an apolitical account of marie life in iraq

i guess soulja - and others will ignore this and other such accounts - as it doesnt pander to thier anti US beloiefs - to them tough

to everyone else - appologies for the long cut n paste - but it came via email and i cannot find it online

Available from various sources found here

Marine talks to his X-Marine Father about Iraq and posted to a Vet's
newsgroup.

Hello to all my fellow gunners, military buffs, veterans and interested
guys. A couple of weekends ago I got to spend time with my son Jordan, who
was on his first leave since returning from Iraq. He is well (a little
thin), and already bored. He will be returning to Iraq for a second tour in
early 06 and has already re-enlisted early for 4 more years. He loves the
Marine Corps and is actually looking forward to returning to Iraq. Jordan
spent 7 months at Camp Blue Diamond in Ramadi. Aka: Fort Apache. He saw and
did a lot and the following is what he told me about weapons, equipment,
tactics and other miscellaneous info which may be of interest to you.
Nothing is by any means classified. No politics here, just a Marine with a
birds eye view as opinions:

1) The M-16 rifle : Thumbs down. Chronic jamming problems with the talcum
powder like sand over there. The sand is everywhere. Jordan says you feel
filthy 2 minutes after coming out of the shower. The M-4 carbine version is
more popular because its lighter and shorter, but it has jamming problems
also. They like the ability to mount the various optical gunsights and
weapons lights on the picattiny rails, but the weapon itself is not great in
a desert environment. They all hate the 5.56mm (.223) round. Poor
penetration on the cinderblock structure common over there and even torso
hits cant be reliably counted on to put the enemy down. Fun fact: Random
autopsies on dead insurgents shows a high level of opiate use.

[edit on 16/11/05 by JAK]

As far as the M16's/M4's are concerned, its pretty much common sense, The M16s are build rather tightly, The internals are so close together that just a few grains of sand dirt ect, can cause the parts to stop moving, causing the thing to jam, Im no soldier and havent been to iraq, But judging from what ive read, and know about the rifle, I think its safe to say that in that desert region, that gun is russian roulette..

Its over overengineered imho.


Ive read several stories of soldiers Capturing Ak-47's And using them over the M-16, The AK 7.62x39 might not be as acurate as the .223 but it packs a bigger punch, The thing was made much loser then the M-16, Parts are spaced apart more, so if say you get dirt, sand ect, in it, The debris will just fall through to the bottom of the reciever and not jam up like the M-16

M-16 is a plinking gun imho, the AK those things are made for war.

[edit on 16-11-2005 by C0le]

[

Fun fact: Random
autopsies on dead insurgents shows a high level of opiate use.

Well, no wonder the 5.56 has a hard time bring them down. If they are hopped up on opium they aren't going to feel much pain when shot. You're going to have to resort to something with more stopping power.

This "letter" went around once already in late 2003. No one has claimed it to be factual, nor real.

The M16 is NOT having problems in Iraq, as long as the troop does proper maintenance.....like any other piece of equipment. My entire Battalion had not a single failure to fire that could attributed to the rifle itself, in the 13 months we were in-country. Being the senior 45B, any weapons malfunctions would come to me......they didn't.

Ditto with the M249 SAW. Maintain it, and it will be faithful.

Granted, the current issue ammo is not right. The bullet is too heavy for the caliber, and the penetrator is simply NOT needed. I've long advocated a return to the 55gr FMJBT, and slower twist rate. The lethality of the older M193 ammo is unquestioned.

I call "fake". This is propaganda that's been dressed up as a weapons review. There are glaring errors in the descriptions that a Marine or soldier would not make (such as the M243 SAW).

It's somebody that wants to tag Iran with doing bad things, plus blame the media for not "taking care of soldiers."