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Army Basic Training to Drop Hand Grenade Competency as Graduation Requirement
cnsnews ^ | February 13, 2018 | Craig Bannister

Posted on 02/15/2018 5:53:54 AM PST by MarvinStinson

The U.S. Army will drop its hand grenade competency requirement for graduation from basic training because getting recruits to pass it is taking “too much time” and they’re just not strong enough, Major General Malcolm Frost told reporters on Friday.

Changes to the Army’s Basic Combat Training (BTC) will eliminate the current hand grenade proficiency standards as a requirement for graduation, Military.com reports:

“The new BCT does, however, do away with hand grenade qualification and land navigation course qualification as graduation requirements.”

Discussing the change with reporters, Maj. Gen. Frost explained that training recruits to pass the current requirement was taking too much time:

"What we have found is it is taking far, far too much time. It's taking three to four times as much time ... just to qualify folks on the hand grenade course than we had designated so what is happening is it is taking away from other aspects of training.”

Plus, trainees just aren’t strong enough to throw the grenade far enough away – and simply can’t be taught to properly throw a grenade “if they haven’t thrown growing up” – Maj. Gen. Frost explained:

"We are finding that there are a large number of trainees that come in that quite frankly just physically don't have the capacity to throw a hand grenade 20 to 25 to 30 meters. In 10 weeks, we are on a 48-hour period; you are just not going to be able to teach someone how to throw if they haven't thrown growing up."

Still, the amount of grenade training won’t be reduced – developing enough proficiency to meet the current standards just won’t be required - Maj. Gen. Frost said:

"Just because we took it off as a graduation requirement does not mean they won't be conducting hand grenade or land navigation training."

“They are going to learn all the technical aspects of the hand grenade, and they are going to learn tactical employment and they will throw a live hand grenade.”

As Army Times reports, in order to save time trying to teach trainees to meet requirements, hand grenade training will be blended into other exercises:

“Rather than spend time getting soldiers through the hand grenade and land navigation qualification courses in order to graduate basic, those skills will be incorporated into three new field training exercises, dubbed Hammer, Anvil and Forge.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: grenade; regulation; trumpdod; usarmy; usmilitary
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To: OldSmaj

Just SMH, SGM....pathetic. And we’re going to invade North Korea? Yeah, right.


21 posted on 02/15/2018 6:06:53 AM PST by TADSLOS (Alex Jones isnÂ’t quite the wing nut now, all things considered.)
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To: MarvinStinson

Remarkably similar technique to that in #6.


22 posted on 02/15/2018 6:07:08 AM PST by Paine in the Neck ( Socialism consumes EVERYTHING!)
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To: xzins

Meanwhile dozens of hours will be spent on sensitivity training so they don’t offend anyone.

Maybe some of those new transsexual soldiers can help out.


23 posted on 02/15/2018 6:07:29 AM PST by MarvinStinson
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To: OldSmaj

So how heavy is a hand grenade? I vaguely remember throwing one in basic.......


24 posted on 02/15/2018 6:08:19 AM PST by Hot Tabasco (My cat is not fat, she is just big boned........)
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To: MarvinStinson
Geez, what next, rifle qualification?
25 posted on 02/15/2018 6:09:12 AM PST by iontheball (lLL)
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To: MarvinStinson

More lowering of standards. It is no longer sad and laughable. It is the reality of our weak society.

To quote Thucydides, “The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”

We are going to be suffering soon.

JoMa


26 posted on 02/15/2018 6:09:16 AM PST by joma89
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To: iontheball

I wonder if Chinese, North Korean, Iranian and Russian troops train for them??


27 posted on 02/15/2018 6:09:56 AM PST by MarvinStinson
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To: MarvinStinson
Army Basic Training to Drop Hand Grenade Competency as Graduation Requirement

What happens when they go into combat?

28 posted on 02/15/2018 6:10:30 AM PST by The Sons of Liberty (Strzok and Page - The very definition of SEDITION and TREASON!)
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To: tomkat

Next will be Small Arms Qualification. We’ll show them a video instead.
These snowflakes are supposed to be the ones to defend us from the NORKS and the Chinky army?
We need to step back about 50 years.


