Of course this has nothing to do with gender…

“The Army says that starting next summer it will remove the requirement from its Basic Combat Training because it takes too much time to teach enlistees to throw grenades at an adequate distance.

‘What we have found is it is taking far, far too much time,’ said Maj. Gen. Malcolm Frost, the commanding general of the US Army Center of Initial Military Training.
‘It's taking three to four times as much time ... just to qualify folks on the hand grenade course than we had designated so what is happening …is it is taking away from other aspects of training

‘We are finding that there are a large number of trainees that come in that quite frankly just physically don't have the capacity to throw a hand grenade 20 to 25 to 30 meters,’ he said.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic...nade-far-enough.html

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?

No more "Rock Back! Pull Pin! THROW!"?

Sad.......

How far is 30 meters? is it over 20 yards? Cuz I can throw a football about that far.

So grenade throwing is no longer required in warfare? Fantastic.

Next they will just stop fighting wars. Because it’s hard and all.

Might be removed during basic training but not infantry school. No biggie...

quote:

Originally posted by fatmanspencer:
How far is 30 meters? is it over 20 yards? Cuz I can throw a football about that far.

Up your IQ man.

quote:

Originally posted by medic451:
Might be removed during basic training but not infantry school. No biggie...

Spoilsport. Just when we were working up a good amount of outrage.

It may well be about gender, but as long as the ground pounders learn, it doesn't seem to matter. If a radar tech learns in basic, won't he probably will not have retained too much in the way of grenade throwing skill a year out of basic, will he?

30 meters is 98 feet. That's a decent distance though I've always thought it's not throwing that makes it hard, it's the way you're "supposed" to throw it. It's not like throwing a baseball. I use the 2 seam or 4 seam grip on a baseball to throw it. The Army teaches you to grip the grenade with your entire hand, do a Hulk Hogan pointing towards your target and cocking your throwing hand back near your ear.

With the 40mm grenade launcher more prevalent now, isn't the grenade kind of outdated? I carried a M67 but found little use for it so I gave it to one of my Soldiers.

Maybe in certain urban environments it's useful but is it practical in most ranges where the enemy would engage us?

quote:

Originally posted by medic451:
Might be removed during basic training but not infantry school. No biggie...

This is my thought too. Combat arms will get it in AIT. It's just not something that's gonna hamper Private Snowflake from graduating basic. Gotta remember, most of the new army is used to sitting on their asses and twiddling their thumbs, not going outside to throw baseballs and footballs.

Better not to throw a grenade than to throw it too short, I suppose. I do feel disapponted about the physical condition of the recruits.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:

quote:

Originally posted by fatmanspencer:
How far is 30 meters? is it over 20 yards? Cuz I can throw a football about that far.

Up your IQ man.

Rhino I was making the point that basic throwing skills, which I would say a football 20 yards would be, is fairly simple. I did indeed make it read dumber than intended, but still, not being able to throw a small hand sized item 20 yards well... I'm not sure I want you defending my cornflakes, let alone the country. I got expectations ya know?

Pathetic.

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I recall hearing some of the complaints (observations ) amongst basic instructors was there's a fair number of recruits that besides not having much athleticism, can't throw worth a damn.

If it's taking up too much time...what are they making up that time with?

This at Basic level, not big deal, hopefully that time is taken up with more rifle time or, ruck time. If it was at AIT...then there's a problem.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:

quote:

Originally posted by medic451:
Might be removed during basic training but not infantry school. No biggie...

Spoilsport. Just when we were working up a good amount of outrage.

It may well be about gender, but as long as the ground pounders learn, it doesn't seem to matter. If a radar tech learns in basic, won't he probably will not have retained too much in the way of grenade throwing skill a year out of basic, will he?

First off throwing a grenade isn’t exactly a skill that goes away after a year. It’s been 20 or so since I’ve thrown one and I’m pretty confident I could do so today. So the only way that radar tech won’t know how to throw a grenade a year after basic is if he never learned in the first place.

Second, any outrage you think you detect is probably more because of the fact that the army is giving up on it because it’s too hard. If they made the decision based on their experiences that it’s an unnecessary skill for every soldier in today’s Army then fine. But that’s not the expressed reason. They are quitting the practice because it’s too hard for some recruits. And that’s pretty sad IMHO.

But at least the PowerPoint presentations on diversity and graduation rates will look nicer I guess. Maybe congress will reward them with enough money to do another round of evaluations for anew rifle cartridge.

It should be removed from basic, and put in AIT for units where grenades are issued. Since we maintain qual records, "grenade" should go on the qual record with rifle, pistol, m249, m60, m2, etc. If a soldier is deployed to a unit where grenade is a required qual, then hold a range and qualify them.

When I went through OBC, back in the early '90s, they had eliminated grenade and cratering charge from the curriculum, but we did rifle, pistol, m60 and AT4. Go figure.

That was the best part of basic.

You will still be taught to throw a grenade in basic.

I don't know how it is taught today but in '67' when I was in basic you had to practice a number of times with a dummy grenade before throwing a live one. If you couldn't master the dummies then you weren't given a live one.

Jim

Sadly this is another effort to lower standards to make the military more 'do-able' by females.

Make no mistake.

How can anyone 'fail' when there is no graded standard?

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