Some questions for Andrew or anybody who is familiarised with US army.

[Neville]

Good news, people, I finally picked a good movie at my local cinema, "Black hawk down". However, some of the habits of the US soldiers struck me and I cannot yet imagine why they do certain things:

1) Why don't american soldiers ever pick up weapons from wounded enemies?
I mean, c'on, they comment a few times in the movie how short they are of ammo, and I guess AK-47 machine guns aren't that bad, are they?

2) Why do US soldiers hit their helmets with new magazines before reloading their weapons? Is it suppossed to give good luck or something?

I had seen this two things in other movies, but I though they were just topical, but here the movie tries to be very realistic in all that concerns battlefield behaviour.
So, do I have to assume this reflects actual behaviour and that reasons exist for this?

[Funk, E]

As for number one there are a few possibilities. First off the most "accurate" film to come out of hollywood these days is still unadultrated fiction. The reality is a soldier who is out of ammo and has a chance to pick up a foriegn weapon on the ground will however they will wait until they have no choice since the "found" weapon represents an unknown quantity. You don't know if it's jammed, you don't know how much if an ammo it has left in it etc. You'd look awfully stupid if you stopped using your own weapon because it was low on ammo to pick up another gun only to find it useless.

As for two it's like packing cigarettes It has a nominal usefulness of knocking dirt out of the magazine before loading it into the gun. Dirt in the magazine can cause jams, but rarely.

[Flangepart]

Neville, i believe the Hitting the helmet with the mag is to seat the rounds , espchualy at the top, back towards the rear, so they feed properly. If the top rounds slide forward too far, they may get hung up on the feed ramp. and not chamber properly, and you do want your rounds to feed right, when you need to shoot back Now!  As for the use of unfamilure wepons, Rangers,Delta, Green B's, and S.E.A.L's would grab an AK, and use it well, but thats part of thier special training. Regular Army and Marine troops only know their own guns, and are not in the habit of handleing them. A good D.I. (Like Andrew), might teach them this as an addition to their training, but reg. Procedure i believe prohibits this. As Andrew has said, Getting greenies to handle their issue wepons safely is a full time job as it!  For example, the AK safety is unlike that on the M-16A2. Up is safe, Middle is full auto, and down is semi-auto. The standard U.S. and western designs go 1st notch =Safe 2nd is Semi-auto, or three round burst, and 3rd notch is full auto. See? Russian firearms are good, solid performers, but you have to be familure with them, to use them well. Andrew will correct me if i'm wrong, but i believe that is the basic reason for the behavior you saw.

[Funk, E]

Herm... Flang, really? I mean you could be right I'm not denying that, but that really seems strange to me. I had no idea that a regular soldier wouldn't be trained or at least familurized with foriegn firearms. My dad was a Ranger so it never came up. Which fits with what you stated and yes, it is amazing how stupid people can be with fire arms, but it still amazes me that after training with an M16 that the learning curve to orient people to other weapons would be too steep to warrent training. If you can field strip an M16 and a Handgun for cleaning and maintenance how difficult is it to figure out any other gun? I've fired maybe a dozen different types of rifles and assaut weapons (modified AR15, AK47, Uzi, various shotguns and bolt action rifles, blah, blah) It doesn't take much to figure them out. It's like a 30 second orientation. Safety here, sights works like this, flip this for single or auto, magazine loads here, chamber round thus, magazine release is here, go. It's just not that hard.

As far as seating the round, if the round is too far forward wouldn't it just not load by making the magazine to wide to fit into the receiver? And why knock it against the helmet? Wouldn't a concusive action be less controlled and more time consuming than just pressing on the front end of the top round with you thumb? That's what I do. It's quick, easy, quiet and unobtrusive. I mean if I were in a combat situation and I had a magazine on my belt. I wouldn't take it out bring it all the way up to my helmet to knock it where I couldn't see the results and then bring it all the way down to my weapon to load. I'd pull it out of it's pouch, push on the top round with the thumb on the way to the weapon. It takes a lot less time.

[Neville]

Thanks for your feedback, people. I guess all that you said more or less explains what I saw in the movie. By the way, did you notice that Mogadiscio (in the same movie) is packed with dogs? I don't know who had the idea, but it doesn't seem too realistic to me, you know, because pets use to disappear quite quickly when population is hungry after a while. At one point of the movie, even a quite well-fed
donkey (sic) appears.

[J.R.]

I finally saw BHD last Sunday. It was probably the best war film ever, but it didn't exactly leave me feeling safe. If a bunch of starving malitiamen can lay that much of an ass-whooping on trained Rangers than we're not as secure as previously thought. My brother is an airborn Ranger like the ones in the film...guess I should just say goodbye now.:)

[Funk, E]

Okay, if the troops in BHD were airborne rangers than the whole "not trained" to use AKs is moot. They definately would have been picking up enemy weapons if they had to.

[Private Joker]

Slapping the clip against their helmet makes the bullets go to the side of the clip, so they feed better.   Uneven clips are more likely to jam.

[Flangepart]

You could be right, Funk E. I gave it by best guess.  That "Mag Rap" could be done that way, as its faster, don't require two hands, and uses up the adrenilin flow of a youngster in a firefight. I still think cross training with unfamilure wepons makes sense, but only Andrew has the experiance to give  us the strait poop on this. Guns like the AK were made, as Mikail K. himself said, "So the simplest recruit could not break it." Still....nothing is idiot proof, as they are always makeing improved idiots!

[Deej]

The whole tapping of the magazine thing is to insure the rounds are properly seated in the mag, so as to not cause a mis-feed. You tap the mag, primer side down to properly seat the rounds. I personally use my palm, but I suppose the helmet thing looks cooler on film..kinda like removing the pin from a grenade with your teeth, try that in real life  Jaws!!!

[Deej]

I don't think the starving hoo-yahs actually laid waste to the Rangers. In fact, I think the actual toll was something like 19 Americans to 1000 Somalians dead...somewhere in that range. But from what I've read and seen on TV..those Somalians were tenacious bastards...wouldn't know...my Somalia experience was limited to a hair raising experience as a life-gurd...chilling...isn't it?