Lock and load now! David Hackworth blasts brass for not trusting, training troops

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Tuesday, October 16, 2001 | Col. David Hackworth

[JohnHuang2]

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Lock and load now!

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© 2001 David H. Hackworth

Shooting first and straight while on a battlefield or a security detail is a matter of life or death. That's why weapons training normally gets the highest priority in the U.S. military.

If you're slow on the draw, you're dead, and your side loses.

Just ask the Marine guard in Lebanon in 1983 who didn't shoot fast enough when a kamikaze driver rammed his terror truck through the gate. It took the leatherneck one full second to chamber a round, another second to flip his weapon off safety and fire. By that time, the truck had smacked into the Marine billet he was securing and exploded. The Rules of Engagement forbade this expert rifleman from being locked and loaded even though his unit was on high alert for just such an attack. And those two seconds he lost arming his weapon cost 241 American lives.

Lesson learned: An unloaded weapon is useless. A lesson we've unfortunately learned and re-learned the hard way – over and over again.

Recently, the Navy dedicated a memorial to the sailors who were aboard the USS Cole when it was savaged last year by a terrorist attack in the port of Aden. But even though the members of the security detail on the Cole were at their posts on high alert – in an extremely dangerous port where they'd already been warned that a terrorist attack was highly probable – not one of their weapons had a round in the chamber. The security detail gave the small craft that almost sank the Cole and killed 17 sailors a big, friendly American wave – and the terrorists waved back – just before they rammed their human torpedo into the ship. Again, the Rules of Engagement stated no weapons would have a round in the chamber.

Not having a magazine in a weapon, even for a crackerjack marksman, adds at least two more seconds before he or she can get off a round. Four seconds is more than enough time to drive a 10,000-gallon gas tanker into a nuclear reactor, a high school, a chemical plant or some other tempting target.

Yet today, at virtually every U.S. military installation around the globe – and now at most of our airports, which are secured by the Army National Guard – the guys and gals manning the security details at exterior gates and other critical or sensitive areas, including ammo dumps and armories, are as impotent as the Marines were in Lebanon or the sailors in Yemen. They don't have a round in the chamber and, in most cases, they don't even have a magazine in their weapons. Yet America is at war, and we know that thousands of fanatics are out there ready to strike.

When I was a 15-year-old soldier in Italy right after World War II, I "walked my post in a military manner" with a loaded M-1 rifle. My sergeant, captain, colonel and general trusted me, along with thousands of other young soldiers, not to shoot myself or anyone else who didn't deserve shooting.

But somewhere along the way, that trust disappeared. In today's military, a leader makes one mistake and he or she is toast. So the brass do the big CYA thing to ensure that they don't get burned. As a result, uniformed MBA-types have made micromanagement a General Order. In a military where a soldier gets busted for drunken driving and his captain is threatened with relief, imagine what an accidental rifle discharge would bring.

Last week, in Germany, where some guards were ordered to tape their rifles' magazine wells for safety, four-star Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs actually charged his colonels with checking on the guards and reporting back to him. A job the corporal of the guard used to do when careers weren't at stake.

The other key factor in the mix is that the troops – less the Marine Corps and special units such as the Rangers – haven't been getting the training time they need on the firing range to be fully competent with their individual weapons. Even though there are millions of bucks for higher headquarters' simulation war-game playing for military planners and the brass, nowhere near enough money has been allocated for putting holes in targets.

Will it take another USS Cole disaster before we allow the troops to lock and load?

For Education And Discussion Only. Not For Commercial Use.

[Ordie 1]

I know the average sailor get maybe five round in Boot camp, but hey I'm a lover and fighter GO NAVY!!!

[Snow Bunny]

I wish Hack would have his OWN show on Fox News Channel. He could call it THE FOXHOLE....or something. I get his newsletter and go to his great site several times a week.

What ticks me off is when he is on others shows they ( the lib guests/military loathers) cut him off right in the middle of his sentences and what Hack has to say is the ONLY thing that should be heard when they want guests to discuss our military.

Thanks so much for this thread JH !

God bless you Hack!

Semper Fi

[Shooter 2.5]

I'm sorry you mentioned the Navy so now I have to tell my son's stories. My son shot a pistol in boot camp and they had to do it by steps. Stand in front of the weapon. Place your hand on the weapon. Pick up the weapon. Bring the weapon to the target. Fire one round. And then another command to fire the next and then the next.

My son rented a house so he brought his toys where he was stationed. A grizzly old Gunny asked my son what he owned and my kid said a 1911A1, a 12 gauge Bennelli and a M1A. The gunny asked my son if he wanted to marry his daughter.

