-Caveat Lector-
[I don't know for sure, but it seems to me that it is the CURRENT
administration that is totally screwing up what is happening over
the last 120 days! For the first time in [many?] decades, we have
a thriving economy, and here comes the Republicans, screwing it
all up! Tax refunds, MY ASS! --MS]
http://frontpagemag.com/columnists/metaksa/2001/metaksa06-06-01.htm
The Barney Fife Navy
FrontPageMagazine.com | June 6, 2001
WITH EVERY PASSING DAY the consequences of eight years of Clinton-Gore
become clearer. The legacy that Bill Clinton tried to leave is unraveling
across the globe. The Mid-East peace that he tried to shove down the
throats
of the Israelis has led to more death and destruction. The once revered
federal crime-fighting federal agency, the FBI, is accused of failing to
provide crucial documents during the Oklahoma City bombing trial. If all
that is not enough, we are now learning the true story of our unprepared
military.
The May 28, 2001 issue of Navy Times has a feature article with the title
"Five Bullets and Out." According to the article Navy recruits since 1997
have never fired one live bullet during Navy boot camp. "Starting next
month
new sailors will shoot real bullets for the first time in four years at
Recruit Training Center, Great Lakes, Ill. After a day of small arms
instruction each recruit will squeeze off five rounds from a 9mm pistol."
The article goes on "total training will double to a full day, but the
number of trigger pulls recruits will get will be slashed in half. Recruits
now get 50 shots on a laser M-16 rifle. Starting next month, they will get
22 trigger pulls total. The five live shots and 17 on laser weapons."
Due to environmental concerns the firing range at Great Lakes was
demolished
in 1977. Since that time all Navy recruits, 50,000-plus, have undergone
weapons training on simulators. The 4-hour weapons' training was minimal:
it
included lectures, safety training, and shooting 50 shots on a laser
equipped M-16. Shooting the M-16 laser was as realistic as playing in an
electronic arcade.
Now recruits will shoot laser adapted Beretta 9 mm pistols and air-powered
Mossberg shotguns. After spending the first half day in the classroom
listening to safety lectures and taking 12 "pulls" with the laser firearms,
the recruit goes to the live-fire range and learns to handle and shoot a
Beretta. His shooting is only two rounds at a target seven yards away and
three at a target 15 yards away.
The Navy says that any more firearms training or actual live firing for the
recruits would require more gunner's mate instructors. Currently 400
recruits are "weapons trained" daily. Yet while the military requirement
for
that many recruits is 54 instructors, there are only 43 instructors
available to handle the load. Too few instructors and only five bullets per
recruit, if it weren't so tragic, it would be comic.
Compare Navy training to the requirements for a Nevada concealed carry
permit. According to the Nevada Chiefs and Sheriff Association criteria,
the
8-hour course must include firing a minimum of 30 - 36 shots. A third of
the
total rounds fired at 3, 5, and 7 yards. The Nevada Pistol Academy, just
outside Las Vegas, offers free courses for Nevadans, who wish to get a
concealed carry permit. Their curriculum, taught by Frontsight, Inc.
instructors, includes shooting 30 rounds at 7 yards to qualify.
My husband and I have taken several firearms classes at Frontsight; our
most
recent class was a 4-day M-16 course. During those four days we shot
between
1500-2000 rounds each. We fired the weapon both in the semi and fully
automatic configuration at distances from 3 yards to 100 yards. Even after
firing all those rounds -- most under the stress of time constraints, I
really wouldn't feel comfortable in a military situation without more
practice. It's hard to fathom how those Navy seamen must have felt during
last October's attack on the U.S.S. Cole. It was reported that they were
standing guard with zero bullets in their weapons.
That attack on the Cole has finally awakened the Navy to the need for more
small arms training. "'The Cole, no doubt about it, was a wake-up call for
us,' said Captain Trit Rigas, the Atlantic Fleet's protection officer."
Thus
many in the fleet are taking the time and effort to promote weapons
training -- training that was almost non-existent under the Clinton
administration. We can only hope that the Bush administration will review
and greatly strengthen all military small weapons training.
During the Presidential campaign Al Gore kept reassuring America about its
military readiness, we have discovered another Gore lie. We now know that
the Clinton legacy includes a military woefully unprepared to defend
against
aggressors - be they lone terrorists or standing armies. Our military must
be trained with real guns and real bullets; America depends upon it.
Tanya K. Metaksa is the former executive director of the National Rifle
Association's Institute for Legislative Action. She is the author of Safe,
Not Sorry a self-protection manual, published in 1997. She has appeared on
numerous talk and interview shows such as "Crossfire," the "Today" show,
"Nightline," "This Week with David Brinkley" and the "McNeil-Lehrer Hour,"
among others.
=======================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
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