The ammo was one of the biggest problems with the M-16. The powder used in a lot of the ammo that was delivered was too dirty for the weapon to function property, and the cleaning kit was wrong. The Air Force carried a lot of Hoppe’s #9 for people when they deployed, and a lot of individuals had their families send it to them to keep those suckers clean.

The ammo sucked, the maintenance sucked, and the equipment kept getting delivered with tighter tolerances. The AK-47 wasn’t as accurate, but at the normal ranges involved that was a non-issue. It was a given that if you saw someone actually taking aim in a picture, the picture was staged. The common practice was to stick the weapon over the cover and empty the magazine while moving it in the general direction of the bad guys. Face it, the overwhelming majority of combatants on both sides were wounded and killed by shrapnel, not bullets.

The head shot is obviously the money shot. That is the sure thing, not the probable of a center mass hit. The thing is that people, even without armor, carry all kinds of things in their pockets and pouches that can turn a bullet. They have to keep their face clear, and faces are usually easier to see than torsos.

You wouldn’t have had a problem with my command reducing the number of drug/gun runners who supposedly belonged to the Company. They had a habit of not being where they said they would be, or doing what they said they would do in the few times I had to interact with their operations. There were a lot of analysts very suspicious of changes made at the request of the CIA regarding targets. We were never sure exactly what the game was that they were playing, but it didn’t correspond to the overall objectives of the military. There were wars within wars in that mess, and it was impossible to be sure whose side a lot of different groups were on. Painting it as a conflict between the North and Cong vs the South and the allies, was way too simplistic.

If the main ‘chute failed to deploy or got tangled, we did indeed release the main before deploying the reserve. Of course, the reserve was smaller and designed to get you on the ground without dieing, there were no guarantees you wouldn’t get hurt. 😉 If you were making a low level jump (below 1,000 ft) , you didn’t usually have time to deploy a reserve ‘chute by the time you realized the main wasn’t working, so we didn’t bother carrying one. *shrug*

I have no idea why the US forces were wearing their packs on their chest. I thought they carried their packs under the main, as you say. Maybe someone decided it would be a nice idea to try something new in a battle field! Some people have some crazy ideas. I’ve seen worse than that. *shrug*

You’ve heard about US weapons jamming a lot. We checked every round and loaded our own mag’s. One piece of grit in a mag can ruin your whole day, or any ammo even slightly out of spec. We had a piece of equipment in the field armory where you put a round vertically in a clamp that was like a drill press, it spun the round slowly and a blue dye marker would traverse vertically about a hair away from the cylinder. If any dye was on that round, there was a good chance it would jam. We found a lot of US made ammo didn’t make the cut. No wonder they had feed problems! The tolerances on US ammo was woeful to say the least! Actually, I was told by a Ranger (who did the smart thing and checked everything also) who was a hunter in civilian life that most hunting ammo was better than the military crap. And it was really very strange! The US made sniper weapons were some of the best in the World! But the general infantry rifles were garbage. it’s no wonder we got our weapons (rifles, handguns, and others) from Austria and Belgium, but we used US & UK precision (sniper) rifles (and my fave .50 cal AMR was Austrian). I never had a weapon jam or fail to fire. We used the Barrett M107 sometimes. A great rifle. 🙂 However, the rifle isn’t the *weapon*. It’s a tool. The sniper is the weapon. There was a definite shift in US training in the late 80’s. A sniper is trained to kill. “One shot, one kill”. We were trained to aim for the medulla oblongatta (or what we called ‘the peach’ because that was about the size of it.) from the front, the target area is basically a ‘T’, between the eyes, down the nose to the mouth. It was a hard shot, but the best because there was no Armour in the way, and it was an instant kill. Not only that, but there was no nerve reflexes possible. all muscles simply relax. Especially useful in a hostage situation, or someone with a bomb trigger etc. Now, the US snipers are trained to aim for CBM (central body mass), and wounding shot’s are OK! Very Stupid IMHO!

the big difference between a sniper, an infantry man, artillery/tank or fighter/bomber/chopper is simply… A sniper ALWAYS knows the person he is about to kill, or has killed. It’s always personal. We see his eyes move, head turn, see the sweat on his brow, even watch him pick his nose… always observing, waiting for the perfect moment to take the shot. And yes, it does affect us. But we are trained to deal with it, and I guess it takes a special kind of person. *shrug* I never thought of myself as anyone special, I was just a very good shot and I did my job.

