Maj. Gen. Darrell K. Williams, commanding general, CASCOM and Fort Lee, fires his 9mm semi-automatic pistol during qualifications today at the installation range complex. Williams joined a handful of Soldiers who fulfilled their yearly weapons qualification at the facility. (Source: Ft Lee Facebook Page)
Look at that text book grip and shooting platform!
JC, this is similar to the stance my TL uses. He shot at some guys one time in the war over in Saudi with his Baretta pistol. We have to of them on are team but I’ve only shot one of them twice during are team training. My TL has a hard time seeing during quals but his vision is laser focused when we crash doors! We cross cover after a hard knock and then are long gun guy peels off and gets our six. Next weekend we have team training again so we plan to do some active shooter scenarios!
Maybe your team train on spelling and grammar?
Hey bro, I’m just hear trying to help out where i can an interact with other brothers to make a difference. My TL and ATL are heroes and we want others to learn from us and how we hit doors. The general is welcome to come train with my team anyday.
Oh, he can come train with your team? Where he’ll learn really awesome stuff like using a “diamond washer” drill to clear rooms in CQB, and issue parking summons, as taught by your “expert” TL who is a former E-6 from back before Desert Storm?
Dude – you really need to learn to stay in your lane, and you really need to get some legitimate training.
Wow, great grip and shooting stance there MG….
What he said. Wow!
“Leading by example.”
Fail.
It’s hard to be a Soldier today with those pesky yearly weapons qualification requirements sneaking up on you – but at least he actually went to the range instead of having S1 or his PSD fake an expert qual score.
I’m pretty poor with a 9mm… but even I know to put the web of my firing hand at the top of the back strap and try to avoid getting slide-in-the-eye.
You have to wonder about a lot of things when an official media outlet/channel is releasing this stuff publicly.
Let’s visit the title. Ask yourself these three questions just on the surface. How much training has ever really gotten on pistol fundamentals? Does he have a CSM or other NCOs who helped or provided prequal refresher? What is his background? I was an Infantryman through the entire 90s prior to going SF and we never got to train on or use pistols. If you’ve never been shown what right looks like, how do you know? It’s not instinctive to the average joe.
Maybe not but he has to at least seen a movie or picture of someone doing it.
A warrior should be proud of his/her craft.
We owe it to our charges!
This is a disgrace.
Please don’t think I defending him. He’s a football bat stirring a soup
sandwhich. The lack of training is institution wide and there’s only one way to fix it. Many people failed this officer including himself. How many Sergeants and fellow officers saw this and did nothing?
Great points.
When the black beret first came out there was an LTC working next to me that literally wore it like a pizza. Behind his back everyone was laughing at him. I asked him to let me fix it, took it home and squared it away. NCO’s all too often square officers away. They and fellow officers failed in this case.
FWIW, he’s a former quartermaster officer.
Likely, it was very few, give the abysmal standards in the Logistics field … most especially when it comes to “warrior” tasks which actually relate to fighting, fitness, or battlefield survival.
EXACTLY MY POINT!!!
It’s called PMI (Preliminary Marksmanship I instruction)! It is required before every range…. That being said…… MOST O-4 and above choose not to attend and then get upset when it takes them all day to qualify. You can only teach so much when dinning a range….I am sure that MG Williams REQUIRES all his soldiers to attend before they go to the range. I worked on a brigade S-3 so I have written many operations orders for ranges that are signed off by the brigade commander or the S-3. I know that PMI is in the OPORD and I also know it is rarely attended by any officer over 1LT.
It doesn’t matter if he had no prior experience I could spend 30 minutes with someone prior to firing and have them not look like that shit show.
Jimbo – I would agree, in that if he never had experience, how would the soldier know what good marksmanship fundamentals looked like? As a Marine Marksmanship Instructor, it is the duty of the Instructor to teach those fundamentals. It is up to the Instructor to demonstrate proper fundamentals of Marksmanship before the students are introduced to live fire exercises. This is an example of leadership failing this soldier.Just my opinion.
wow….
WoW… keep in mind as a General Officer he was issued (read given a pistol upon promotion to GO)
Just disable the comments on this one now.
Maybe he was demonstrating what NOT to do.
My first flag officer threw back a poorly written paper in my face, I mean literally threw it at me.. with a “how you do some things is how you do all things”.
Point taken, I needed to attack all obstacles, even unfamiliar ones, as fiercely and competently as my command expects of their Assaulters.
I can surmise this GO gives two fux about doing anything much correctly.
^this.
Excellence in everything you do. Except haircuts. Seriously length of your hair has nothing to do with your ability to do any task in the military.
