the part when bozz tells the squad to stay in the ditch you can see the rounds tearing up the dirt on the bank im just wondering why would they use live rounds on their own men also where the hell did wilson get his rounds from?
share[deleted]
Dax, you're confused. Bongo was referring to earlier in the film, before the platoon gets to Tigerland, before the handgun incident - referring to the time just after the platoon had crawled under the barbed wire.
What happened (from what I saw) they WERE using live rounds and explosives, but off to each side (and overhead) to create a very realistic event. Boz yells that the M60s were off the perimeter-they were accidentally firing in the wrong direction RIGHT where the platoon was is, in the ditch. Boz saved their life, though almost no one realized it. Watch it again for evidence.
Cheers!
From what i get, Bongo was stating why they were in the ditch and being fired upon by their own men. Bozz saves their rearends by telling to stay in the ditch because they would have been cut in half had they moved out into the accidently [or so it seems] aimed m60's.
bongo seemed to be curious where wilson gets his live rounds for the Tigerland combat training. where they should have been using blanks [but taking off the barrel caps so what happen to Paxton wouldnt happen] but wilson got the bright pychopathic idea that he could enact vengence upon Bozz by firing upon Bozz and his men.
Aren't those pyschopathic ideas just grand?
But all of this could be wrong, since I might not have seen what Bongo was trying to say. Hopefully somebody understands.
-sysnuk3r
They were not aiming at the trainees. Soldiers in basic training are instructed to crawl under razor wire, through assault courses and so on (just like in this film) with live rounds flying over their heads. It's all just preparation and conditioning.
shareInstructed to? I was at Basic this summer, and we were ordered to.
share>>where the hell did wilson get his rounds from?<<
He would have never been able to get his hands on them in real life. Every round is counted that is brought up to firing lines,and so is every piece of empty brass
that is picked up when they are through. If the numbers don't add up there will be a shake down inspection on the spot. On top of that,shakedown inspections aren't uncommon anyhow. The cadre will search each trainees magazine pouches/magazines,as well as their fanny packs before they go out on a training patrol to make sure there are no live round. The blank adaptor fitted to the muzzles will also prevent a live round from leaving the barrel,and taking one off on a training exercise is a big-time Bozo No-No.
sure, they count the ammo as they hand it out. we never counted our spent brass (that would take forever), but everyone was thoroughly searched before leaving the firing line. Notice I say we were searched before leaving the firing line, to ensure that no one was taking live ammo from the government. There's nothing in place to stop someone from going to a gunstore and buying ammuniton and bringing it to the firing line (or training excercise or whatever the case may be). So Wilson could have gotten those rounds from anywhere - they wouldn't have to have come from the military.
shareYou would be surprised. In Basic I snuck two live rounds in my "back end". Later I put the rounds in a fellow recruits locker. He got busted bigtime.
By the way I'm just joking.
In Basic I got hold of lots of ammo. The 1st time was an accident.
On the firing line my M16 jammed. They pulled me off the range back to a tent and table where the armorers were. We cleared the thing and by that time my platoon was all done. I went to join them with rounds in my pocket. I hid them in the sand under a tree outside our barracks.
Later I discovered that broken pieces of pencils filled space down inside the magazines so I could take a couple every time we were issued magazines and then turned them back in.
All I did was fantasize about killing the drill sargeants. The game became boring as quickly as it started. I moved on to other grown-up endeavors. I learned to smoke cigarettes and bought my 1st prostitute during our 1st weekend pass to town. hahaha
Getting live rounds wouldn't be that hard in basic, there are a lot of people and plenty of places to hit them. Some dumbass in my platoon took some and keep them in his locker. We were also able to sneek chewing tobacco in to the whole basic training without ever getting caught. My battle buddy and I sold a log of chew for $100. You know I think getting your first prostitute is part of basic, I had basic in Ft. Benning Ga and myself and a buddy each got one from a taxi driver. They were nothing to write home about but they got the job done.Prostitutes are socially acceptable in the Army. Abut Wilson, he could have got the round after basic, I dont know that much about Tigerand but I wouldnt be suprised if at some point during that training time they did some live fire excerises. Once you have gone thru basic the Drills give you a little bit of respect and you arent treated lke such a cock-holster. The Army Infantrry was hard work but it was also a lot of fun. This was a great movie that I think captured how some of the men that got drafted really felt and their internal struggles. I is a posistion that I would not have wanted to be put in and I have nothing but respect for the men that went throught it.
shareGod, I miss Basic Training. Aside from the constant smokings, and the lack of sleep, it was a good time.
share
Sh*t, when I was in basic, we weren't allowed to have anything. We had to pull our pockets out and be patted down by our drill sergeants and say "no brass, no ammo drill sgt." As for having live rounds on a training excercise, doesn't happen. I remember Victory Forge and when the other platoon attacked mine, we all used blank rounds. Now when I was in my unit, we went from dry fire, meaning no rounds at all, to blank fire, to the real deal. We shot M16's and those things are a piece of sh*t. M249 SAWs are fun but can jam easily. The best weapon I fired was the .50 Cal. We had 12 lined up for qualifying and there's nothing like having all go off at once. Even in regular Army you're not allowed to have any brass at all.
You have to remember that that was a different time, a different war, and a different way of doing things... Pat downs were not mandatory really until the early 80's in basic training. The Army just didn't think people would get so upset about other people and want to kill their fellow soldier. Watching this film kinda makes you happy that they do pat downs now, huh? I know it makes me happy... I pissed a lot of people off in basic training from being a regular smart ass. LoL! Hope that helps answer your question.
shareI went through basic at Ft. Dix in 1969. We didn't even have enough blanks to go around.
So half of us got blanks and the other half had to say bang-bang we supposedly shot somebody.
This is true, I am not kidding.
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the part when bozz tells the squad to stay in the ditch you can see the rounds tearing up the dirt on the bank im just wondering why would they use live rounds on their own men also where the hell did wilson get his rounds from?