Respect your comments Sir. I did not serve with the female and I am much older so was not in any of the middle east deployments. All I can confirm for certain is that she served three tours and was with 101st for that entire time and was assigned as a SAW gunner at least some of that time. If I said or implied that she was doing regular foot patrol with a SAW that was poor wording on my part as I cannot say. We only discussed her time in country once and then only briefly. Not sure what the telephone game is. My experiences with such was with a M60 and is irrelevant. I still have a belt of 7.62 hanging on the wall in my trophy room to remind me of past mistakes in my life.
I know that out West ranges can be longer and hunters get used to shooting longer shots. Hitting them that far is doable and once hit well they die most of the time. It is just further than I am willing to go. I can hit 12" plates at 600y with my 223 but would not shoot a deer at that distance with it. It is a personal preference. When I was out west it got to be that a 350y shot on a Prairie Dog was a chip shot and those are not any larger than a 12oz beer can. Have a good-un.
You said lugged, which for anyone who was a SAW, 240, or even M60 gunner for you old timers (I doubt anyone was old enough to be a BAR Gunner) is going to take that as meaning carried/hiked it.
The telephone game is when something is repeated/story told and it changes with each person who hears/repeats the story. Example would be saying she lugged or humped the SAW when she might’ve said she was a gunner with a SAW. Same thing mixing mounted/dismounted, or that she was a gunner on a couple missions vs 3 deployments. BUT everyone’s military experiences and deployments are different. Wouldn’t have said anything if you weren’t trying to use 2nd/3rd hand info to defend your point.
Case in point; I’m sure when she was with the 101st but depending on dates, BCT, etc her tours were 9-18mo in length. Given the length of the deployments and TIS/TIG for promotions it’s unlikely anyone would do 3 deployments as a AR, especially accounting for dwell time between deployments without getting promoted or demoted. They also likely would’ve had a PCS move in there somewhere.
My post was also a bit satirical given the “hang out with the right E7” comment. I’m sure there were a few who picked up on that reference.
FWIW; in the GWOT Army your AR (Auto Rifleman - non gun team) was generally a E3/E4. In some units it was SOP for them to be the Senior E4, but that was probably a company/battalion leadership decision. The SAW (like the 60) was the most casualty producing weapon for a dismounted line infantry squad and getting it into place/position was critical. Some leaders thought by making that AR the senior E4, it’d mean less direction needed from a TL/SL and getting into the fight quicker. Not sure her MOS but depending on when she served during GWOT the likelihood of her being a female in an infantry unit in Iraq or Afghanistan is extremely low. That’s mean some sort of combat support. Supportive battalions had SAW’s assigned to their books but generally didn’t have a “SAW gunner” in a team or squad because their squads weren’t generally designed for combat battle drills, rather for their support function (Cooks, Pay, Mechanics, etc). They were expected to know how to operated them but didn’t walk around the base with a SAW like an infantry SAW gunner would. The exception to that is probably the MP’s. I wasn’t one and never spent time in an MP unit.
That said, I personally know two females (on the same 101st deployment) who’d often volunteer as gunners on one of the trucks while running supply convoys out to our Outposts. Both were complete badasses on the gun but they didn’t lug it anywhere as it was attached to a turret mount and you wouldn’t call them a SAW gunner because they had different jobs in a support battalion and would just fill that role during the limited 6-8 supply convoys we’d get over the course of that deployment. On every one of them they’d take some sort of contact.
Not trying to take away from her service or deployments just pointing out your repetition of her service from a SINGLE brief conversation isn’t empirical evidence or factual and probably shouldn’t be considered given the SAW is a 5.56 and the weight of a firearms diminishes the recoil substantially.
Secondly, you’re generalizing the “man-bun” millennial crowd and applying your opinions based upon the limitations of your own skill and comfort. That’s in the same light as what the “influencer” referred to for “best caliber” and is basing their opinion on their experience, skillset, recoil tolerance and hunting style. Shoot the caliber you like, and hunt how you like and are comfortable hunting. I’ll continue killing animals at long range and at a couple steps, I’ll shoot 6mm and 25cal guns as well as big bore doubles
