Who can still remember doing this?

This is my take on this discussion. First and foremost I believe that SSG Joseph Sargeant said the key thing, it is about marksmanship fundamentals. If you properly apply those fundamentals when firing you will be successful whether firing with iron sights or another type of sight. My personal opinion is that if we have the ability to put a piece of equipment in our Soldiers hands and give them the opportunity to have an upper hand against their enemy on the two-way rifle range why wouldn't we do that? Our Soldiers deserve the best equipment we can provide them, it is up to the leaders to properly train them in the use of the equipment in order to maximize the capability. When deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 I had a Soldier that lost his M145 scope for his M249. The basic facts behind the loss is that he removed it from his weapon and said he secured it in a footlocker. When I asked him why he told me, "I don't really like it." Of course I was very livid at this comment and I simply posed one question to him, "Would you prefer I give this sight to the enemy so that he can see you from a much further distance?"
I do agree that these sights can break and when in a firefight you need to have the ability to still engage with accurate fire, that is the purpose of ensuring the BIS (back-up iron sight) is zeroed, but I believe the qualification should be with the primary sight. Yes, being able to shoot expert with iron sights is awesome and certainly shows our younger generation that it is possible, but all qualification still goes back the the fundamentals.

Just my humble opinion but I believe every member should have to demonstrate proficiency and accuracy firing with iron sights before they are allowed to even touch an optic system much less get to use it.

Whether you chose to do so hung over is up to you. I don't recover as quickly as I used to so I will forego that distinct displeasure......

I still do this. Minus the hungover part. My body don't rightly recover like it used to.

Well IMO optics are great things, But not all optics are good! Look at the CCO. Young privates that don't know that the optic can be knocked off, need the fall back on the Iron sights. If something happened and it was in operable what are you going to fall back on. take less time to knock out the irons and then bring the optic online. Not to include that the armors take the optics off the rifle to store them. they don't always put them back where they where and they get knocked around and then rplaced on a rifle and now there off again. So Iron sights are a must. Especially team leaders and squad leaders. I have an ACOG and they took it off. Now, will I get the ACOG back or a CCO that will not be zeroed to my weapon? Give me Iron sights!

can't say I remember qualifying still lit up but hungover, yes

I shot a 6" group at 500 meters in boot camp with iron sights. One thing about your iron sights, water doesn't bother them nor does a little mud, batteries don't go dead at worst possible time, you can bump into something and they still shoot straight, and they aren't made of thin metal and glass. My opinion is keep qualifying with the iron sights, that way we know you will always be able to use your rifle effectively. Then spend a couple hours on qualifying day to practice with an optic if that is your preference so you can shoot with it as well.

I'll put it this way, the Army hit a home run wit the M68 CCO. The Comp M4 is the best of the bunch. Soldiers being who they are, if you put a private in a room with two ball bearings he\she would break one and loose the other. That's just how it works.

That being said batteries fail, equipment gets damaged, and you want to stay alive. At some point you're going to need your iron sights, and that time is not the time to figure out how they work.

Yep, Second Award expert w/ iron sights, loop-sling and that shooting jacket with the padding. Still like iron sights for short work, but as my eyes get older I find uses for optics.

what some times get me. Some NCO's qualified with a ACOGs brag about it, for having 35 to 38 and there soldiers with 68s do a 30 to 35.... when you ask them to do it Iron Sight they complain.

We never had anything but iron sights. The best way to shoot as far as I am concerned. What happens when these new fangled optics break or are lost. Just another example of sissifying the military.