Zealotry is the ultimate Red Herring, as most folks who have started wars in the name of God
Or those who have replaced their God with their politics. In fact, that is exactly what Socialism attempts to do by rejecting religion.
Zealotry is the ultimate Red Herring, as most folks who have started wars in the name of God
First of all, there was no such thing as "Regular Army" on the ground engaged in combat in that first tour.
We had M855 and M193, standard issue ball ammunition at the time for the M4. The word came down fairly quickly to unload the M855 and use M193 until we got the 77 grain
That's not contested. In fact it's quite common that Special Operations inserts prior to a full scale ground invasion. Still doesn't negate the fact that there were hundreds of thousands of "Regular Army" (and other branches) that were engaged in combat extensively from 2003 - 2008 in Iraq and 2002 - ~2014 or so in Afghanistan. Getting shot at, shooting people, being wounded, earning silver stars and COMs, etc.
I admittedly didn't ride into Kabul with the Northern Alliance in November 2001. I came along 2 years later. I never saw any M193 out in the wild... but I won't dispute that it was. Heck there was a M60 mounted to one of the defensive positions in Asadabad in 2003/2004, and those were supposed to have been replaced by the M240 years prior.
There were not hundreds of thousands in combat.
The Army spent 92 million in 2021 to add even more M240B's to the force, btw.....
Ahh but that's not at all accurate, there were.
CQB engagements outdoors.
Note that when I was in -
Regular Army (RA) meant simply,not reservists.
Unique purpose of the Special Forces Branch. The mission of the Special Forces (SF) is to conduct special operations across the full range of military operations in any operational environment. SF expands the range of available options to the Geographic Combatant Commander (GCC) in a variety of scenarios where the commitment of conventional military forces is not feasible or appropriate. They provide military capabilities not available elsewhere in the armed forces. They are the only force specially selected, trained, and equipped to conduct Unconventional Warfare. SF operations are inherently Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental, and Multinational (JIIM). These operations are conducted at the operational and strategic level.
So, in a typical war, 300,000 soldiers means less than 1000 will get the opportunity to actively engage with the enemy.
No such thing exist. Just because the fight happens at arms length does not make it CQB.
Show me a "typical war" as you see it.
A fight in your foxhole (or in my generation, Charlie through the wire) was absolutely close quarters battle on the most personal level.
Plenty of support…
Additionally, of the 60% of military personnel deployed abroad, only about 10 to 20% are sent to active war zones. On top of that, most of these soldiers are there in a support capacity.
Therefore, they are not combat-ready troops that participate in the fighting. For every soldier that takes up arms in an active combat role, there are at least 8 or 9 in a support role.
In your generation there was no such thing as CQB tactics at least not in modern terms.
Just because we didn't do it the way you're taught to do it today, or use the same terms used today doesn't make it accurate to say we didn't do it, or "there's no such thing".
Since so few people actually engage in combat as defined by a small handful of operators… why even worry about guns? Just buy SF whatever guns they need and call it good. Give everyone else parade rifles.
From 2001 to early 2006, the Marine Corps awarded 68,000 combat action ribbons. After early 2006, the Corps started including IED attacks in the award but up until then the Corps had not.
The Combat Action Badge was authorized by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker in May 2005.
The criteria for the CAB specifically includes IED attacks as qualifying events, along with mortars, rockets, rocket-propelled grenades, and suicide bombers.
It is a worthless metric for the specific conditions of shooting the enemy at CQB distances.
I'm sorry but claiming the Taliban shooing a rocket over Kandahar one night got 68K Marines a combat action ribbon before 2006 is nonsense. Clearly more than 900 US military saw combat. Making nonsensical claims that only 900 Americans saw combat in the WoT undermines your arguments
The criteria for the CAB specifically includes IED attacks as qualifying events, along with mortars, rockets, rocket-propelled grenades, and suicide bombers.
Not long after the US Army’s entry into Afghanistan, reports from the field began to surface that in close quarters engagements, some Soldiers were experiencing multiple “through-and-through” hits on an enemy combatant where the target continued to fight.
Field reports are accurate and can be explained by the phenomenon of bullet yaw.
There are doctrinal and training techniques that can increase Soldier effectiveness. The analysis tools used in this study were used to evaluate some alternative engagement techniques.