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

show them how

You can't fix stupid if you don't do the bare min. BRM and pm I no excuses for a unit reserve or not hitting a range this ate up. Leadership failure.

Well my first reaction was "WTH", but then took a deep breath and remember why we are NCO's, it's our job to "Train" soldiers. This soldier had not been properly trained, you take her off the range, and train her, and if you don't have the skill you find someone who does...none of us know everything, and can always either use initial, sustainment or refresher training...teach the soldier, so someday that NCO can teach another.

Whether they are within your chain of command or not, you dont disrespect your superiors, PERIOD. I was a 11B, and when I was a specialist, I was at a firing range in Kuwait, waiting to kick off my tour in Iraq in 06. There was a SGM there who was a cook or something, and he asked me how to adjust elevation on his M4. Should a Sergeant Major, regardless of MOS, know how to zero his rifle? You’re damn right he should. On the inside, i was pretty upset that someone with 20+ years in the military couldnt perform the most basic military task. But he was a Sergeant Major, and I was a specialist so he deserved my respect. I explained the functions of his windage and elevation respectfully. To do otherwise would only have shown my own lack of training and discipline which wokld have only served only to reflect poorly on my unit and my own leadership. Instead of trying to feel like a billy-badass telling a SGM whats up, I set the standard by being a good soldier that showed knowledge and discipline and one who respects chain of command and rank. I would act the same if it was a man or woman.

I would have pulled her of the firing line and reported her to the Range NCOIC as unsafe and in need of immediate retraining. I spent 11 years in the Regular Army before leaving and then going into the Air Force. Back in the late 80's just before Desert Shield/Storm, we were (Infantry Unit by the way) were asked to help an Admin Bn train their unit in site defense, fighting positions and range cards. I was just a young SGT E-5 at the time and had a confrontation with an MSG E-8 who told me that he and his people didn't need to learn this "crap" because they were reservist who will never have to worry about this. I recall hearing later in my life that many units in that command had been deployed in support of Desert Shield/Storm and have also been sent over in support of the war on terror. I hope that mentality that the MSG had back in the 80's was gone. All of the services need to ground (from day one) into the minds of their people that everyone is a member of the armed forces and a rifleman first, just like the Marines do. My son was a helicopter mechanic in the Marines, but had to go through a short version of Infantry training before he went off to his "A" school.

Some personnel bring more worth to the Army being technically proficient instead of being "strack" . . .

I was a Cavalry Scout (19D) for two years before I was offered to change my MOS to an Executive Admin Assistant (71C). After AIT, I was tapped to go straight to Washington DC where I replaced a civilian Executive Assistant for a general officer. Because I had a little solider bearing, I was pushed before solider boards to represent our organization in the MDW and compete with the historic winners, the Old Guard. So I built a reputation as being a solider.

When I became a SGT, in 1985, there were three SP5s that were Computer Programmers (74F) locked away in the Computer Room and worked for a civilian and had no military in their immediate chain of command. They were ragged and no had military bearing; but they were the very best in their fields and had been there for five years and were allowed to stay because they were the best. They did not care about being promoted or reassigned. They were thrilled to work on those huge computers without restraint. Because they were simply the best (back in the days of FORTRAN) at what they did, everyone was happy to have them and they were happy to be there. They would come in late, but stay and work 10-15 hours and somedays all day and night simply because they loved their work. I saw this in other DC Organizations and evening the Middle EasT, especially among the guys that worked at the embassy communications centers.

They could not solider and the Army had just began to require all Soldiers to stand the SQT ( basic soldier Skills Qualification Test) and I had to make sure they passed. I begin to push them too hard and the SGM told me, "Son, these boys are worth more to the Army locked down in the Computer Room than on a rifle range, or a bivouac. I do not care if they max the SQT or qualify as Experts with their weapon, I just want them to pass, so that I can keep them in the computer room. That I needed to make sure they met the Army's mandates so that they could continue to work their magic in the computer room.

I said all of that to sa that sometime, soldiering soldiers expect too much from technicians that happen to be solders. And bring more worth to the Army as technician than they do a solider. In the next year or two all three of those boys had ETSed out of the Army and their position became GS-11-13 (beginning at 11 and in a year they skipped 12 to become a GS-13.

I remember working at OCS, Fort Benning, GA and a female candidate was wearing her helmet on backwards and the day to clean weapons she came up to me and gave me her weapon and it was filthy, I was like this isn't clean and she was like you're suppose to clean it, I was like excuse me where's your battle buddy and I asked her battle buddy who's suppose to clean weapons her battle we are and this candidate said during basic training that the drill sergeants cleaned their weapons. I was like looks like you're learning today. She became an officer. Crazy huh.

I used to evaluate national guard and reservist units while on active duty. In most of them we found training to be poor. If it was me in this situation, I would have trained her on the spot and continued with the mission I was tasked.

Refer them for a medical evaluation. I cannot imagine that someone could have been promoted to SGT without knowing this.

If she didn't know how to load a magazine, she should have asked one of her buddies first to avoid being humiliated like that. That's what I would have done at least. If I still had trouble, I would have talked to another NCO. I certainly wouldn't talk to a junior enlisted about the trouble I'm having loading a weapon.

Training. A lot of us get past basic stuff without learning it, don't we? Especially in this age of "get it done yesterday". I didn't see the video but it doesn't matter. I would make sure she got trained up. Then I would take a little time finding out what else she may or may not know. It may be her fault, but it might not be. I might also contact her GYSGT or equivalent and find out why. He/she might be interested to know. Short story, her training is lacking and it needs to get up to speed so we can win and somebody doesn't die unnecessarily.

First off if you’re talking about the photo of the Female Soldier sitting Indian Style on the firing line she’s a SPC, not a SGT. Second the weapon is a Belt Fed Weapon, no magazine involved!

I concur this should not be something to share with social media outlets. This is what is conducted off the firing line/range in a professional manner . We're not leaders in ridicule, we're bound by a different code which emphasizes the necessity for constant battle readiness training with unparralled safety standards both on and range etc. It's just like whenever you have to reprimand a subordinate, it's handled in the appropriate place not for a group to witness. I stand firm on the platform of practice/ repetativeness is paramount in all area's of training. Especially when we're resertifing on the range, this erases doubt of wether or not you qualify ! Prior deployment readiness training is essential for ensuring that the command is ready to meet any and all challenges... I distinctly recall when we had reservists or as they were sometimes referred to as (weekend warriors) , the necessity for indoctrination of forces afloat training scenarios and every day life of active duty life on deployment. This ensures not only basics but also advanced technology/training before they return to the reserve center's/home. It will also enhance their advancement chances..

How does someone reach the rank of Sargent without knowing how to load a magazine? The Army sure has changed since i was in.

First, I would break a size 12 off in the fourth point of contact of the person that filmed and posted it.
I would want to know if you saw something going wrong why were you not correcting it instead of just trying to humiliate another soldier and get some likes. I have not seen the video and do not want to see it if we have come to the point of entertaining ourselves with peer, superior, and or subordinate failures.

I would have looked closely at her unit.

Teach her how to load one amd give her lots of practice.

Take him/her aside and do a quick training session. I'm retired from the Coast Guard (1979), but I can remember getting a seat on the CGHQ pistol team in the late '60s - That got me training on .22 and .45 caliber pistols before I ever got to live fire. And lots of magazine loading time during preps for "2700" matches.

In the Marines we don't have that problem! Every Marine's a rifleman . We all know how to handle a weapon

Kick them off my range. Find out who was in charge of PMI and get about knee deep in their ass