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My 1911 always has one in the pipe.

Day to day life never allows you to know if, when, or where a threat will appear. Every second counts, period.

louisf1 wrote:I returned from Afghanistan last August. Depending on the threat level we would carry either empty or a magazine inserted. Some would chamber a round but this was not the way the guidelines dictated. Some were willing to take the chance that if they had a ND that it was on them to face the consequences.

The problem with not having one chambered is obvious when things go south. I personally worked side by side with the afghan army and police. We had an incident where one of the afghan soldiers decided to turn his weapon on our team of trainers. As luck would have it our team came through without any injuries. The afghan soldier was not so lucky and got to meet Allah. From this point on, once we returned from lock down, the way I carried was what I thought was best for my chances of survival.

Too often policies are put in place to cover the group as a whole. Not all soldiers, sailers, airmen and marines are capable or mature enough to do the right thing or to have their mind in the right place. So the politically correct thing to do is to make it as safe as possible for those handling the weapons. This is a hard decision for the leadership to make but probably the easier one versus explaining to the spouse or parent that their son/ daughter was killed by a ND. For those that carried an m4 or m16 it only takes about a half second to charge a round. It's possible to charge a round while bringing the weapon up to the ready position as well. I know there may be a time where that half second mattered. The 9 mm is a different story. Trying to grasp the slide and chamber a round under stress could cost you much more time.

I think policies overseas are dependent on the environment that you as a soldier, sailor, marine, etc are in. While we were operating out of a FOB in South Baghdad the Brigade policy was that all weapons were Green (no magazine, no round chambered) on the FOB. After every patrol we'd hit the clearing barrels and unchamber all M4s, M9s, Shotguns, and crew served weapons. The second we were lined up at the gate waiting for Squadron clearance to roll out, unless it was a QRF call, everything went Red. Carrying anything loaded on the FOB was grounds for UCMJ, this was a Brigade policy that applied to all. Granted, it wasn't meant for the guys in line units and platoons but more for the BSB, HQ, and other various support units. Still, they wouldn't even allow an exception for us as the FOBs QRF/reconnaissance platoon.

As that FOB drew down and we moved on to a single Troop Joint Security Station (JSS), policy changed. Our Troop was the only unit on the JSS and therefore policy fell to our CO. He allowed us to carry our personal weapons as we saw fit especially since we somehow ended up with SOC contractors that had Ugandans working our only entrance point and several perimeter towers . Numerous local nationals also worked the JSS and obviously there was also an Iraqi Federal Police contingent with us. The CO took no chances as we were easily outnumbered and any support from the rest of our Squadron or other units was at least 30-45 mins away.

The point I'm trying to make is that in the military the decision as to what condition soldiers can carry in while on base comes down to the situation. If our FOB had come under attack the .5 a second it took to load a mag and chamber a round was nothing as the place was a sprawling complex with hundreds of soldiers. The JSS on the other hand was a completely different story; every second would have counted if we had to repel a ground assault. The JSS also was only manned by a combat line unit, the FOB on the other hand had anything and everything the Army had to offer as far as personnel, many of which had only be to the range in basic training or once thereafter. Handling loaded weapons was not their strong suit.