Drill Instructors (U.S.M.C.) and Drill Sergeants (U.S. Army) see a lot of ridiculous stuff in their time, but this image definitely takes the cake for basic training screw ups.
Redditor AsianThunder has a friend who's a Drill Sergeant who posted this image.
Obviously the magazine is inserted incorrectly.
Any normal magazine has two ends. The bottom, which is just solid metal. And the top, into you which you load rounds, and out of which those rounds then load into the weapon via a spring.
You want to stick the top part into the rifle, not the bottom, as is pictured up top.
Here's a video about how to load an M16 magazine:
Here's another video about how to take said magazine, and load it into a rifle:
It's explained like this, step by step, multiple times prior to loading live rounds, which the recruit in question has failed in his attempt to do.
It's always the new guys.
The top comment on the Reddit thread is from Redditor revmitch, who said, "Well, atleast the rounds are pointed in the right direction ... "
Astute observation.
Then the conversation devolved into pranks all the older servicemembers pull on FNG's (F****** New Guys, pronounced "Ef-En-Jeez"):
Rollingprobablecause had this to say: "Well you win /r/military, son. Your prize? Grid Squares. You can find them in the walmart parking lot."
This joke is common in the military. A sergeant tells an FNG to go to whomever and pick up some "grid squares." Grid squares are units of measurement on a map, but they certainly don't exist as actual concrete things you can pick up, touch, or carry in a bag.
Here's a few more pranks about sending privates on non-existent missions:
rugby23: "If you hurry up they'll throw in a free box of chem light batteries ... (and then) ... If you find those Humvee keys* she's all yours."
*Just like chem lights don't have batteries, humvees don't have keys. The starter is built into the vehicle. Likely because a private would lose the keys and everyone would get stuck out in the desert somewhere.
This comes from Thebearjew115:
I always use "Go find the Mk 19 BFA" on new dudes.
A BFA is a "Blank Firing Adapter." The military attaches them to various small arms for safety purposes when firing blanks.
Of course, weapons with explosive shells don't use a BFA, so old military salts will send FNG's on a wild goose chase looking for the Howitzer BFA or, in this case, the Mk 19 automatic grenade launcher.
Finally, the best prank I've seen so far comes from slayer8a:
We get our new tankers to look for soft spots in the armor.
We give them a hammer and tell them to hit the tank's armor and listen for any hollow sounding areas. When he has detected a hollow or soft spot he is to use some chalk and mark that spot with an X. Since the armor on tanks is not solid but laminated in many areas, he is going to hear a lot of hollow areas.
I left a Soldier to that task once and came back about 20 minutes later and there must have been about 30 X's just on the front slope. He seemed pretty concerned that it was going to deadline our tank.
Now that's just messed up. Hilarious, but messed up.
SEE ALSO: New recruit hands his Drill Sergeant the worst reason for joining the military EVER >
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