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Old 02-12-2017, 12:17 PM   #33
Polydamas
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
Default Re: Firearms training and familiarity for US Army mental health specialist

Quote:
Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
I know that US soldiers do not carry weapons on military bases in the Continental United States unless they are on duty as base security or similar.

What I'm wondering is how often would a mental health specialist (68x) who spent a year in the army have held a weapon and which weapons would she be familiar with?

Everyone gets basic training and that presumbably includes some days of learning how to use an M16A2. Is the operation of an M9 pistol taught in basic? How about the M11/SIG P226? What about rarer military weapons? Are machine guns and grenade launchers fired in Basic Combat Training or is that only in AIT for the appropriate MOS?

Are Army personnel in a non-combat MOS like mental health specialist ever issued a gun if they are not deployed overseas?
I have heard someone's USAF basic training story which involved a short session with a .50 BMG and some kind of grenade or rocket launcher. In GURPS terms, I would be even less likely to apply a Familiarity penalty to their default Gunner skill for those weapons than I would for a character without a military background. But some people will forget what they learned as soon as they pass the test, and some will have served in units which had a lot of ordnance to play with and gave everyone a turn to meet some bureaucratic rule.

Basic training is an excellent excuse for a character's default skill in a variety of interesting things, just like "took a few courses in college" or "used to bond with my sister over it" or "worked as an X for a couple of years." But from what I have heard, however much military bureaucracies try to standardize things, the reality tends to be complicated (and how much people get out of training varies!)
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Last edited by Polydamas; 02-12-2017 at 12:21 PM.
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