This doesn’t surprise me. Certainly, this comes down from Secretary of the Army or higher. No local command in Iraq would come up with such a lamebrain idea, as this will get our guys killed.
The time it takes to chamber a round plus the fact that the weapon isn’t up and ready is crazy if bad guys are anywhere nearby.
This makes it obvious that, to this administration, our troops are expendible.
The Secretary of the Army cannot make such a ruling, he does not have operational control of any troops in Afghanistan. This comes from the operational chain of command in the theater.
Don’t know if this makes sense, depends on the conditions on the ground. I sometimes did this as a rifle company commander in Vietnam based on where we were and who was around. Biggest problem with rounds in the chamber is some knucklehead who takes his weapon off safe and accidently shoots a buddy. Not good.
Wanna bet?
I agree that no local command in Iraq would come up with an order for troops in Afghanistan, but I doubt it comes from SECARMY. He's not even in their chain of command. Anyhoo, with the ejection port cover closed, no one can tell visually if there's a round chambered or not. Put the bolt back for precombat inspection, quietly ride it home once you're out of the wire--if anyone asks, you felt "threatened" and took the appropriate action.