He will have the last laugh when he retires and then goes and works as a logistical consultant with a seven figure base and guaranteed bonus.
Love to be a fly on the wall in his office to listen to the discussions with superiors and subordinates…
He’s a logistician…although there are exceptions out there (there is one Fuel Handler…a female reservist…who is apparently one of the top competitive pistols shooters anywhere), few loggies are well trained or have the initiative to seek out professional training on their own regarding pistols. Other than SOF and dedicated professionals in conventional combat arms units, few can really handle and run a pistol properly, effectively…and safely.
And you’ve just made my point.
No doubt this General sucks at holding a pistol. As he should, he is a logistics commander and staffer. Do we send our shooters to logistics school so they can be good loggies? Hell no- waste of time. That’s why a log officer isn’t sent to the range often. Not his job. In a perfect US MIL- yes, everyone could shoot. In the real US MIL- there is only so much time/ money. They prioritize best they can. Also, I think if the Army did decide to spend the time/money to provide all of their non combat personnel, like the General, with serious small arms training people would complain it was a waste and only “war fighters” should get that training. I would be one of them complaining too. Save the real training for those most likely to be engaged with the enemy. All others get training according to their probability of making contact with the enemy. In the Generals case, minimal chance of contact equals minimal training.
No…he wasn’t always a General. There are decades of fail leading up to this moment.
Even the most rudimentary of training would have alleviated that grip. I don’t expect him to shoot a perfect score, but he should at least be able to properly employ the weapon.
First of all he was a logistics officer and is now a Generalists. While unlikely he could lead maneuver troops. Why should he suck at holding a pistol. He was a logistics officer, but has he never deploying to combat? Oh wait he has a CAB and two BSMs, which means at some point he was deployed to combat and engaged by the enemy, I guarantee he had his pistol for personal defense. Marksmanship is a basic soldiers skill and not a waste anyone’s time. He is just as susceptible to green on blue, or getting in trouble during battlefield circulation. What if he went out to an outstation on a battlefield site visit. Some guy on the ground who is an optimist may think – hey this guy has a pistol, so he can probably brain dudes at atleast 25m with it. I got my gat, a spare mag, and a minifrag, I should probably give him a quick tour of the road construction project outside our base.
He also did not start as General and should now have collectively had over 30 years of training even if it was minimal. That is probably 3000 plus rounds. Most of my young infantrymen did not have a 3000 rd count on their primary weapon systems as they entered into their first deployment.
ALL service member should, without a doubt be able to properly and effectively manipulate their assigned weapon system, regardless of MOS. Does no one remember the Jessica Lynch debacle? Wanna get Jessica Lynched? Cause that’s how you get Jessica Lynched.
All good points. I was an 88M, and we did convoy escorts in Iraq. We’d never even seen the type of vehicles we were assigned (M1117’s) until our first mission. Among the other convoy escort units we dealt with, two were Quartermaster water units and one was a Chemical Corps unit. They had been (seemingly randomly) picked to be gun truck crews…As POGs/Pogues, we have to be able to perform basic soldier functions, shooting amongst them.
SMA,
Just a piggyback… don’t forget guard and reserves! Range time/ammunition is in short supply and I (and other reservists) would love some more trigger time!
Mick
I used to spend my own time and money on private ranges to stay proficient with both the AR15 and Beretta, because you’re right, the Guard deems it more important to spend every drill weekend PMCing equipment that hasn’t moved in months than staying proficient in basic soldiers skills . . .
I’m right there with you fellas. My old Company spent every weekend PMCSing our tanks and doing OPTEMPO mileage and would rush through pretty much everything else the rest of the year, including cramming Tank Tables 2-6 livefire into two weeks at AT. I’m fortunate to live near Post so I can use the POW ranges and the local indoor range for practice. I’m also trying to find a local 3Gun/ competetive marksmanship club around here. Even Active Duty has to practice and PT on their own- if not, your skills atrophy and you fall behind.
Good news is that odds are the range is the only place he will be expected to fire in anger
Yeah, odds are I am not going to get into a car accident. oh wait I am an Asian driver. Good Ruck Everyone.
Also why is he angry on the range. I try not to shoot people when angry. Frustrated maybe.
Modified weaver stance, a really modified weaver stance.
Though I have to ask, why no IBA?
I don’t know, because he’s wearing a later generation IOTV? It’s not like the photo’s cropped to where it’s not visible.
WRONG – terrible grip – no way to control a firearm….
