[oldleft]

Sounds like a load of crap to me. Where do you get ammo? You just walk up to the armory and say, "Hey, can I get a couple boxes of AK-47 rounds?" I don't think so.

Most likely what he's seeing is Iraqi soldiers and police and mistaking them for US troops. I would then to think that if a soldier or Marine decided to go on patrol with a non-issue weapon they'd get their ass chewed-and then some.

[holymoly]

Sounds like a load of crap to me. Where do you get ammo? You just walk up to the armory and say, "Hey, can I get a couple boxes of AK-47 rounds?" I don't think so.

Our armed forces are blowing up arms stashes all the time. I believe a few weeks ago someone posted an article which stated 30,000 rounds of small arms ammo in Iraq had been destroyed.

Our troops would have no problem finding 7.62x39 in Iraq or Afghanistan.

[Drew68]

Sounds like a load of crap to me. Where do you get ammo? You just walk up to the armory and say, "Hey, can I get a couple boxes of AK-47 rounds?"

Pretty much. The military maintains a large supply of captured enemy ammo. Keep in mind, we are equipping Iraqi security forces with 7.62x39. As far as soldiers getting their asses chewed for using captured weaponry, that would be up to individual commands. Some commands might frown on it while others condone it. If you see your officers patrolling with Kalashnikovs, that is a good sign that they aren't going to be too bothered if you brandish one yourself.

Using captured weapons goes way back. I've seen photos of American soldiers in WWII using German MP-40s.