Locked and Loaded!!!

It didn't really dawn on me how immature and inexperienced some of these guys were until today. I had to roll my guys out to pick up a few more of my guys that had just come in with some more of our equipment today. In my vehicle I had two specialists and a private first class. I will call them Mal, GeeDub and Moe to observe their privacy. Mal is driving, GeeDub is engrossed in his Pokemon game boy game and Moe is grinding his teeth in anticipation of the trip. I can tell he is a little overly pumped up and I am curious but don't want to push it just yet so I wait.

I guess I should have known well in advance what to expect. I have four soldiers that have never been deployed and probably never been far from home before. Moe is one of them. Before we left he asked me if I thought we would get the chance to kill anyone. My shocked response was something like "Are you frickin' kidding me? I sure pray to God we don't HAVE to kill anyone!" Then he said something about wanting to get at least nine confirmed kills while he was deployed. Anyway I just kinda brushed that exchange off as a young soldier's bravado. It all came running back to me today though.

As Moe continued to squirm in the back seat he began to make me nervous. When I asked him what was bothering him he asked "I was just wondering, if some one runs into our vehicle, can I shoot them?" "WHAT??? Of course not!" That's just what we need Moe putting three rounds in the chest of some elderly local who was driving like the rest of his or her country men drive over here. Then I noticed he had is magazine in the well of his weapon, and though that made me a little more nervous, that was ok, cause if something did happen at least he would have less reaction time. "Well what if I see some one driving along side of us with a weapon?, Can I shoot them?" Wow. "No man! Tell you what, if he is making aggressive gestures at you while he is loading you can aim your weapon at him, and if he aims at you, then and only then can you shoot him." Right about then Mal noticed that Moe's muzzle was pointing right into his kidney. (Mal) "Hey man! You better point that thing somewhere else or I'm gonna beat you with it." (Moe) "It's on safe." (Mal) "So point it somewhere else."

As we got to where we were going we passed an armored vehicle that the local security force had posted and Moe went into action. He grabbed his Kevlar and started freaking out. "Chill out man. He's one of the good guys." Needless to say the trip was interesting, but six hours later we were back safe and sound. Nobody got hurt, but I got a wake up call. I knew I had some noobs to take care of but I didn't plan on having Gung hoe shoot em up commo guys with me. Good training I guess.