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Thread: Army Drops Hand Grenade and Land Nav from Basic Training

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    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    Default Army Drops Hand Grenade and Land Nav from Basic Training



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    But did they ask them "How did they 'feel' about throwing the grenade"? Yeah, I thought not.


    They should keep the grenade throwing training in the regimen. It would certainly weed out any recruits that couldn't learn quickly.

    Alan

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    You don't have to throw anything to play a computer game.
    Land nav? We have a GPS, right? Now who has the batteries?

    Shouldn't be allowed in if they can't throw a rock 30meters.
    If we are to have another contest in…our national existence I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's, but between patriotism & intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition & ignorance on the other…
    ~ President Ulysses S. Grant

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    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    You know.....that battery thingy......There was an air strike called in on some special forces guys because one of them changed batteries and the unit defaulted to their location when the batteries were changed. Yeah....Little things like that will bite you in the butt.

    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/653846/posts

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    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    That explanation in the magazine is pure BS!

    The military has always taken it for granted that they will have to teach everyone everything by the numbers and in a military manner!

    You do not throw a grenade the same way you throw an other item, baseball, softball or rock.

    The Military as always had to "reteach" the entire recruit population how to throw a grenade properly.

    It is not an overhand throw, but more of lobbing launch, and 25 yards is the minimum distance to throw and survive the experience.

    What they are probably dealing with is the lack of upper body strength in the modern recruit to get the grenade far enough from the thrower to be out of range of the blast radius!

    That grenade is not a tennis ball. Think more of a softball left out in the rain all night. You have a steel inner shell, shrapnel and the steel outer shell and the 1/4 pound of c-4 carried inside. It is hefty.

    Most of the boots are 18 year olds and not "big guys" to start with. Combine that with the ending of Phys-ed in the school systems (our local requirement is 1 semester during the 4 years of HS) and many of the prospective recruits can not pass the simple strength test required for entry. It is the pull-ups that get most of them.

    "Back in the day" we could thank good old President Kennedy for instituting a rigorous physical training program that included 15 minutes of calisthenics and 45 minutes organized activity to prep an entire nation to be drafted for Viet Namn.

    Anyone remember the "presidents physical fitness challenge"?

    The best answer is to scrap the present grenade design and go to a smaller, lighter stick-grenade that can be thrown farther. The American grenade is no ones favorite weapon anyway.
    Last edited by kyratshooter; 02-20-2018 at 11:26 PM.

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    Alaska, The Madness! 1stimestar's Avatar
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    I loved both the grenade throwing and the land nav.
    Why do I live in Alaska? Because I can.

    Alaska, the Madness! Bloggity Stories of the North Country

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    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    That last article about the discipline problem is pitiful and someone should be standing on deck for even talking about the problem rather than fixing it quietly behind the scenes.

    The problem is universal among new recruits. Every unit has its Gomer Pile or Forest Gump. Some are incompetent, badly trained, forget their training or push the boundaries. You handle it by calling the squad leader or Platoon SGt and making a simple statement, "Sgt, square that man away!"

    If the problem continues you have steps of correction built into the system. You use those steps as they were intended and do not blab about your fear of confrontation to a reporter!

    There is also a second concern about the information and that is the fact that recruits never go to a unit straight out of boot camp. After boot training they go to AIT in their assigned MOS for anywhere between 8 weeks and 1 year of training, then they go to units.

    I am beginning to wonder why the U.S military is stressing the fact that they are turning out a seriously flawed product in their training process? Are they trying to convince someone that we are an easy target?

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