My son was sent to the Middle East to be part of the embargo against Iraq and the next thing I know instead of working as a Electrical Technician he was boarding ships with a 12 gauge. He would grab a 12 gauge, extra ammo, M9 and extra ammo, a radio, a flak jacket and for the last thing, he had to wear a life jacket in case he fell out of the RIB boat. Yeah, right. That would do a lot of good.

He had a job interview after he left the service and he was asked if he worked good with multi-nationals, his comment under his breath was, "I held them at gunpoint".

[zog]

--earth to hackworth, earth to hackworth, come in please.

This de-balling the US is THE PLAN, man, it's been going on for a few decades now, slowly but surely, two steps forward, one back, but always over time forward. the NWO plan is to replace the us with a global government, they can't do that until the us military is totally filled with UN order takers who support and work for the UN, or some such other type org.

These seemingly "stupid" orders that make no sense to be unarmed during critical times is part of the deal to gradually weaken the us forces until one day the global coup is accomplished by stealth. it's WELL over half way there, now, too, IMO. Slow, plodding, don't raise too many alarm bells. This isn't idiocy on the global goons part, it's for-real traitors or global citizens of the world with no patriotism except to themselves and money and power, in very, very high international positions. some are public figures, some are not. "They" want complete and total order followers to the point of absurdity, well and beyond military effectiveness and cohesion. The politicians are puppets to these guys and cartels. They give the orders. Nothing is really an accident. It won't happen one day overnight, they don't want any military revolt in the US, it will happen as you can see it happening right now. A stupid order here, go invade some stupid country over there, play political correctness, promote the moron un-thinkers, develop a herd of mediocrity as SOP, don't let the troops really train, get them spread out all over the planet acting as mercenaries more or less - differnt "things" that apparently serve no useful self defense reason, but are practical if you want to rule the world. Mass illegal immigration, no borders, terrorists allowed to roam free-this is an ACCIDENT? On and on, step by step by step. It's being done on purpose. They cannot have just one single soverign superpower and still pull this off, they need to reduce the bigger countries to subservient states with the lofty goal of one world government for peace and security and the UN way. Look around, see what has happened over the past few decades.

Hackworth is a good guy, but I think he stops looking exactly at the level of personal mass uncomfortableness, that's where reality stops. All humans do that really, this is not per se a bad thing, it's quite the normal human thing, everyone stops at the precise level that they cannot get past, the sticking point where it goes from "agree-comfortable", to "this makes me really uncomfortable so I won't look at it so it doesn't exist so it's not there and pass the tinfoil let's laugh at it".

People just honestly do NOT want to see that the US is being sold down the river on hundreds of fronts on purpose, in a lot of ways, and by a lot of people and orgs.

[B4Ranch]

It sounds like you and I had the same instructors. Two extra clips plus 5 loose rounds in your right hand pocket.

[B4Ranch]

The whole time I was in Nam I carried a .38 S&W Model 36 in my trouser pocket. My Chief knew about it, he and I used to practice together out at the quarry.

[B4Ranch]

It is good to see that someone understands what is happening. Have you ever nailed your Rep to the wall with questions?

[zog]

"ever nailed a rep to the wall, etc' HAHAHAHAHA! Ya, a few times. Once got on the teevee and raked a lieutenant governor over the coals pretty good, too, long time ago now. Another time had a pretty interesting discussion with "metropolis"'s mayor, ran some of my theories by him, asked him if this was an accurate set of assessments, he more or less agreed that was the real scene, ie, as in "why weird stuff happens in politics". Basically it's very mundane, the government is run by extremely wealthy organizations who bribe, payoff, buy, threaten, blackmail, etc, just as you might imagine, along with just regular good ole boy pork barrel politics. Was riding in his limo with him for a spell during this conversation.

For several years was in comrade cynthia mc kinneys district, she and her staff got no use for me whatsoever,they recognize my voice and hang up. "howdy" CLICK. HAHAHA! That didn't take too long for that to start happening. Same with some of the atlanta tv news weasels. They hate to be embarassed when they get caught lying on the teevee.

It's fun to keep trying, I just have to catch myself sometimes and realise to keep it in the "funzone" and not let it get to me. Your realworld meatworld life is actually much more important on a day to day level than any sort of politics or thinking that a mass outbreak of "niceness and honesty and no greed" will all of a sudden sweep the nation or planet.

[Cogadh na Sith]

Yup,this was what "Don't ask,don't tell" meant in the 60's.

Heh, heh...

Happy to know that I'm following in some big footsteps!