22 April 20 Garand Picture of the Day

[Mark in Rochester]

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[CINDERS]

Isn't it funny the poor bloody Police have a devil of a time breaking up protests sooo send in the Army as a people motivator and low and behold they pretty much melt away not that it may happen but I would hazard a guess the publics view is what that G.I said all those years ago "Shoot'em all and let God sort'em out." hence the public won't poke the Army besides they got way too much fire power.....

[fjruple]

New Jersey National Guardsmen from the 50th Armor Division in Newark, NJ entertaining the locals.

[Bob Seijas]

My old unit. In three days they expended 50,000 rounds of 30-06. That never makes the history books.

[Ovidio]

Isn't it funny the poor bloody Police have a devil of a time breaking up protests sooo send in the Army as a people motivator and low and behold they pretty much melt away not that it may happen but I would hazard a guess the publics view is what that G.I said all those years ago "Shoot'em all and let God sort'em out." hence the public won't poke the Army besides they got way too much fire power.....

Plus, not being trained for such things, they are also much more likely to make a mistake or apply the wrong measure of "pressure" and so start shooting. Maybe that holds the populace very often.
As I said a few other times, these are pictures that "disturb" me a lot. I really didn't like it when I had one such long mission in 1995. Most of my mates of the time share my opinion, especially those who had once a moment of high tension, when they needed to load and aim the rifle.
The others remember those missions like a weird holiday with a much better pay than usual. We were either in Sicily (much better under every point of view, especially human), or in Calabria (where I landed. Very bad situation, aggressive approach by the citizens, lots of limits to our mobility due to the risk of aggression...).
Each free day I took the ferry to Sicily just to get out of Calabria and be quiet and relaxed for a few hours.
Also my brother, who was in Sicily, fondly remembers his mission. I wish I could have been on summer camp climbing mountains and toil like a mule, rather than being in that sh*tty place.

---------- Post added at 04:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:32 PM ----------

My old unit. In three days they expended 50,000 rounds of 30-06. That never makes the history books.

That is a lot!!!

[RCS]

The 178th Infantry Illinois National Guard just returned from a year in Afganistan on Sunday. Back in the 1960's when the National Guard was still segregated, the 178th was made-up
of all black soldiers in Chicago's south side. I knew one white man who did join the all black battalion in the 1960's, he said he carried the 81mm base plate on marches

[Bob Seijas]

In the Newark riots, the State Police were in charge and answered all calls. The Guard teams went along as security to protect them (with loaded M1s).

[browningautorifle]

he carried the 81mm base plate on marches

I think that would be better than carrying the tube myself, the tube is steel and the baseplate is aluminum. With shoulder straps could be not too bad...besides it would mean you're the #1 on the crew.

the State Police were in charge and answered all calls. The Guard teams went along as security

Same thing when we do "Aid to the Civil Power"...The policeman is the head and the troops are the body. He determines what laws are broken and has the troops collar people for him.

[Ovidio]

Same here. Military don’t act, just obey the Police. But still, when we were making guard duty on “strategic” targets, there were no Police with us. And lots of things happened also on those assignments.

[browningautorifle]

when we were making guard duty

Same, we just stood guard. During daylight there would be a uniformed guard on duty but at night it was two of us. That was why we were there anyway, contract issues with the correctional officers and a full scale riot in the prison. There were police walking the inside grounds at night.