Military cracks down on scrap-metal scavengers (Hold muh beer!)

AP ^ | Chelsea J. Carter

[gracie1]

Hundreds of Marines were conducting a combat training mission in the Mojave Desert when an air patrol spotted something kicking up dust: A civilian pickup truck speeding across the barren landscape.

Behind the wheel was a suspected scrap metal thief who had been combing the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center for spent brass shell casings. His intrusion onto the base was the 12th time in six months that scavengers had inadvertently halted combat exercises.

Bombing ranges have become prime hunting grounds for so-called "scrappers," who are motivated by soaring commodity prices to take greater risks in their quest for brass, copper and aluminum. The scavenging causes headaches for the military, which cannot patrol every inch of the remote bases where spent ammunition, shrapnel and unexploded ordnance are easy to find.

[El Gato]

Hundreds of Marines were conducting a combat training mission in the Mojave Desert when an air patrol spotted something kicking up dust: A civilian pickup truck speeding across the barren landscape.

Nice of 'em to provide a moving practice target for the "air patrol".

After he was spotted by troops last December, the pickup truck driver barreled directly at a Marine, who fired five shots at the vehicle. The driver swerved, flipped over and spilled hundreds of dollars in collected metal. He was taken by helicopter to a hospital and later charged with attempted murder.

But definitley not the brightest bulb on the string. His family tree probably has only one branch.

[Chinstrap61a]

"why is the military leaving huge quantities of valuable scrap metal lying on the ground, while our government forks over welfare checks, food stamps, and housing subsidies to unskilled workers who “can’t” find jobs?"

The "military" is using these areas to train for war - which means that many of these items are live ordnance. We use well-trained professionals to find and dipose of this stuff, rather than let some unskilled sorts blow themselves and their trailers to bits.

Pretty clear you've never worn a uniform, or you would've figured that one out. (That and "military" is an adjective, not a noun.)

[Lumper20]

I always felt the brass pickers would make good targets for the troops to practice shooting at live targets during live fire training.

[T-Bird45]

Never went to Korea but many in my unit had been and they would tell stories of Koreans being downrange with bushel baskets so they could stand under the helos to collect the machine gun brass as it fell from the gunships. I understand much of the brass trinkets sold to GIs came from that cartridge brass.

[wastedyears]

But that’s the intelligent thing to do.

Not to mention all the people they could pay to reload all the brass.

[Sarajevo]

It’s been going on since before 1976, when I joined the military.

[fini]

This has been happening since the 60’s. The only real problem is when someone gets hurt. However, the person who gets hurt is the person who is scavanging the metals, so it is kind of a Darwin process.

[GATOR NAVY]

Interesting. The first paragraph of your post was informative and civil. You looked good. Then you added the second the paragraph, which made you sound like a rude ass in addition to being incorrect. “Military” is both an adjective and a noun.

Main Entry: military
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural military also mil·i·tar·ies
Date: 1709

1: military persons; especially : army officers
2: armed forces

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary