What is wrong with this picture?

[CAVDOC]

there does seem to be a flavor of the month game sometimes being played- when in Iraq we got all eotech’s no acogs or aimpoints, then in afghanistan all aimpoints and a few acogs but no eotech. just depends what the unit requisitions or what is on the shelf when you go thru rfi/pre-deployment training.
I was (now retired) a field grade officer and always hated that issue according to rank crap- the 1sg or commander does not need the ACOG a joe in a scout platoon does. I always did my best to push the stuff to the troops

[Magic_Salad0892]

Did you just say your unit had MARS sights?

Is that standard issue?

[Belmont31R]

@Magic_Salad0892

Did you just say your unit had MARS sights?

Is that standard issue?

Not my unit but our brigades BRT (brigade recon team). They took the scout troop, and folded the brigade fisters (13F) in with them to make the BRT.

Quite a few people in that unit had MARS sights along with the others I mentioned. I was commo in a commo company but our platoon was split into teams, and each team was assigned to a unit within the entire brigade to support their commo requirements.

But overall there is a lot of inconsistency in what people get issued. My unit got some Aimpoints from our engineer BN as they got a shipment of ACOG’s. I had my own personally purchased EOTech, and a couple ACOG’s.

There is also a lot of inconsistency with NODS. Some units have PVS7’s, some PVS14’s. Weapon mounted NV sights varied, too. I got laughed at once by some ODA guys because they said they hadnt seen the NV optic that was on our M2 since the early 90’s…lol

Then someone units hand out what they have based on rank. Some units issue crew served weapons guys M9’s, and other units M9’s go to senior NCO’s and O’s. I ran into one unit that had M14’s issued to their crew served guys in addition to their MG. Our MP detachment had M9’s, and MP5’s.

They just issue out what they have at the time. For instance going through RFI one week will result in different equipment than someone going through the following week. We had a few unfortunate souls that missed our RFI days due to emergency leave or whatever, and didn’t get through RFI at all. We got ACH helmets, and they had to go the entire deployment with the old kevlars. At one point I was issued 4 different camo patterns for my vest all to be used at the same time…

[C-grunt_old]

@Dirty_McCurdy

I cant see the picture but from the sounds of it some guy dosnt have a optic on his M4.

I have seen this alot while in A-stan. I am a C-130 mechanic so I watch alot of people getting on and off our planes all day long. There are a lot of people who were running slick M4’s (most might be issued them but not carry them???). Now the more High speed soldiers all seemed to be running a Aimpoint/Eotech. I cant for the life of me understand why all the office people had Aimpoints on there A2 rifles, and then some people had no optic on their M4.

I did see about 100 soldiers from the big red one that were all runing opticless rifles, but they all had IR illuminators and stuff so I figured they had to have taken their optics off for the ride home?

When I went home on leave during my 05 deployment I had to take my ACOG off my DMR. Then when I returned I had to re zero.

I have talked to a few guys who like irons over RDS and their unit let them run it. My unit made us keep RDS on the weapon.

[kry226]

A lot of times, the individual units take their pre-deployment dollars and buy sights. Of course, this mirrors the preferences of the end user. Got a guy who likes EOTechs? The guy gets EOTechs. Same for other preferences too. The Army doesn’t directly purchase all “Army-owned” sights.