What would you do if your Sergeant didn't know how to load a magazine?

First off a lot of leaders failed here.. second she failed herself third no such thing as a reservist anymore that can be deployed at anytime.. better start looking deeper to see what else she doesn't know.. like reading a map..

Still doing firing lines, eh? When I was at Fort Riley, I was running a pistol range. General House visited, he saw the first group go through and stopped everything. He asked, what is up with this ready on the left, ready on the right crap(I cleaned it up, considerably), I told him it was Forscom regulation. He said that it was all BS, he asked if that is the way we would do it in combat, I said no, so he said do it the way you would then. I turned the lanes over to the squad leaders and they told their troops where the targets were and when to shoot. I thought it was great, wish more would see it that way

I've seen a lot of sketchy stuff on the range being with Nat Guard, but never someone not knowing how to load a mag. That's BCT stuff..... Can they recycle her back to BCT to re-learn how to load a mag and go back through EVERYTHING about being a soldier?

All you should do is teach the standard, enforce the standard and move on. Its like finding a crack in your house... you don't point it out and let it get worse, you fix it and hope it holds because after all we are one team... one fight.

We even took our magazine apart and oil brush the inner workings of our magazine. Unbelievable.

I'm a little confused. Weather you are active duty or reservist, don't reservist go thru bootcamp first as active duty Marines and all other branches of the service do. I swear I new my M-16 A2 assault rifle better then anything. It is an extension of my vary soul. In my platoon in bootcamp, we didn't only disassembled our rifle blind foldered but behind our backs. There is nothing and I'm serious, there is nothing a marine know better then his rifle. Am I making myself clear here. And that soldier was a Sgt. That soldier, and I'm being serious, that soldier needs to repeat basic training. If the soldier doesn't have basic knowledge of their weapon. Then how is that person even a soldier. I see only two choices here, repeat basic or immediate discharge. And maybe discipline actions against those who promoted this soldier in the first place. Unforgivable.

~Facepalm!

take the stripes and give choice. out or take basic training again

Link no work

Not everyone is accustomed to firearms. However being in the military they ought to know their weapon. Perhaps it is because the only time she's ever fired a weapon was on the range and her mags were pre loaded. I don't know about you but I never see females on range duty.

I would jump on his stuff and ask him what kind of magazines does he read anyway? Oh we're talking about the other kind of magazine huh?

Well I was a Range Safety NCO and was the Marksmanship coordinator for many years in my unit so I feel that it isn't the soldiers lack of knowledge necessarily but the lack of proper training. We would go through each weapon that was being fired whether it was an individual or crew served weapon in the classroom weeks before we live fired. Its to important not to do it as lives can be lost through a stupid mistake made by someone unfamiliar to the weapon being fired. Soldiers ETS out of a unit and new soldier unfamiliar to that weapon system are now tasked to fill that weapon slot. So before you bust some Staff Sergeant down to PFC maybe you should take a good hard look at the training in your Battalion and thank God this incident came to light before anything serious happened. I would use this as a training tool to make sure everyone is familiar with a weapon before walking out on the range. Big failure for the Training NCO's in my mind and it needs to be fixed.

I'd just show him how and try to be as professional as possible but it would be very hard not to double face palm.

bummer !! I missed out on the show

There is a very real training gap in her unit and her chain of command. Yes, the SGT has some responsibility but so does her entire chain of command up to at least battalion level.

Is this right up there with Sailors who don't know how to swim?

This has got to be a joke, no one is this stupid.

What is even more sad is she has an 18th Airborne Corps Combat Patch. She requires some remedial training and an attitude adjustment. The I'm just a Reservist crap does not fly.

Conduct training. Soldiers do what they've been trained to do. This is the cornerstone of our profession. I get paid to lead and train Soldiers, and this particular NCO has given me the opportunity to do so.

I can barely understand what you just wrote.

I would train them, even if it took hours to get it right. There is no substitute for safety on the range.