U.S. Troops In Neighborhood Streets Fully Armed

Originally posted by thehoneycomb
reply to post by longjohnbritches

 

Yeah, us Americans are such jerks. LOL. Giving billions of dollars in foreign aid to our enemies and spreading our capitalist products that benefits peoples lives.

Our foreign aid most of the time is nothing more than corporate welfare for companies here in the states. Because once we give them the money they turn around and buy things here in the states.

And as far as our products benefiting lives that is on a case by case basis. As the old saying goes the white man defeated the Indians when he sold him something he couldn't make himself.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
reply to post by thehoneycomb

 

What guns? Hard times... I had to sell them all. Then a one armed burglar came along and stole the last one I had hidden. There aren't any guns here. Sorry....

Uh, yeah... me too. *wink-wink*

You hear that, Uncle Sam?! In case you are reading this from Langley, we have no guns so, you know, you can just, uh... skip this house, mkay?

My son is an Infantryman in the Army National Guard. Guard units are not resource rich and will conduct training exercises using whatever is convenient, with the approval of the local authorities of course.

I remember him telling me about an exercise they ran to simulate manning a checkpoint as if they were doing so for real in Iraq. They picked an isolated country road and set up the checkpoint. They borrowed some ROTC cadets from the nearby college to act as opforce and try to blast through thecheckpoint without stopping. I'm sure the occassional local resident passing through wonder what was going on.

reply to post by dbarnhart


They were probably practicing martial law.

I think this is more much ado about nothing involving a local National Guard unit. I've done stuff like this myself ten years ago when I was in the Guard even before 9-11. Most Guard armories even in rural and semi rural areas, are at best a few acres most of that used for the armory itself and the motor pool. Seems like I've noticed lots of armories are near some type of municipal property, airport, or other acreage so as long as the unit is a good neighbor they can extend the area they have to train in while at home station a bit.

There were a couple of things I was curious about though. So I spent less than 30 seconds finding this.

2nd Combined Arms Battalion, 136th Infantry

of particular note

There are five major units in the 2-136 CAB: Headquarters and Headquarters Company in Moorhead and Fergus Falls; A Company in Bemidji and Detroit Lakes; B Company in Crookston and Thief River Falls

I was wondering what the hell a CAB was and now I know. It stands for Combined Arms Battalion. Now I know. The fact that B company is in both Crookston and Thief River Falls tells me that it's a split unit probably with half at each place. I'm pretty confident that this is simply the local unit making the most out of it's training time. It costs almost nothing to train like this and it's actually a hell of a lot better than say sitting in a classroom in the Armory. Five mile tactical road march or 3 hours worth of sexual harassment, alcohol abuse prevention, or other social engineering BS. I'll take the road march, even in the Georgia heat.

It's really pretty simple you get a list of points and put a different soldier in charge of getting to each point. Use only a map and compass.

Glancing at her briefly one Soldier responded, “Just training Ma’am. Joining up with another patrol at the rally point.” Not accepting this as a reasonable answer to her inquiry, Magge went on, “Oh, ok. What are you training on the streets of town for exactly?” At that the young soldier replied, “To be honest ma’am, I don’t know.”

Sounds to me like they are just practicing a light patrol. I see everyone posting about full battle gear. I don't see that either. The only pieces of full battle gear I see are Helmet, Rifle, load bearing gear, and the photo is to blurry to tell if they have their armor on or not. Missing from full battle rattle are: Gas mask, camel back (modern replacement for canteen), night vision gear, squad radio, crew served weapons, combat lifesaver kits, and MOPP gear. I've done similar training with almost all the above on civilian roads (admittedly not as residential as the pic). I bet that the location that this was taken at was less than 2 miles from the local armory.

We have a thread like this around this time almost every year. Someone takes a picture of some Guardsmen doing something Guard units have been doing forever, and assigns nefarious motives for it. Most of the Guard does most of it's serious training between May and August. There are plenty of folks who bitch about Guard units being weekend warriors and when I was active duty we really looked down on them, but I was pleasantly surprised in the Guard unit I joined after active duty. There are plenty of opportunities to waste a Guardsman's time and a taxpayer's money I know very well, but getting the guys geared up drawing weapons and sending them out on a couple of mile walk is both cheap and if done properly can teach some folks things that might save their life sometime. It's a lot better to learn that someone in your squad can't read a map worth a crap two miles from your armory than it is two miles from a FOB in Afghanistan somewhere.

reply to post by imagineering


Guess im the only one that would go up to them and ask... So has anyone figured out why they were there?
Was it an exercise or something?

America is one gunshot away from Marshall Law

Why don't they train along the US - Mexico border where they can actually accomplish something while they're at it instead of scaring American citizens and psychologically prepping them for martial law?

For those who say "Don't worry it's just the National Guard" you might need a reminder of who was responsible for disarming the citizens of New Orleans and taking their guns after hurricane Katrina. They were also breaking and entering homes and forcing occupants out at gunpoint.



Fred Bible of the Oklahoma National Guard: "You never expect to do this in your own country"

reply to post by mileysubet
If people think the U.S. soldiers will fire on American citizens like the chinnese army did.Or like in other countries they are crazy.Even the syrian soldiers are deserting.The american soldiers will not fire on their own people for the greater part.I feel secure by the mentality of American soldiers,and their oath to up hold the constitution of the U.S.A.

reply to post by jefwane
Even if Obama tries to take our guns away.The 22 cal guns and ammo we will always have.If needed as a last resort there are far to many to account for and way to much ammo around to account for.This will always be our last resort.Using these guns we will be able to pick up of the battlefield enouhg of there arms to even things out.Besides the U.S. soldiers are different from what we have seen troops do in other places.The greater part of our army will come to the publics side.Retired vet 20 year man.Other vets speak up on this please

Originally posted by rockymcgilicutty
reply to post by mileysubet

 

If people think the U.S. soldiers will fire on American citizens like the chinnese army did.Or like in other countries they are crazy.Even the syrian soldiers are deserting.The american soldiers will not fire on their own people for the greater part.I feel secure by the mentality of American soldiers,and their oath to up hold the constitution of the U.S.A.

