1. As a trainer of the Ship's Self Defense Forces for the Atlantic fleet, I was sent to a cruiser to inspect and test their SDF. When I fell them out on the fantail to inspect their M14 rifles, the sailors didn't know how they worked or how to present them for inspection. While I was wrestling with a young sailor to look at his rifle, the flash suppressor fell of his rifle (!) and fell into the sea. After this happened, I asked for a show of hands of how many of those men had handled their rifles before and none of them had. The Gunner's Mate handed them to them about 5 minutes before I got there, and they were very oily and that rifle I had tried to take was missing its entire Castle Nut.
2. I was called to investigate an incident that occurred on a minesweeper in the mid-Atlantic where a sailor was seriously wounded by brass fragments in his upper thighs and groin by an exploding .50 caliber cartridge. That sailor's life was saved by surgeons aboard a Soviet spy ship in the neighborhood. It turned out that the Gunner's Mate had screwed the barrel into the .50 most of the way into the receiver and mounted it on the pedestal and loaded it - but told a sailor to fire it. It was between 3/4 of an inch out of battery, and when the trigger was pushed, all that unsupported brass sprayed back and downward into the hapless sailor.
How about some more details on this? I presume a minesweeper isn't something that normally carries a doctor. And I presume that the minesweeper was watching the Soviet ship, and I presume the Soviets knew they were being watched, so is that somewhat standard to call over and ask if they have a doc on board? Professional courtesy so to speak?