29 posted on 02/15/2018 6:11:08 AM PST by .44 Special (Tiamid Buarsh)
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To: MarvinStinson
Rather than spend time getting soldiers through the hand grenade and land navigation qualification courses in order to graduate basic, those skills will be incorporated into three new field training exercises, dubbed Hammer, Anvil and Forge.”

Also dropping Land Navigation Courses?

Have we no Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts anymore?

I forgot, smart parents are taking their kids OUT of those organizations to prevent mental abuse of their children.

But what kind of wussied up course is named Hammer, Anvil and Forge? Straight out of some PR group that watches too many Rambo movies? That thinks the Bourne trilogies are a historical novel?

30 posted on 02/15/2018 6:11:27 AM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: MarvinStinson

She is 5’2” 100 pounds inner city, black and looking for a step out of the city crappy world.

Hand grenade? She’ll never need to throw one

Map reading......... ha, ha, ha....give me a break. All those brown lines? Up north? That’s where there are no red necks


31 posted on 02/15/2018 6:11:43 AM PST by bert (K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;WASP .... The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column)
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To: Hot Tabasco

14 oz.


32 posted on 02/15/2018 6:12:09 AM PST by PJBankard
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To: texas booster

Scouts in the military are in OCS


33 posted on 02/15/2018 6:12:56 AM PST by bert (K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;WASP .... The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column)
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To: MarvinStinson
... because getting recruits to pass it is taking “too much time” and they’re just not strong enough,...

WTF? Over

34 posted on 02/15/2018 6:13:52 AM PST by Road Warrior ‘04 (Molon Labe! (Oathkeeper))
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To: PJBankard; Hot Tabasco

Comparably, a baseball which is slightly bigger weighs only 5 oz.


35 posted on 02/15/2018 6:14:19 AM PST by PJBankard
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To: xzins

Why not fix the root cause of the problem?


36 posted on 02/15/2018 6:15:08 AM PST by OKSooner (Joan Rivers, RIP)
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To: MarvinStinson
This reminds me of the Saturday Night Live episode with Howard Cosell, and the Run, Throw & Catch Like A Girl Olympics.

-PJ

37 posted on 02/15/2018 6:15:58 AM PST by Political Junkie Too (The 1st Amendment gives the People the right to a free press, not CNN the right to the 1st question.)
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To: MarvinStinson
This could work out to be akin to a little chlorine in the gene pool...weed out the morons.

Unfortunately, they'll probably get other people killed.


38 posted on 02/15/2018 6:19:25 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (Perhaps we should care less about who we may offend and care more about who we may inspire.)
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To: MarvinStinson

Unbelievable. The thing that bugged me most about hand grenade training in Basic was that, despite the grenades being designed specifically to be about the size of a baseball so you could throw it like a baseball, the instructors wanted you to throw it more like a shot-put, because supposedly the spoon might not come off properly otherwise. But everyone in my cycle managed to launch the thing at least 20-30 yards using that technique. To add insult to injury, after we all did our practice throws on the grenade range using the awkward shotput technique, the drill instructors started lobbing out some extra grenades by throwing them like baseballs.

As for dropping land-nav, that’s just stupid. The military just recently did a large-scale exercise testing their ability to function without GPS, so they know they can’t rely on electronics. You can’t jam a map and compass. If it’s taking too long, then they need to look at how they’re teaching it, they need to look at other subjects that could be scaled back to increase the time available, and they should probably look at extending Basic by a couple of days if need be.


39 posted on 02/15/2018 6:19:33 AM PST by Little Pig
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To: MarvinStinson

a large number of trainees that come in that quite frankly just physically don’t have the capacity to throw a hand grenade 20 to 25 to 30 meters

I am a senior citizen and can Still throw a grenade 25 yards!!


40 posted on 02/15/2018 6:21:44 AM PST by eyeamok (Tolerance: The virtue of having a belief in Nothing!)
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