Oh really?

Maybe you shouldm't be so sure...

rt.com...

reply to post by rockymcgilicutty


I used to agree with you, I was talking to a police officer a few months ago in a local pub and in our conversation we talked about police conduct in the thwarting of protests and he made known to me that himself and his co-workers would do ANYTHING to disperse an unruly crowd if commanded to do so. I asked the question if he would use live rounds and he replied "if it got bad enough, and orders where given...YES". Now this reflects the mindset of military memebers when in such a situation, logic would tell you this. A more personal expierience of mine is from my father, he did many years in the Marine Corp, and all he said to me was, "if the orders are given, most marines would follow, especially if they where led to believe they where doing it for the right cause".
If an out break of somekind of frenzy occurs here, its sad to say but, most police and military members will comply to orders given.

Just my two cents, of what I heard and seen.

Originally posted by longjohnbritches
reply to post by SrWingCommander

 

We don't need another Kent State


Kent State shootings - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings - Similarto Kent State shootings - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Kent State shootings—also known as the May 4 massacre or the Kent State massacre—occurred at Kent State University in the U.S. city of Kent, Ohio, and ...

Actually I was just talking to a Law Enforcement friend about this, and he said the reason they have stepped up training with local law enforcement is to prevent another Kent State.

Good discussion, I stand by my original post.

I don't have a problem with the training overall. I wasn't "in" the National Guard, but my college ROTC detachment and Civil Air Patrol Squadron did training with the Guard all the time both at the armory, at Ft Sill and Camp Gruber, and out in the public.

But I also stand by the fact I don't recall them bringing out weapons unless we were at Sill or Gruber. So doing tactical formation through a residential neighborhood is a bit odd.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
reply to post by thehoneycomb

 

What guns? Hard times... I had to sell them all. Then a one armed burglar came along and stole the last one I had hidden. There aren't any guns here. Sorry....

Yup, it's the same everywhere, you know 'hard times'.
Well in the interest of the more likely story, I doubt there was any 'live' ammunition, and if any, most likely blanks. You can usually tell as the 'M16's' usually have a device on the end of the barrel that is bright red or orange and is a plug to prevent projectiles being launched from firing the weapon such as dirt or something encountered while training, brush, stick or anything that could get jammed into the end of the barrel while training. Thus if you saw such devices, you could be relatively sure it was a practice exercise. As for being in the streets of 'your town', it could be any town, and likely due to fuel consumption hauling troops around, it would very likely be close to a military base. Likely, ie. short distance = less fuel consumption. This type of training would be sufficient to negate such an exercise in a much larger city where people would have a greater propensity to be provoked. While I was in Germany in the Army, we routinely did training sessions with our complete units. We had trucks, personnel carriers, tracked vehicles and M60 Tanks, even helicopter escorts. Not too unusual. And yea, the locals weren't to happy about it, same as you.

I really don't think Marshal law is imminent........

reply to post by Plotus


When you were in Germany did you see this guy??

Elvis - Frankfort Special - YouTube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFFBtPjHIQw
3 min - Apr 2, 2008 - Uploaded by TmahwkIA
Elvis performs "Frankfort Special" from the motion picture "G.I. Blues"

Oh my God, they're coming to your town to take it over! Hide the fine china, hide the guns, hide your diabolical plans of government subversion. I am in the military and I can tell you that I have ridden in military vehicles in full uniform and equipment all over the place in towns and cities. Sometimes it was for training, sometimes to participate in a parade, sometimes just in transit to a field problem. People in the military wear uniforms and have equipment, it's no secret. If I see a bunch of teenagers in foootball uniforms eating at a restaurant should I presume that they intend to have a scrimmage in the restaurant? One time I had just returned from a month long field problem and was still dirty, muddy and had on several layers of gear(minus actual wepaons or kit) and I subsequently went with my friend and wife to eat sushi, we even paid our bill and left a tip.

I'm just trying to say, we're here, we are the US military, sometimes we can't hide from you, but don't worry because most of us are just as paranoid about government over reach of power as you are.

reply to post by SrWingCommander

Hi SrW
The question is--- To prevent the demonstrations for Peace???
Or tho prevent the killing of kids with rocks and bottles??
Reminiscent of areas of the Israeli border today.
All is so unfortunate,
sadly ljb

reply to post by hammanderr


"One time I had just returned from a month long field problem and was still dirty, muddy and had on several layers of gear(minus actual weapons or kit) and I subsequently went with my friend and wife to eat sushi, we even paid our bill and left a tip."

Now this is the part I find hard to understand. Oh! now I do. You did say you were unarmed.
Just kidding LOL
Well maybe if you were in some third world country???
PS double tip was in order to clean the floor from all that boot dirt. lol
I hope you are advocating tempered vigilance here?

Originally posted by ownbestenemy
And arguing from a point of authority is a fallacy. Though I respect your position here you are trying to convey what you experienced as a soldier is systemic and widespread to others. There are some who were in the military who never saw a rifle that was loaded with live rounds and only trained with "dummy" weapons. Your experience doesn't speak for all.

I would love to see who these troops are that have never seen live rounds. As far as I know even cooks are required to be qualified on the M-16 or equivalent. Which military did you belong to? Hell even us Air Force peons had to qualify on the M16 in basic and keep up to date in our qualifications every so many years.

Please clarify what you mean by this.