“I was what others did not want to be.
I went where others did not want to go.
I did what others did not want to do.
I asked nothing from those who gave nothing,
but to the victims, I gave mercy, hope and aid;
and I took all hope, and gave no mercy to the evil ones.
I accepted the possibility of eternal loneliness…
should I fail.”
…

Yeah. 🙂 Even to this day, I don’t regret any of it. And not just because there is no point in regretting what has been done, but because I know what those bastards did, and what they would have done. I did what I had to do, and I’d do it again. If I have a regret, it’s that i didn’t get to take out more of them, or Pol Pot, or the CIA bastards helping him! I had a chance to take a spook out once… but I was ordered to stand down. If I had known then what I know now, I would have taken the shot! 😈

The parachute was the backrest in our chairs and we sat on our survival gear [butt bucket] that attached to the parachute harness. We could drop the gear before landing on the ground, or pull a lanyard over water to inflate the raft before touch down. The equipment inside was packed in waterproof pouches that were connected by lanyards. You definitely didn’t want to land on the ground with that thing still attached or you would break something, probably a thigh. It was also a real thrill to walk to the door or escape hatch with that load.

I can attest to the reluctance of fly-guys to leaving an aircraft that might be able to make an emergency landing. I landed in a couple that could never be flown again, with odd bits coming off on the runway.

They had an ejection seat simulator at survival school that was a hell of a ride. Even under training conditions people ended up in the hospital if they didn’t follow the procedure. The helicopter/aircraft ditching was also a thrill, trying to get out before you drowned.

All of the emergency gear was rigged to fail in some way – things didn’t inflate, zippers jammed, just one problem after another, but that’s better than having to deal with it in the real world.

My understanding on the reserve chute was that you released your main canopy first so it wouldn’t foul the reserve chute. We opened high enough that we could work at getting the sucker open before we splashed. It was the ground attack guys who were in deep yogurt if anything failed.

During our training, one of the advanced courses was jumping out of an aircraft that was in an uncontrolled pattern (yawing, pitching, diving, etc). It was pretty hairy, and if you didn’t do everything right… *shrug* I have a ton of respect for Pilot’s and aircrew. In all the time I served, I never saw any of them panic. Balls of titanium m8! And of course, they took great pleasure in making the experience as difficult as possible! Flyboys love to scare the crap outa ground pounders! 😆 (never happened though, and when it was our turn to train them in Survival etc… 😆 Payback can be so much fun! 😆 They may own the sky, but we own the ground! And they all spend more time on the ground, right? 😉 😈 But there were never any hard feelings of course. 🙂 The more realistic and dangerous the training (where you probably won’t get hurt too much), the better you can survive the real experience if it ever becomes necessary.

We *ALWAYS* checked ALL our equipment before a mission! We stripped down and reassembled everything that could be stripped! Even though our ‘chutes were per-packed, the #1 rule was: It’s your life! It’s your responsibility! And we didn’t just use naked eye either, we used a strong magnifier with a halogen and/or UV light source, especially on anything where the service tag was more than a month old! We even went over the combat fatigues and boots! 😆 We were trained to be thorough. 😉

I discovered one curious difference in technique between us and the US jump troops in Cambodia. The US carried their combat packs on their chest, with the emergency chute pack in front. That makes landing quite difficult as you are quite overbalanced forward. We carried our packs hanging between our feet on a quick release, which we released 10-20 ft before landing. Made landing a lot safer when you weren’t carrying an extra 30-100 lbs! I bet that increased the US accident rates alone. It also meant that if anyone was shooting at us, they would probably only hit the packs (which had a Kevlar bottom and back) or the armored soles of our boots. 🙂

Yeah… Having worked at GD (and elsewhere), I understand how it all works m8, sadly. I can see it happening here now also. *sigh* Crazy… *shrug*

The Air Force used the automatic system because we didn’t jump unless absolutely necessary and we didn’t have time to work out timing. It makes no sense to do it for paratroops who are jumping from known altitudes in a controlled manner [unless the aircraft gets hit, of course]. We were never thrilled about the barometric pressure switch because they were preset and couldn’t be adjusted for local pressure. There could be a couple of thousand feet of difference, based on the actual ground pressure, which is why we relied on the radar altimeters.

We always checked the condition of the release pin after there were reports of bent and corroded pins as part of accident investigations. I’ve found a few, which is why I became paranoid about my personal equipment. [There was also a problem when somebody moved the pads in my helmet during a routine inspection which resulted in a literal headache when I had to wear it for a refueling.] Things got really sloppy.

