fm 3-22.9

I was perusing through this fantastic Army field manual. It is the pseudo-bible of the military. FM 3-22.9 Rifle Marksmanship M16A1, M16A2/3, M16A4 and M4 Carbine. So what makes me blog about this particular piece? Could it be because it's a load of crap? Nah, too easy. Is it the perpetual violence? Nope, I like it, keeps me employed. So what is it you ask. It's this:
As I read through all of the instructor portions of the book I stumbled across this little tidbit in Chapter 7: Advanced Rifle Marksmanship (Phase IV of Basic Rifle Marksmanship), Section 7-23c. This section is titled Aim Point. For the layman it is where you aim on a person. Now, as a lay-person where do you think you'd aim for "Lethal Shot Placement"? If you thought "the head" you'd be wrong. According to FM 3-22.9 lethal shot placement is acheived with the aim point of 'center mass' basically the area between the waist and chest. Headshots are "incapacitating shot placements" OK, I exaggerate it's the face but still, you think that a shot in the face would put the man down but I guess not. Silly Army, headshots are kids.




Sidenote: It finally clicked. You know the phrase, "it's a deusy!" as in "watch that last step, it's a deusy." It was a car. Doh!