What is an effective and creative corrective action for a soldier left a weapon unattended?

Issue him a mop. Require him to carry it at all times at port arms/shoulder arms. Inspect it daily for cleaniness.

Savanna just hit me, back when I was an SF candidate in training I/we would regularly get tagged for some rifle pt. I am gathering you would like to explore all your options before you break this lad physically. But just in case it comes to it, our trainers got mad at us, which was pretty often and easy, we would run in place rifles at port arms, then over our heads, then straight out in front of us. We would do squats with it over our heads, oh all this is with a 55 pound rucksack on. As you can see it is up to your imagination. Now many people think of physical correction as some push ups and you are done. No, no, no, that might work for something other than an unsecured weapon but the physical attention at a minimum should leave a very sweaty, sore soldier.

In closing, I will tell you Savanna in SF if left a weapon unattended that would be a kiss of death for a young troop. The individual would most likely be encouraged to find a new unit, job, MOS, service, maybe get a job at the shoe store or gas station. Weapons are very serious

Time to visit the Armory and start cleaning weapons. A lot of weapons.

Next his training- tie his weapon to him with a "dummy Cord" till the exercise is over.

This may be mean but keep his weapon locked up. Contact his command and let them know what you are doing. Make them sweat. Sometimes this is what you have to do to get your point across.

Had this happen on my first deployment We were guarding a chemical weapons disposal facility and 3 of my young soldiers decided to have lunch at a cafe on the base. Instead of leaving 1 or 2 in their humvee all 3 went in and not only ordered but sat down to eat. The base commander was having lunch their also and saw their unattended vehicle with a mounted M60 on the roof and 3 M16’s along with a couple of ammo boxes. He deposited the weapons and ammo at our TOC My Bn Cdr then deposited them at my little operations center. After losing a couple pounds of my a.. I was told to fix it. I had the 3 offenders do push-ups while in my best Gunny Hartman voice explained to them the error of their ways I then restricted them to the base and assigned them a bunch of additional duties. They had to have their weapons in arms reach at all times for a week Then they had to clean their weapons to the armorers satisfaction every day for a week (not much of a punishment after the first day).

100 pushups,100 situps with a 45 lb weight behind the neck, run-in place for one hour with 25lb dumbells. No food all day, no birthday party for the next five years. Drop his or her panties and spank vigorously for thirty minutes. His or her parents and clergy should also be made aware.

Yes dummy cord it to him with 550 cord so he could not leave it behind. Leaving your weapon unattended is a UCMJ action.

Losing (or forgetting) one’s assigned firearm is about as bad as I would venture to guess in any job requiring a firearm. Lives could be at stake. I can only think of one situation where losing my side arm would be justifiable. I used to conduct armed boarding from a Coast Guard Cutter. On the bridge was the Gunner’s Mate (E6) manning the Ma Deuce; in the small boat was either a shotgun or select fire AR; and we (4-6) members of the Boarding Team were armed with 1911A1s, 3 loaded magazines; 5 “D” Cell Flashlight (aka Baton); radio; handcuffs; knives, rubber gloves, hard hat and safety boots or deck shoes depending on the boat we were boarding; some also had the backpack full of boarding tools and forms. We also wore a Sterns Work “Life Vest” that had the floatation level sufficient for a 150# person in pants, shirt, and sneakers! I mentioned numerous at debriefings that we should practice in a swimming pool to practice surviving an unintentional dunking. Never happened in my day.

We had a Boarding Team Member actually fall between the small boat and the commercial fishing boat being boarded; he lost his radio, hard hat and tried with all his might (and I’m sure some intense praying) to break the surface. He did just enough that two people in the boat grabbed him and pulled him to safety. My Emergency Egress Plan if I went into the water was first remove the belt keepers holding the gun belt to my trouser’s belt, loosened the laces on my boots so I could kick them off, and drop the duty belt with everything on it. Hell who’s diving 3,000’ deep in the Eastern Pacific looking for a gun? I sure didn’t want to be on the express elevator to the bottom!

On another vein - it’s embarrassing at the beginning of your ship to ask the Supervisor for permission to run home (lived literally 5 minutes from work) to get the gun you left in the nightstand! The nicer sups said sure, the pricks charged you with 30 minutes of leave time.

I’ve forgotten It safe at home but never lost an issued fire arm. With sincerity I’d say “suck’s to be you” then for real help you try to find it. Not being upfront with your chain of command makes it a damn sight worse!

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