Kentucky MPs Kick Ass

I read an article at Black Five about the Kentucky MPs putting the hurt to insurgent scumbags. MediaLies has a link to that page on his post so I won't go into the engagement specifically, but instead about some comments to Black Five's post about the reasons why the engagement was such a tactical success.

It all comes down to tactics, training, equipment, and discipline under fire. The MPs had the training and discipline to take the fight to the enemy. They had all the weapons they needed to have: crew-served weapons, grenades and grenade launchers, rocket launchers, and personal weapons. Is this an indication that the readiness of the Reserves is marginal? NO! In fact it flies in the face of some comments that the Reserves are inadequate. What is the key to their success? Discipline, training, and equipment. Their unit leadership deserves Kudos, and the Army needs to hold them up as an example for all the Army to follow.Those MPs are rock-solid soldiers one and all!!

Unfortunately, many units don't receive good tactical training. Perhaps, the Army needs to consider sending ALL soldiers to a basic infantry tactics course after basic training like the Marine Corps does. That small addition would make all the difference in survivability. They should incorporate After Action Reviews like the one Black Five posted when they develop the POI for the course.

Just a comment about the ineffectiveness of the ball 9mm and green-tip 5.56mm rounds used by the MPs and the rest of the US military:

Although a proficient marksman can kill his intended target with those caliber weapons...9 mm and 5.56 mm rounds are still only marginally effective. I helped review an AAR of seven separate combat engagements during the initial phase of OEF that were conducted by SOF. In those engagements the assaulters used ball 9 mm and green-tip 5.56 mm (fired through the Baretta M-9 pistol and the SOF Mod M-4). In every engagement, the highly skilled assaulters engaged the enemy at ranges of less than 100 meters with accurate fire and found that it took multiple rounds to effectively neutralize the enemy. Green-tip 5.56 is so fast that it completely penetrated the target, often leaving a clean entrance and exit wound, and did not have sufficient "stopping power". Same applies with the 9mm round.

Federal law enforcement has almost completely migrated to larger caliber ammunition (10mm, .40, and .45 caliber) as a result of a Miami bank robbery shootout-gone-wrong that happened years ago, yet the military stays with 9mm because it is the NATO standard. I personally believe it is an inferior caliber for combat.

The 7.62 mm round would be a much more effective round for our long guns. Or if compelled to stay with the 5.56, perhaps we could use a law-of-land-warfare compliant, non-frangible round that tumbles...hell I'm not sure...whatever is decided by the powers that be, and no matter how successful the MPs were in that engagement; we still need more effective equipment AND proficient marksmanship to be truly superior.