his commander countenanced a "field expedient" and allowed him to blow the pins off with C4?
And the "expert" marksman crap? I would like to see his 201 file or his 219. If he had training beyond basic marksmanship, it would be through a MTU or by virtue of his being assigned to a leg unit, as a result of being an 11B.
As far as any sniper training, recruitment for training as a sniper is very selective. The emotional stability problems this ass had would have been identified in a screening long before he put the first round down range as a sniper training candidate.
The media knows nothing about how things are done in the US Army and I suspect they care less as long as they can sensationalize their reporting, and garner more and more gullible readers.
This Muhammed dumbass was just that, a dumbass; no one should get the impression that he is what he was as a result of the training provided by the US Army.
To even hint that he was able to do as he did, because of his training is wrong.
It would be more correct to say he did it in spite of his training.
Bottom line thus: He is/was a sorry piece of human excrement who obviously couldn't make it in the military environment and was summarily eliminated from it. The press is attempting to make it look as though he was a sterling example of the training of our armed forces.
Descent into Evil (John Muhammad suspected of attack on US troops during Gulf War)
"...[John Muhammad] Williams’s unit was sent to Operation Desert Storm to clear mines and bulldoze holes in enemy lines. A few nights before the invasion of Iraq, Sergeant Berentson awoke in the early hours to find his tent, with 16 sleeping men inside, on fire....
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/777339/posts