There was a discussion about M16/M16A1s still in US Use

[Mtgriz]

For the sake of complete truth, not all personnel qual with "old a$$" M16s. And lets be real- USAF Security Forces are not "the combat arm" of the USAF. 8+ years and counting in the AF and I've yet to meet any AF infantrymen, and I've worked hand in hand with a whole bunch of AF cops. There are LRS airmen who have/had more of a combat orientation driving convoys than most any SF airman.

Some of us in the CE career fields qual and deploy with the same M4s your SF "combat" fellas are using in the above picture. Some of us even deploy with M4 and M9. Shocker, yes?

nasty, are you active duty or ROTC or Guard or what?

[Peaches]

For the sake of complete truth, not all personnel qual with "old a$$" M16s. And lets be real- USAF Security Forces are not "the combat arm" of the USAF. 8+ years and counting in the AF and I've yet to meet any AF infantrymen, and I've worked hand in hand with a whole bunch of AF cops. There are LRS airmen who have/had more of a combat orientation driving convoys than most any SF airman.

Some of us in the CE career fields qual and deploy with the same M4s your SF "combat" fellas are using in the above picture. Some of us even deploy with M4 and M9. Shocker, yes?

nasty, are you active duty or ROTC or Guard or what?

Guard, and by "combat-arms" I wasn't implying that Security Forces guys spend all their time outside the wire doing the same stuff the Army and Marines do. What I meant was that they work with those weapons more than most Airmen. I recognize there are other career fields within the Air Force that use updated weapons on a fairly regular basis (like the ones you pointed out), but there are also many airmen who qualify at BMT and then never touch another weapon their entire careers.

So I apologize if my statement was misunderstood.

Ok, one of the few times I will disagree with you here Nasty, while you are right some of the Office/desk jockey jobs don't have the same knowledge of basic tactics, and will act as cannon fodder in case something breaks out, they will however, at least qualify at least once a year with the M16/M4. I know that during my 8 years service, I broke down the weapon at least 2 times, and fired it at least 2 times (break in service so it wasn't continual). Even office jockeys, pencil pushers and REMF's will fire their weapon at least once out of BMT.

[Tanto]

Nasty and I weren't saying that NO one else does. We were trying to explain that unless the job would warrant the issuing of a weapon, the airmen probably won't be using the newest weapons (ie ATC won't be using any weapons during a deployment, while CE or LRS would be issued M-4's because of the possibility of being shot at.)

It wasn't meant to be an exclusive list. If someone is going to be using a weapon during deployment, they'll get M-4's and other new weapons. If they're working inside, they'll be issued M-16's but have them locked in the armory the whole deployment.

[Mtgriz]

You need to be careful with those generalizations

Getting shot at has nothing to do with what weapon you'll be issued. It has to do with your assigned duty(AFSC or perhaps a special duty, like TCN escort) as well as your TDY location. For example, on my 2006 deployment to Balad AB/LSA Anaconda, I was issued a raggedy assed M16a2. My deployment to Masirah Island in 04? Same POS. However, with the recent change of deployment tempo bands, I will deploy with an M4 when I go to Afghanistan in April. The tempo band change also affects qual times, which went from 15 months to 6 for us.

Then again, this is the Air Force, so we'll either waiver the requirement to even take a weapon, or we'll qual every 30 days. 'Cause you know we'll do anything but follow the AFI....