When I threw my first grenade I was praying not to drop it. That would have been awkward.
Our platoon all threw ours on the same day. We were in line in a bunker, and right before you throw, you can watch the guy in front of you throw through a periscope. You were supposed to throw and immediately crouch behind the sandbags. The guy before me was a black guy, about my size. He threw his first of two grenades and stood there admiring it. The two instructor threw him bodily on the ground. I think they let him toss the next one.
I mentioned he was black because the first week or so of basic he told me, in formation he was going to kick my ass. I told him we could meet off-base. Apparently he was trying to show off what a bad ass he was, and he was picking on one of the littlest white guys. (I was about 5’ 7”.) Now first or second week, another black guy about 5’ 3” has his canteen pop out of his web gear while we were double-timing. He didn’t notice he had dropped it, but I fell out grabbed it, and caught up with the formation, which is what a buddy should do. He didn’t know he had dropped it until I offered it to him.
For the most part I got along with everyone, but all the black guys, all the Hispanics, hated my “adversary”. Towards the end of basic, the sadistic drill sergeant had us pair off more or less at random, and practice slap boxing. I drew another black guy, about 6’ 2”, with a lot more reach, who was going to go to MP school after basic. He came at me with a big roundhouse swing, which I blocked and went inside on him, slapping him on the face repeatedly from below. He broke formation, and I followed him, chasing him across the company street. My “adversary” was horrified. Me and the MP candidate just shook and treated each other like sportsmen. There were about 40 guys in my platoon who wanted me to kick that moron’s butt, but I justed wanted to move on. But I did derive some satisfaction watching make a fool of himself on the grenade range.
Females can’t throw grenades, almost half can’t get them out of the personal kill zone (on flat ground on a sunny day) and they are not good at land navigation.
So.
“US Army to Drop Grenade Throwing Requirement
Beginning summer 2019, U.S. Army recruits will no longer be required to demonstrate grenade-throwing abilities to pass training.”
“Other Requirement Changes
This isn’t the only requirement the Army is dropping, however. The Army says its also dropping land navigation as a requirement.”