Re: [SG] Scenario with engineers

John spake thusly upon matters weighty: 

> >	    My thinking is that specialty units like Engineers,
Corpsmen, EWs, etc.
> > should shift their Quality Die down by one for combat skills like
shooting.
> >  This reflects that while they are trained to use their weapons,
they don't
> > get as much time on the shooting range as their infantry
counter-parts.
> 
> EW weenies, presuming they are the spiritual descendants of today's
> commo weenies (not the platoon RTO, but the dimwit assigned down from
> HHC to fix the radios) should get this.  Corpsmen (we call them
Medics),
> definitely yes--most of them are carrying a pistol anyway.  Engineers?

> Depends on type.  Combat Engineers, no.  As good as or better than
> average infantry at this stuff.  Other Engineers (The
bulldozer-driving
> type, aka "Heavy Junk" for instance.	Or firefighting companies, or
> generator units, or masonry/carpentry specialists), sure.  Same as
file
> clerks, staff officers, and the other "odds and sods" you might see
> issued weapons, formed into ad hoc organizations, and sent in to plug
> the holes when disaster is impending.

Okay John, please 'splain this to me. 
We have the following assumptions:
1) Everyone trains for roughly the same amount of time
2) How you break up your training controls how good you are at 
anything

>From this, we have the following additional thoughts
1) Infantry doesn't do a lot - infantry battle drill, marching, PT, 
and musketry
2) Comat engineers do all infantry does plus mine clearing, obstacle 
emplacement, bridge construction, bridge demolition, other kinds of 
demolitions, building abatis and barbed wire fields with mines, and 
as pointed out by yourself, spades. 

So, if you have the same amount of time, how are you as good? Answer, 
you probably aren't. Maybe locally due to some strangeness, your unit 
may be better than its infantry compatriots. But on the larger scheme 
of things, I highly doubt you'd be as good as some of the units I've 
seen in the CF.... because all they seem to do ALL SUMMER was lie on 
their belies in the sun on the range and shoot. You put that many 
thousand rounds through your guns and you get good, if you've got any 
kind of a Small Arms Coach at all. I don't think I've ever seen 
Engineers win one of our infantry competitions... but then I've never 
seen an Infanteer capable of doing what the engineers can either. It 
may be only my limited experience and common logic that keeps me from 
appreciating why Combat Engineers, with more things to learn and more 
demands on their time, are as good at things like marksmanship as 
infantrymen.... in that case... please expose the flaws in my 
thinking. I am interested. 

(And this is, again for the record, not a shot at engineers. They do 
a very tough job pretty well. But they are Engineers. If they were 
not, they wouldn't wear the flaming hand greandes! 
They'd be wearing rifles or swords and then they'd be called 
Infantry!) 

/************************************************
Thomas Barclay		     
Voice: (613) 831-2018 x 4009
Fax: (613) 831-8255

 "C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot.  C++ makes
 it harder, but when you do, it blows away your whole leg."
 -Bjarne Stroustrup
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