Soldier Shot During Special Forces Training Event After Live Ammo Mixed in with Blanks

[GOTWA]

But, hey, I'm just a pogue who carried a tray out of the Bagram DFAC. Your mileage may vary.

Bagram or Vance/Montrond? I need perspective here.

 

[AWP]

Bagram or Vance/Montrond? I need perspective here.

Was Vance the one close to the BX? If you were going south on Disney it would be to your right? I never ate there, I was a contractor during my time in Afghanistan.

 

[Kraut783]

Yeah, Vance was in the old CJSOTF-A compound off of Disney.

 

[AWP]

@SpongeBob*24 now we have an answer.

(We had a PM about Bagram DFACs and I couldn't remember the camp's name)

Vance...wasn't he a Guard 18E? And Montrond...7th Group? I used to read bios and could remember this stuff.

 

[Gunz]

.

 

[Kraut783]

@SpongeBob*24 now we have an answer.

(We had a PM about Bagram DFACs and I couldn't remember the camp's name)

Vance...wasn't he a Guard 18E? And Montrond...7th Group? I used to read bios and could remember this stuff.

SSG Gene Vance 19 SFG (A), killed in May, 2002 Afghanistan. CJSOTF-A named their Bagram compound Camp Vance in December, 2002.

 

[Teufel]

If I may, as a guy involved in training simulators.

Every December-ish Orlando hosts ITSEC.
I/ITSEC Homepage

I saw things there which kind of blew my mind. Sims for door gunners, medicine, C2, anti-tank, flight sims, etc. There was a sim that replicated the picture a gunner would see from the aft ramp of a CH-47. There was one for JTACs that used real world callsigns. As you can imagine, the small arms sims were amazing. Some of the vendors included Unreal Engine and Nvidia which are not scrub companies.

When you consider the training opportunities available such as dry fire, blanks, simunitions, and live fire, there's something to be said for modern digital sims.

The Navy is no shit using flight sims to qualify naval aviators, some of who NEVER set foot in their airframe until they reach an operational squadron within the fleet. I've seen this and I've spoken to the instructors.

If you can qualify aircrews, with their exceptionally rigid standards based upon digital learning alone, then ground forces can build a high level skillset before they squeeze a trigger with any munition. Blank, sim, live...doesn't matter.

I'm not saying this for professional or personal growth, but every branch can benefit from digital training across almost every MOS/ Rate/ AFSC.

Maybe some career fields need to start writing checks...

But, hey, I'm just a pogue who carried a tray out of the Bagram DFAC. Your mileage may vary.

This already exists in the Marine Corps at most bases. I assume the Army has something similar. They support multiple weapon systems and have all sorts of scenarios. Good for individual training, not as good for unit training. ISMT We have one for supporting arms as well Supporting Arms Virtual Trainer

 

[AWP]

This already exists in the Marine Corps at most bases. I assume the Army has something similar. They support multiple weapon systems and have all sorts of scenarios. Good for individual training, not as good for unit training. ISMT We have one for supporting arms as well Supporting Arms Virtual Trainer

But how much time is an individual soldier or Marine spending on those sims per year?

 

[Gunz]

But how much time is an individual soldier or Marine spending on those sims per year?

There's the rub. The Corps was pretty stingy with live-fire range time for rifle companies BITD. Bullets cost money. Sims are far more economical but how often does a rifleman get a chance to cycle through?

 

[ThunderHorse]

But how much time is an individual soldier or Marine spending on those sims per year?

Regulars get a lot less range time than specials. Even in the year we went through two BDE certification exercises I might have spent a total of 12 days shooting at company level (this was the high for the squadron) and then add gunnery which was 20 days, we were supposed to do gunnery twice that year but got kaboshed by Brigade Modernization Command.

Infantry and Scouts in forscom units generically never shoot enough. We had snipers in our MTOE and they never shot their long guns because we didn't have any long guns...and didn't have DM rifles either.

ETA: Sim Center at Ft Bliss had an interesting calendar to say the least. Certain quarters were black and some months they would beg units to come in to use it. Massive facility that had everything from small arms to Abrams.

 

[Teufel]

But how much time is an individual soldier or Marine spending on those sims per year?

For the Marine Corps they are pretty well used to be honest. It’s an easy way to spend white space. We had one on our camp…I think most camps, which correlates to an infantry regiment with its 3-4 battalions, have one.