While standing guard duty outside my Nasty Guard armory off a major thoroughfare in a skeevy part of town on 14 Sep, our ROE was such that we had to obtain loaded magazines from the SGT of the guard back INSIDE the armory if anything happened.
Our weapons were, of course, unloaded and we had no rounds or magazines on our persons--except for Chookter.
The heck with terrorists, I was concerned that some local 'gangsta' type would do a drive-by on me to try and get an M-16. I was a big stupid target out there.
Fortunately, very early in my military career I had a run-in with a mountain lion while I was carrying a rubber M-16. I swore that I would never be left helpless again in a dangerous situation due to 'Army Regs'. The best I could do was to carry my own personal loaded M-16 mag in my thigh pocket. I would've been busted hard if I had been caught...
When they made the movie, they purposely had him pick up a German Luger because they knew some soldiers would know he was not authorized to carry the .45 and would think the movie inaccurate.