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Old 02-12-2017, 02:48 PM   #36
Icelander
 
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
Default Re: Firearm training and familiarity for US Army mental health specialist

Quote:
Originally Posted by sir_pudding View Post
Nobody in the US military qualifies on pistols if they don't rate one.
I guess this is where I'm really unclear. Who exactly rates an issue sidearm and who doesn't?

Commissioned officers in combat branches do and maybe just all commissioned officers, period. I'm not 100% certain that this is how it works in reality, but decades of movies have convinced me that even if an officer is not combat arms, he still gets a sidearm to wear with his shiny dress uniform.

I have no idea whether warrant officers or senior NCOs are generally issued sidearms or if that is only for MOSes like CID. Nor do I know if MPs or Counterintelligence specialists carry a pistol for self-defence on deployements and/or whether they may perhaps even be issued them at home, because they are effectively acting as cops.

I've got some sort of hazy idea that enlisted personnel in roles that might call for their deployment to a base in a country that technically counts as combat, but not ones that will ever get them humping a pack or rifle out on patrol, might be issued a pistol for self-defence rather than a rifle.

If that's true, that might be a reason to teach mental health specialists, Remington Rangers and a PR specialist the operation of an M9 pistol in basic training, so they'll know what to do if they are ever posted somewhere they are issued one.

Quote:
Originally Posted by sir_pudding View Post
Non-infantry Marines have a brief combat school called MCT between the MCRD and their MOS training battalion where they are familiarized on a spectrum of infantry weapons and tactics; this is a particular point of institutional pride that the other branches don't do anything like this.

I have heard the Army has several different boot camps which are roughly similar but are divided between those intended for combat arms and those who are not, so I would expect a psych tech to have even less weapons training.
That sounds reasonable.
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Last edited by Icelander; 02-12-2017 at 08:57 PM.
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