Posted on 09/14/2005 12:29:25 PM PDT by John Jorsett
Posters note: This has been rectified (see last item at the bottom), but it still serves as a lesson on how far some people will go in the name of making us "safe" from guns.
Looks like civilians aren't the only ones being disarmed in the Katrina disaster area.
An old Philadelphia acquaintance of mine who serves in a leadership position in a National Guard infantry company, deployed to Bogalusa, Louisiana, on security missions in support of Hurricane Katrina operations, sends along a plea for self-defense help:
We fall under Task Force Santa Fe, commanded by GEN Mason, commanding general of the 35th Infantry Division. Gen Mason has issued us the order to remove the magazines from our weapons, a move that will put my soldiers lives in jeopardy. If a soldier has a problem here, he needs to remove the magazine from the pouch, insert it in the weapon, pull the charging handle, aim the weapon, place the selector lever on "safe" and then fire. It takes a good soldier approximately 6-9 seconds to do this under normal conditions. This is not counting the stress of being under fire, or having a life threatening emergency, which would probably double that time. Hell, 6 seconds is an eternity on the street. We still have a threat here, the police don't want us to go, nor do the citizenry. Since our arrival we helped reduce crime to record levels here. The main reason behind this is we are working with a LTC Landis of the PA Air guard who only wishes to go home, forget the mission, he wants to get his people and himself back to PA. We, on the other hand, would be stuck here, veritably unarmed in squalid conditions in Hammond, LA. The reason given by Gen Mason is that he would reduce the chance of an accidental discharge of a weapon. I have to ask, what looks worse, an accidental discharge or a soldier killed by a criminal? Sen Santorum is supposedly aware of this situation. Please help.
There's more info on the much-needed--and much-welcomed--security operations of my acquaintance's unit here.If you're serving in the National Guard and have had a similar experience, drop me a line.
E-mail Sen. Santorum here.
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Hmmm. Wonder if the National Guardsmen whom this Democratic congressman used as personal escorts to his New Orleans house were allowed to carry fully-loaded weapons? (ABC News via Drudge)
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9/14 morning update: Just received from my National Guard source:
The situation I described in an email earlier about the PA Guard in Louisiana being told to disarm byt a MGEN Mason, has ben rectified. BGEN Jones, the overall ground commander, has overidden Gen Mason's orders. We found this out at about 10 last night. Hope this didn't start a little row somewhere.
Looks like it worked.
I was at Kent State that day (5/4/70) - the entire campus had been fully warned by Gov James Rhodes that the Ohio National Guard were carrying "real" bullets. Everyone knew they were armed - I think nobody (20 year old students like me) could ever imagine they would start shooting.
Don't you know that guns jump up on their own and kill innocents?
The Kent state shootings happened after hours of rock throwing and intense rioting by the "Peaceful" demonstrators there. Some of the Guardsmen there were getting hurt, and that was when they decided to open fire.
Color me impressed with the ability to quote and correctly cite Aliens (right down to minor 5-6 line characters) on FR!
Sadly, taking off and nuking the site from orbit (it's the only way to be sure) isn't an option.
However, in the interest of accuracy, I take some exception to the following:
If a soldier has a problem here, he needs to remove the magazine from the pouch, insert it in the weapon, pull the charging handle, aim the weapon, place the selector lever on "safe" and then fire.
The soldier removes a magazine from the pouch, inserts it into the magazine well, presses the bold release button (the bold should already be locked in the rearward position, which means the charging handle does not need to be pulled back,) place the selector on "semi" (the selector had better already be in the "safe" position) and fire.
The most amount of time will be in pawing open the magazine pouch on your web belt. The rest is drilled into a soldier ad nausium.
*snicker* GMTA One of my favorite movie lines!!
I have heard that also.
If it wasn't then he's an even bigger idiot that we thought.
The national guard may not have had bullets in their guns during the Detroit riots, but the Canadians on "Ambassador" Bridge certainly did!
Having seen the movie countless times and loving that line kind of helped.
Yes, I know. In the weeks leading up to May 4th, the small campus was inundated with many outside Peace type groups including "The Weathermen" etc - I was in chemistry class when the shots were fired - it was terrible
The dipsh!ts enforcing this stupidity should go into the line of fire themselves unarmed. What morons this country produces...
One of my units was doing a live mission at Camp Ripley MN several years ago. It was an active SCIF.
We had out our wire, seismic intrusion detection equipment deployed, MPs with M-60's patrolling around outside the wire.
A National Guard 2nd Lt leading a patrol though the woods discovered
our site and believing us part of their NG war game said she was taking us prisoner.
She wasn't convinced that she should just move along and find a softer target until she was shown that the weapons pointed at her had live ammo.
Kind of hard to miss an M-60 ammo belt containing the real thing and M-16s with no pretty little red blank adapters.
Color me skeptical. Brigadier generals don't normally override Major Generals.
Got to use the "...harsh language" quote when I was in the military. Was put on the flight line guarding F-16s that had just been uploaded with shapes for an elephant walk. They gave me a flash light, and told me I was to stop anybody breaking the line - and so that quote just came right out.
Smartass Senior Master Sergeant brought me a broom and told me to yell "bang bang bang."
I had a quite different experience. I flew into Richmond International Airport (Byrd Field to the old-timers) and walked past a National Guardsman (it was an E3 or E4, I don't remember, but it wasn't an NCO) with a magazine inserted, weapon off safe, and his finger on the trigger.
About a half-second later, it was fixed.
Agree. If it takes a soldier in an infantry unit six seconds to load a weapon, he needs some serious remedial training.
Senior Master Sergeants get there for a reason!
}:^)
MI National Guard had bullets, and used them, can' the recall name of the motel, but they shot the place up.
Also can't recall if it was the 82nd or 101 Airborn that was sent to Detroit (I was only 4 during the roits). They were the ones that couldn't load thier weapons.
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