I had the opportunity to work the RNC (Republican National Convention) with the FL National Guard during the first week of classes which was a little bit frustrating having to play catch up. I feel we were a little over strength but hey, nothing bad happened. If we were not there, I bet there would have been many more incarcerations. National Guard soldiers were strategically placed within the perimeter and at checkpoints surrounding the Tampa Convention Center. I believe we worked well with the secret service and local law enforcement, looked professional and did our job.
All in all, everything went well except for a major incident at our hotel the night before we were leaving to head home. Our mission was complete for the RNC; however, the time still ticks and the mission is not over until we reach our homes. A couple soldiers thought it would be a great idea to bring their personal weapons to the hotel we were staying at. Anybody knows that has been on active duty orders, we fall under general order number one. This is our military code of conduct we must follow. In there it states, we shall not purchase, possess, use or sell privately owned firearms, ammunition or explosives.
To make the long story short, one soldier was showing another soldier his personal firearm, a .357 revolver. The soldier did not clear his weapon properly and while the other was checking the grip, he shot the owner of the pistol. Although this is a tragedy, these two guys are idiots! The soldier was shot through two fingers and in his lower abdomen. He was very fortunate to still be alive and making a full recovery.
In the military, we have a saying that goes,"Don't be that guy." In this instance, we had two soldiers being, "that guy." These guys have proper military training with weapons and know to treat every weapon as if it is loaded. The soldier's actions not only make their first line leaders look bad but they make our unit and FL National Guard look bad as well. No matter how well we are doing as a whole, there is always "that guy" to make the rest of us look bad.
Moral of the story is, "Don't be that guy."
I actually heard about this from another soldier and I couldn't help but to think the exact same thing! "Don't be that guy" is a perfect statement! Most people I know wouldn't pass around a gun and be so insensitive towards the weapon, but do you think the military has desensitized them and even you of how dangerous it could be if not handled correctly? LOVED the post!
ReplyDeleteI don't believe the military has desensitized weapons. With guys having the proper training, this very mistake does not make sense to me. One of the soldiers actually was trying to be a police officer too. There were four soldiers around and for not one of them to say, "Hey, put that gun away" is beyond me. I just shows that sometimes others have to learn from mistakes and are just very lucky we did not lose a soldier over this...
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