Five Rounds Standard issue for a U.S. Army Guard?

I was either in, or worked for, the U.S. Army for over 30 years.  During that time I had some experience with what guards were issued for ammunition.   My brother brought my attention to a video done about F-15s in Bitburg, Germany, in 1981, at the height of the cold war, only a few year before NATO won.  It is titled "The Wing".  In the video you can see the Tech Sergeant being issued magazines.  He is issued four magazines, all have rounds in them.  He makes sure his chamber is clear, and inserts one magazine.  In the screen-shot (about 7:26 on the video) you can see the other three magazines in his left hand.  They are clearly 30 round magazines for the M16 or variants.

If they were loaded with 28-29 rounds each, I would be pleasantly surprised.  I was surprised to see that he received four magazines with rounds in them.  It would not make sense to issue him four magazines with five rounds each, when he could be issued one magazine with 20 rounds.

The reason that my curiosity is aroused is that my experience has been far different.  As this was a commercially produced video made in cooperation with the military, the number of magazines may have been exaggerated for dramatic effect, disinformation purposes, or operational security.

My first experience with ammunition issued to guards was in California, six years earlier than the video.  I had been assigned extra duty as a military game warden on the Hunter Liggett Military Reservation.   I was not issued a weapon, but carried my own, an Argentine Ballister Molina .45 that accepted Colt magazines.   It was a decent pistol, and did not have the grip safety of the Colt 1911.  My partner carried a model 19 Smith & Wesson .357.  We both carried them fully loaded with extra ammunition.

We had been briefed about a potential threat.  A tip had been received that elements of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) were considering a raid on an Ammunition Supply Point (ASP) somewhere in California.  We received a report of shots being fired behind the ASP, and took our Jeep to investigate.

We did not find anything.  The way back around the ASP was mountainous and long, so we decided to short cut back toward the headquarters area through the ASP.   The guard stopped us with a hand signal.   We stopped.  He pawed at his shirt pocket.  We moved forward.  He stopped us, and moved back the distance that we had moved forward.  He pawed at his pocket; we moved forward.  Everything was repeated.  Finally, we got out of the Jeep, he made it be known that he needed to see ID.  We tossed it to him.  He wanted to maintain distance.  After verification, he let us pass through the ASP.

I was curious about the pocket pawing, and asked about it.  It turned out that the guards were issued one .45 magazine with five rounds in it, and it was to be kept buttoned in the shirt pocket.  Very Barney Fife.  Everyone that I talked to thought it was a stupid policy.

The next experience was in Panama, at the Rodman ASP, 1985-89.  I do not think the guards there were Marines; they might have been Army, Air Force, or Navy.  For some reason, Air Force comes to mind.  They were allowed one magazine for their M16s.   Trouble with Noriega was heating up prior to the U.S. Invasion (Operation Just Cause), after a drunken Noriega had declared war in a Panamanian Television program.  It was not clear that he intended to declare war; but he clearly said that Panama was in a state of war with the United States.

At Rodman, the guard's issued magazine and five rounds were to be kept in a magazine pouch.  If a guard did not have all five rounds at the end of his shift, the entire company was turned out to hunt for the missing round.   Guards were confronted by armed poachers several times.   One SOF member (almost certainly a SEAL) was killed by a poacher while training on a night patrol at Ft. Sherman, while I was there, but the policy did not change until the Marines took over security in the face of growing Noriega regime hostility.

There have been other instances in which U.S. military security personnel were not allowed to have loaded weapons, or allowed only limited ammunition in the face of a deadly threat.   The bombing of the Marine Barracks in Lebanon in 1983 was one, others have been mentioned in the news.

I would like to know this: What experience did you have with ammunition issued to U.S. military forces on guard duty; and were you issued more than five rounds of ammunition?

©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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