Designating Weapon Handlers

[RossF]

Hey I was just wondering, when you join up in your reserve unit, how do the Commanding Officers designate who uses what weapon type, such as C7, C9..how exactly do they choose who uses what? Do you choose? Do they rotate the people who use them so everyone has experience with each?

Thanks,
Ross

 

[Da_man]

The section commander will decide who gets what.  Usually, The C6 or C9 will go to an experienced cpl who handles these weapons very well.  But some units will just "dump" them to recruits.

 

[Michael OLeary]

Good commanders will give the most important weapons to the most experienced and reliable soldiers. This way they have the greatest assurance that the weapons will be well maintained and well handled, that the soldiers carrying them will be best able to read the situation and understand how to interpret and accurately follow orders for deployment and application of fire and, perhaps most imporatant of all, will have the experience and knowledge to make appropriate decisions and act on them in the absence of detailed instructions.

 

[RossF]

Ahh okay, thanks for the info!

 

[chriscalow]

Is there still a machine gunner's course?  That is something I always thought about doing once I get in.

 

[RossF]

Yes I'm pretty sure you can take further training in machine gunning.

 

[48Highlander]

The old MG course with the C6 SF and the .50cal is gone.   Now we have the DP2A "support weapons" course.   In the reserves it seems that support weapons consist of a C6 in the SF and a 9mm pistol.   The regs learn other things...I beleive their course includes eryx and a couple other things, but I'm fairly sure that eve they don't learn the .50 any more.

 

[RossF]

OooOoHh .50 must have been fun