In many pictures from the Viet Nam era soldiers are seen carrying their weapons very casually - slung in different positions, leaning on their rifles, etc.



These days, any pic shows the soldier holding his rifle ready to go - always like this:



Not being in the military, I don't know - anyone have any history on when the practice changed? I don't think I've seen recent photos of soldiers holding their weapons casually. It must be strictly enforced.

difference between a volunteer force and draftees?

Posted by Samurai difference between a volunteer force and draftees?

Pretty much nailed it.

Posted by Samurai difference between a volunteer force and draftees?

Exactly.

Posted by PorkChopExpress Exactly.

More to it than that.

The army now is Mechanized. You ride in a vehicle until you have to dismount and get on foot. So the time moving around with your rifle on the ground is much less. In the mountainous parts of Afghanistan you go out for relatively short combat patrols where contact is extremely likely.


In Vietnam you did move around a lot more on foot and for much longer periods of time. You would go on missions for days and contact was not really very likely most of the time. So as a result soldier get tired and they get lax because of the boredom.

The time on foot and the likelihood of contact greatly influenced it.


Also, fancy slings and things like the front grips can make it alot more comfortable to hold a weapons properly for long periods of time. Trust me, holding a rifle without a frontgrip for extended periods of time can get really uncomfortable for your wrist.

In Vietnam you did move around a lot more on foot and for much longer periods of time. You would go on missions for days and contact was not really very likely most of the time. So as a result soldier get tired and they get lax because of the boredom.

Exactly how he said it. the vietnam war consisted of very long ''seek and destroy '' missions wich would last considerable amounts of time. The new guys had there weapons at the ready all the time, but then as their tour progressed they realized that they where chasing ghosts that would only conduct ''hit and run '' attacks upon a platoon via an ambush; therefore they had there weapons most of the time loaded but slung in a casual fation to keep them from tireing themselves too much in the jungle heat. Also as the war progressed morale just got lower and troops in the field, sometimes disconnected to the outside world for months at a time, just started doing things there own way during combat patrols.

(modified for: spelling errors)