Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [108]
“You have operational responsibilities as well. The team leader will look to you as his primary adviser for weapons and tactics, offensive and defensive. You’ll assist the team sergeant with operational fire-support plans. You’ll be responsible for building terrain models and associated briefing graphics. You’ll help with the operational planning to include infil, exfil, and route planning to and from the target. As an 18 Bravo, you’ll have to be thoroughly familiar with the computer-based Special Operations Debriefing and Retrieval System. And there are a slew of administrative issues and reports that are your responsibility as an 18 Bravo.”
I can see the look of dismay begin to grow on the faces of the new Bravo candidates. They really had no idea that there were so many weapons and so much to learn.
“I’ll be honest with you,” Sergeant Blaylock told me later, “the Bravo MOS is considered the least challenging and least technical of the specialties. That’s why we get a lot of the X-Rays and the younger soldiers here. Some guys come in with the attitude that ‘It’s an Army school; how hard can it be?’ We have to get past that in a hurry. They have to learn and master the capability, tactical use, and maintenance of each of these systems, and they have to demonstrate proficiency with them on the range.”
Rick Blaylock is a square-shouldered, well-built soldier who looks as if he spends a fair amount of time in the weight room. He resonates authority, power, and competence. Blaylock grew up in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and has been in the Army for fifteen years. He has only been in Special Forces for eight years, but he has made three deployments to Afghanistan and one to Iraq—all combat deployments. He has just been selected for promotion to master sergeant and is awaiting orders back to 3rd Group for duty as an ODA team sergeant. It was my sense that while he has a passion for teaching, he wants to get back to the fight.
The new Bravo candidates begin in the classroom, a very old classroom, with lots of very modern weapons—day after day, weapons system after weapons system. There are fifty-some systems in all. Basically, they must know how to load, clear, disassemble, reassemble, bore-sight, zero in, and fire all commonly used military personal and light-infantry weapons in the world. They also have to be able to overhaul and repair weapons that are not functioning properly.
“They hand me an M4 that will not cycle on semiautomatic or automatic fire,” Specialist Antonio Costa tells me of his training. “I have to look at the weapon and figure out what’s wrong. It could be a bent firing pin, an improperly assembled weapon, or a missing part. Then I have to get out the spares kit and fix it. We spend a lot of evenings in the weapons rooms taking apart guns and putting them back together. We’re getting so we can almost do it in our sleep.”
The weapons systems taught at this Phase III include the following:
PISTOLS
Smith & Wesson M10
.38
United States
Colt Govt. M1911
.45
United States/others
Browning Hi-Power
9mm
Belgium/others
Beretta M-9
9mm
Italy/United States
Makarov
9mm
Russia
Heckler & Koch USP
.45
Germany
Glock 17
9mm
Austria
Heckler & Koch P-7
9mm
Germany
SUBMACHINE GUNS/MACHINE PISTOLS
M/45-Swedish K
9mm
Sweden
Madsen M/50
9mm
Denmark
Beretta M12
9mm
Italy
Sterling L2A3
9mm
Great Britain
Uzi
9mm
Israel
Heckler & Koch MP-5A3
9mm
Germany
Scorpion VZ61
9mm
Czech Republic
RIFLES/CARBINES
M14
7.62 × 51mm
United States (Colt and others)
Colt M16A2
5.55 × 45mm
United States
Colt M4A1
5.56 × 45mm
United States
Famas G2
5.56mm NATO
France
Simonov SKS
7.62 × 39mm
Russia
Heckler