If I joined the army or any branch of the millitary and I “modified” my gun/plane/ship in a way that would better suit me, would I get into some trouble with the superiors?
Not if they didn’t find out.
According to Mark Bowden’s “Black Hawk Down”, many of the Delta Force operators had customised weapons.
I suspect it would depend on the nature and purpose of the modification, and on the sense of humour of the superiors.
Trust me they always seem to find out. I speak from experience.
Yes, If you took Gov’t property and changed the way it worked you may be putting yourself or other people at risk. Changing any one thing could effect the total operation of the item.
Another reason is this modification could void the warranty if any on the item.
I am in the Air Force and I know if I started to modify the weapon system I work on to make it work better I would be in a world of Shi@.In the Israeli army it’s usually accepted, often encouraged and occasionally demanded. Hell, I’ve seen soldiers recieve citations for innovatively upgraded gear.
For instance, at one point my M-4 had the following improvements:
-
Foam padding on the butt of the stock (for comfort)
-
Pipe-sealing epoxy cement (or whatever it’s called) around the pistol grip, personalized to the shape of my hand (I have long fingers, and it’s softer)
-
An orthopedic wrist bandage around the front grips (for a more secure hold).
-
Duct tape around the top of the stock (you can never have too much duct tape).
-
One of those long plastic handcuff-strips rolled into the pistol grip.
-
An ingeniously secured strap with an earplug pouch and a quick-action release catch (too complicated to explain).
Besides that, I had extra pouches, quick-action cords and security bands on my web gear, a whistle and a (very secured) razor blade in my dog-tag cover, and some goodies in my helmet. I I was considered average - some guys went really crazy with this stuff.
As for vehicles - well, you have to remember that the IDF is constantly tweaking and upgrading their equiptment, even when it’s brand new; for instance, a USAF pilot would be utterly incapable of flying an Israeli F-16 (and possibly vice-versa). But this stuff is done by the experts. If you want to start taking a blowtorch to your APC, you better be damn sure it’s going to work, cause otherwise, you’re screwed.
But if it does work, go with it! After all, the weapon designers aren’t the ones out in the field, are they?
I’ve heard that the US military is a bit more strict in these matters, though.
There’s actually a specific article in the Uniform Code of Military Justice (aka military law) that deals with this. I present to you, ladies and gents, Article 108: (http://jaglink.jag.af.mil/ucmj2.htm)
Generally, military issue equipment is expected to be turned back in and used by someone else some day. If this is the case, personalizing it is frowned upon. If it’s NOT the case, as with snake-eater guys who essentially own their own equipment, then it is much less of a problem.
If you were a captain in the navy who modified his ship in a way that would better suit you… well, obviously, there’s a lot of forms that that could take. But if you changed things too drastically, you could safely expect not to be entrusted with another ship. Those things are expensive.
Fliers live in a universe unto themselves, where laws of the UCMJ and, in some cases, laws of physics do not apply. I have not visited that universe lately and will not venture a guess as to the consequences of tweaking one’s airplane.
In some instances, if you tweaked something and thereby improved it, you may be eligible for a big bonus.
As you know, all branches of the Defense Department buy in bulk. If your “tweak” resulted in just pennies of savings per item, the overall cost savings to the DoD could be huge.
You get a letter of commendation, some bucks, and a three-day pass. Your commander gets an attaboy. His commander gets a “well done”…all the way up.
Of course, if you screw something up, it’s your ass. You might want to run it by the chain of command first.
[fixed coding]
[Edited by bibliophage on 10-12-2001 at 11:52 AM]
Maybe something like a program that will notice when you put a /i instead of a /b.
Dammit.
Pilots aren’t engineers, and this isn’t WW2. They ain’t touchin those planes, except maybe to get a more comfy seat or something.
I’ve heard of some tankers rigging up this or that with their tank, but nothing permanent. The equipment is complex, the people using it generally aren’t the ones that know how they really work (that’s the maintenance guys) and it’s very frowned upon.