Congratulations to the U.S. Military Academy (West Point) Combat Weapons Team for adding two more names to the F.A.S.T. Wall of Fame, during this past weekend’s class:
- Cadet James Hughes (6.81)
- Coach Joe S. (5.79)
The team gave up attending the annual Homecoming football game to be in the class.
Special thanks to SLG (FAST Coin holder #01) for co-teaching the class and to COL Chamberlain for all of his generous help during the weekend.
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
Very refreshing to see that our fine military institutions have not completely turned their back on the skills that make us armed professionals. Also, happy to see that they are training officers to shoot those darned pistols they keep issuing them.
Well done.
Tim
There are roughly 25 cadets on the USMA Combat Weapons team, while there are about 4000 cadets at USMA. Cadets who wish to earn a spot on the team must complete a physical selection and pass a board held by veteran team members.
Despite being the ONLY cadets there actively training for combat on a regular basis, members are still required to attend drill and intramural sports..while other teams that have little to no relevance to combat, or saving lives, are excused from those activities. Not ALL cadet clubs are exempt..but there are many that have nothing to do with war that are allowed to miss those requirements.
Because of this, all the training the CWT does is during the limited personal time of the cadets. I know this because about 5 years ago I was in charge of the team. I honestly believe that unless you go to certain elements in SOF, or AMU, there is no better opportunity to learn how to fight with guns than on the USMA CWT anywhere in the military.
I’ve been to Iraq twice, and can point to specific instances where things I learned on the team kept good guys alive, and ensured bad guys died. I don’t think the kids on the handball team can say that…
Dan — Simon and I were absolutely amazed at how tough the selection is, and then how little support the team gets from the school. We had to scramble for range access, ammo, etc. That’s why I mentioned COL Chamberlain. Without him, the weekend would have been miserable.
From talking with other folks, it’s clear the average American assumes that all the cadets get the kind of small arms & small unit tactics training that the CWT gets. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Ammo availability ebbs and flows. I never had much heartache with that, but I assumed if we weren’t getting 5.56 or 9mm, it was going to the GWOT. The logistical and monetary support was fine, I can’t complain about that. According to my old boss, the year I was in charge we shot 1 million rounds of small arms ammo as a team. No complaints there.
What really irked me though was the lack of common sense in NOT allowing the team to miss drill and IMs, as well as having to submit a bunch of paperwork to miss things like football games. Not one of my Soldiers has ever said “Damn sir, I wish you had gone to more football games.” This wouldn’t bother me that much, but when I see groups like the sailing team, golf team, handball team and other non-military teams getting compensated for their time it doesn’t pass the common sense test.
Hopefully I’ll make it up there again the next time you teach there.
Shamefully, this is the warrior culture that is supposed to demonstrate the “warrior ethos.” It’s embarrassing.
But, at least there is a team. Many other Army institutions have abandoned them altogether.
The warrior past-time should be shooting, not golfing.
Tim