I always thought that the paratroops packed and took care of their own equipment. They use to have at least two no line jumps before getting out of the training course, but things got rushed during the unpleasantness in Southeast Asia. Actually it makes sense that the US was buying defective gear with flaky gadgets – it would be more money for a defense contractor who would ‘thank’ a Congresscritter or two.

After McNamara the Defense Department was more of a corporate welfare office, than an effective military force.

The US used (and still use, but it’s all electronic now. Was mechanical until the ’90’s) a system called AAD (Automatic Activation Device) which opened the ‘chute at either a predetermined time, or altitude. If the main ‘chute failed to deploy, they were supposed to open the backup ‘chute. the mechanical systems were… problematic. I don’t know how good the newer systems are. We don’t use them. 🙂

We trained for 4 types of jumps. Static line: Only for large number of troops and only between 800 to 1000 ft. Free fall: Usually for insertion of a team. Jump from up to 12,000 ft & free fall in team formation (generally when jumping into a hot LZ). HALO/HAHO: Usually from 15,000 to 26,000 ft (with oxygen of course). And Controlled: Using a steerable ‘chute for precision landing using a Ram Air ‘chute. Think ‘skydiving’. These are normally used for either free fall, or HALO jumps.

We had to learn to use several types of ‘chutes depending on the mission.

This doesn’t include most of your special forces unit’s BTW. Though even they (generally) don’t get as much training as ours (and the Brit’s and other European SF units) do.

It’s all quite sophisticated now. 🙂 Laser rangefinders, weather feeds (especially wind), IR detectors, night vision, etc. Most of that was just starting to be tested when I did my last couple jumps.

I just looked up our current jump stat’s (Royal Australian Army). We have one jump school called the Parachute Training School (PTS). The public PDF states “The School maintains one of the best safety records in the world with close to 500,000 descents without a student fatality. ” 🙂 That’s pretty good considering we have a small number of servicemen with jump training compared to most other Nations. My Regiment had a very high safety and success record I am proud to say (3 RAR – 3rd Royal Australian Regiment). PTS is also one of the oldest jump schools in the World and has been in continuous operation since 1942. 🙂 Even the SAS learn to jump there, so even basic grunts get the same training (minus the advanced courses) as the SAS, and that’s true of much of the SF unit’s training here (most of the advanced training – Commando & above – is carried out by 3RAR).

So, there you go. Maybe the start of another chapter in my ‘book’! 😉 (With a lot more detail once my gag order expires!) 😆

Given all of the equipment problems when stuff designed for a European land war was sent to a jungle, and people trained for that European environment found themselves in the same jungle. it is hard to see how things managed to work at all.

It was so bad at the end that senior NCOs were openly complaining about how FUBAR everything was.

They repeated the disaster by sending the same Euro-targeted equipment and personnel to a desert in this century.

Health care may be free (*IF* you are on a Age/Disability Pension or have a ‘health care Card’), but from my personal experience and that of others I have spoken with, the quality is not much better than yours. It may even be worse in some respects.

Otherwise, I have had a few Americans visit me down under, and they all loved it. Some even returned… and managed to survive our murderous flora/fauna! 😈 Just kidding… it’s like anywhere else. Common sense and a healthy respect for anything known/unknown goes a long way. You could send your Repugs here, they wouldn’t last a day and the flora/fauna will be happy and leave everyone else alone! 👿

That report on the relatively high casualty rates for GI’s with drop training is accurate Bryan (between the ’60’s and late 80’s when I read it anyway). The report was/is classified.

that would be pretty cool. i vote we all invite ourselves to steve’s place, to save him from having to drive anywhere to meet us. 😀

otoh, if we all invite ourselves to visit you, maybe we can get some free health care while we’re there!

The ‘pounders’ were required to make a number of jumps a year to receive their extra pay, so it is surprising that you would see any large number of those incidents. OTOH, things were really coming unglued at the end, so I shouldn’t be surprised. I didn’t let anyone in country touch any of my gear, which didn’t go over well with my officers, but I depended on that stuff, and didn’t like what I was seeing at the end.

I didn’t have to put up with the grind like I would have if I had been permanently assigned. I knew I would be leaving shortly because they only needed my skills for specific events and didn’t have a regular slot for my specialty. I did a lot of temporary work in a lot of different areas because I wasn’t married and I got rank early. I was the ‘goto tourist’ in my command.