[Sonar5]

You said:

"Also for what it is worth, the military is "reconsidering" the ammo question in such instances."

Give me a break, please. My marine Corps is not going to issue live ammo ever in an excersise such as this. It won't happen. Your contention that they are reconsidering is nothing more than hyperbole, and conjecture, not based on any official facts.

The only solution IMHO, is to place perimeter guards such as those used on any military base who always use live ammo.

It is still unknown in what capacity these Marines were acting. Some questions:

1) Were they on Guard Duty.. probably not, since anyone on guard duty in the fleet has live ammo.
2) Were they part of the excersise force and went outside the perimeter.
3) Who was responsible for perimeter security to allow this access

Again, we still do not know the whole story here, but I would never want to be on an excersise with live ammo. There is never a reason for it, and the risks outweigh the benefits. All one needs to do is look at the accident ratio on a live fire controlled range, and that is why you will never see live ammo on these excersises.

Marine safety is first in all of these excersises, and the poor Marine in charge of security has some answering to do.

Regards,
Joe

[Terriergal]

The only solution IMHO, is to place perimeter guards such as those used on any military base who always use live ammo.

Bingo.