Give him a medal and send him back for more target practice. With a SAW or M-60, he should have plugged the guy with one short burst.
Sad but true. Sgt. York killed seven with seven shots. How times have changed. 'Spray and pray' seems to be the tactics of too many young amateurs in both law enforcement and the military. I am willing to give Spc. Ross a pass this time because of the outcome.
Practice, practice, practice!
Have you ever fired one of these weapons? I've never fired a SAW, but I'm quite familiar with the M-60, and they're not that easy to control. So let's see- was it pintle mounted, on a tripod, using the bipod, or just resting on some sandbags, if that? Was the drive of the bomb courteously driving straight towards him, or was the car jouncing all over the place in the dark (or worse, with the rising sun behind it)? And after a long night of boring guard duty, exactly how awake and alert was the shooter to start with. I saw the young man did a damn fine job- and they need to reward him with a medal and a bigger machine gun (ma duece rocks!).
Maybe the cab was lightly armored, wouldn't take all that much to stop a 7.62x51 and even less to stop a 5.56x45. Course he could have shot the engine, and in fact since the Jihadie was sill alive enough to set the thing off, the shooting the engine may have been what stopped him...that or a "deadman switch".. I sorta hope the latter.
He might have, but he kept shooting until the car stopped. I'd say that under the circumstances, this was the correct response.