Posted on 02/15/2018 5:53:54 AM PST by MarvinStinson
The U.S. Army will drop its hand grenade competency requirement for graduation from basic training because getting recruits to pass it is taking “too much time” and they’re just not strong enough, Major General Malcolm Frost told reporters on Friday.
Changes to the Army’s Basic Combat Training (BTC) will eliminate the current hand grenade proficiency standards as a requirement for graduation, Military.com reports:
“The new BCT does, however, do away with hand grenade qualification and land navigation course qualification as graduation requirements.”
Discussing the change with reporters, Maj. Gen. Frost explained that training recruits to pass the current requirement was taking too much time:
"What we have found is it is taking far, far too much time. It's taking three to four times as much time ... just to qualify folks on the hand grenade course than we had designated so what is happening is it is taking away from other aspects of training.”
Plus, trainees just aren’t strong enough to throw the grenade far enough away – and simply can’t be taught to properly throw a grenade “if they haven’t thrown growing up” – Maj. Gen. Frost explained:
"We are finding that there are a large number of trainees that come in that quite frankly just physically don't have the capacity to throw a hand grenade 20 to 25 to 30 meters. In 10 weeks, we are on a 48-hour period; you are just not going to be able to teach someone how to throw if they haven't thrown growing up."
Still, the amount of grenade training won’t be reduced – developing enough proficiency to meet the current standards just won’t be required - Maj. Gen. Frost said:
"Just because we took it off as a graduation requirement does not mean they won't be conducting hand grenade or land navigation training."
“They are going to learn all the technical aspects of the hand grenade, and they are going to learn tactical employment and they will throw a live hand grenade.”
As Army Times reports, in order to save time trying to teach trainees to meet requirements, hand grenade training will be blended into other exercises:
“Rather than spend time getting soldiers through the hand grenade and land navigation qualification courses in order to graduate basic, those skills will be incorporated into three new field training exercises, dubbed Hammer, Anvil and Forge.”
As someone that carried and used grenades in combat I find this sad.
What happens when they go into combat?
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cannon fodder ...
ya know.....they could start with a ROCK to determine throwing proficiency.....
ya know...a baby step BEFORE handing her live ammo......
Throwing a hand grenade a hundred feet? Is that what has always been required?
So now they get hand grenades and LandNav in AIT?
CC
That one baffled me too. I guess they believe their GPS will always work
If you failed to achieve the goals every two weeks you were "set back" to try again.
That was a powerful motivator!
I wish that they would implement it in schools.
Yes, but we grew up on baseball, outside, IRL.
Give them a try -one at a time- and the competency question is cleared up.
I can’t remember the final course but I think yes...to get expert you had to reach the 30 meter target.
Yup. Just like he was trained.
Training really does save lives...
That’s a great gif
f it’s taking too long, then they need to look at how they’re teaching it, they need to look at other subjects that could be scaled back to increase the time available, and they should probably look at extending Basic by a couple of days if need be.
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They need training in lactation, diversity training (so when they encounter mussulmen they won’t offend, gay rights, trans-sexual recognition (how to apply for a sex change). And other more important subject than combat (which most of the women will never see due to sudden onslaught of cramps, pregnancy and other female issues).
So you can see the trainees schedule is already full without all that other old school training. It is important they become good citizens and learn to depend on the government for handouts and support. There are also career advancement issues that need to be addressed especially for the females.
We have to have females and other self-declared minorities reach numerical parity with the majority group so that they can be gradually phased out.
The weak and stupid die.
Same as always for the last million years or so...
They must exclude the whole binary system since there are now over 57 gender types.
They trained you "by the book", in compliance with their orders. Then they showed you how it's done in the real world.
They just do not know “how” to throw.
When was the last time you would be driving down a street and some kids would have to get out of the way because they were playing “catch”. We all would use the street to play catch and for pick up football games. You never see any of that anymore.
A VERY good argument for bringing back the draft - and snowflakes go to the head of the line!
There was an incident in the early 70s where a reserve qualifier lost a grenade and it had gone into the safety pit. The qualifier realized it and tried to exit and the safety office pulled him back in. 69th Infantry Brigade. I was in the support battalion and one of our companies was the Medical Company that had to respond.
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