Looks like that center axis relock method… gotta reload after every two rounds though…
The Instagram commandos, Hollywood, video games, etc have numbed the tactical/defense industry as to what we now perceive as “normal”. There was a time when you had to EARN the right to roll your sleeves up or the right to walk around with un-bloused boots by way of passing a selection course or two. Nowadays, every photoshoot depicts high speed commandos in various settings and really is only representative of the top 1% or the top 1%.
In fact, this guy is more representative of what this industry is all about statistically speaking.
Of the hundreds of thousands of active duty soldiers currently serving, the general here is commonplace, not the exception.
When you serve as a supply NCO in the military, that’s your JOB. You job does not include “look high speed for everyone wearing some sick tier one gear rocking out bad ass furniture” so that the SSD readers are impressed.
And if you haven’t served in ANY capacity but are making comments about how fucked up the general looks, why don’t you head on down to the recruiter and sign up so that the military can benefit from your super skillz.
Yes, MG Williams’s shooting stance and demeanor is absolutely representative of the vast majority of the logistics officers and NCOs. That is not a reflection on him, but it is a reflection on the sad state of affairs of training on individual weapons within the United States Army outside of combat arms units (and, I would argue, inside of combat arms units).
I served – RVN 70-71.
So I guess I can comment on the photo. Abysmal springs to mind. Embarrassing is a solid contender. Disgusting works.
Every soldier, in every rank, in every MOS should be able to competently use the firearm they are assigned. A MG should have enough self respect, if nothing else, to KNOW what they are doing with their weapon.
Disgusting. Oh, I said that already.
Right on.
Little story…
Operation Just Cause – Dec 1989 – 75th Ranger Regt MSN, seize and hold Rio Hato and Torillos/Tocumen Airfields.
Fact: POW (aka PUC) control was conducted by COOKS!!!!!! They qualified, they went to ranges and they cooked!
It is a complete leadership failure up and down the chain of command at COSCOM. This is an excellent example of, “that’s the Infantry’s job!” Sorry, it’s everyone’s job! Go ask Jessica Lynch if she wished she had had some “real” weapons training.
In today’s military there should be no excuse for this. Even watching a James Yeager video would have help a little for Gods sake!
Yeager produces good informative videos. So does Clint Smith
“Go ask Jessica Lynch if she wished she had had some “real” weapons training.” You mean, training she could have used if she hadn’t broken all her limbs and had still been able to fight after the ambush was initiated? If you want to use the 507th as an example, learn the specifics so the analogy makes sense.
Can you point to the definitive truth as to what happened to Lynch and the rest? I’m pretty sure I’ve read about 15 different versions of the story by now.
Right now, he’s having the CSM read him the SSD comments section as the S3 stands by, while simultaneously dialing the PAO who published that picture.
Somewhere the Good Idea Fairy is being beaten.
I wonder if the MG has a sense of humor?
You can’t blame a Soldier who has been improperly trained for performing improperly.
The institution failed this Soldier by not properly training him.
His fellow members of the profession of arms also failed this Soldier by not correcting him.
So, SSD….. tell me how in the sweet loving Hell are you going to make a GO attend PMI training if junior officers are not there?
That should have happened repeatedly throughout his career.
…and letting his picture be published, subjecting him to ridicule.
Where the hell was someone with the knowledge, skill or balls to correct him?
Lest there be any doubt, I am being completely serious.
Hmmmm….maybe channeling Murray Gardner.
Ha Ha!
I thought the same thing the second I saw that photo.
Probably the only two here that get that reference.
Outstanding shooting General, yes sir Everything you do is remarkable
Funny comments. Yes marksmanship fundamentals are important but maybe to this soldier this is the way he shoots that m9 his best. Do you think if he shoots the text book perfect way and misses the target most of the time that its still a better way? You adapt and do whats best for you
Not a matter of opinion, a question of technique, or ‘shooters preference.’ This is not right anywhere – do not pass go, do not collect $200.
And enough of this garbage about ‘this soldier.’ He’s not a soldier. He’s a leader, and supposed to at least not suck at anything he’d ask of a subordinate.
The worst part of this is the fact that in the YEARS it’s taken him to make MG he didn’t once take 5 minutes on the ride out to the range to read 3-23.35. This shit isn’t rocket surgery, and this picture is a professional embarrassment for this jabroni and everyone at the range who saw this and didn’t have the stones to tell him he’s jacked up.
Everyone in the Army is a Soldier, some are leaders.
Maybe it’s what works best for him?
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
It’s fucking science. If you can manipulate the trigger without disturbing the alignment of the sights it will go where it is supposed to.
I think at this point we know enough about shooting a handgun to know he’s fucked up.
Imagine if we applied your dumbass logic to parachute Sammy.
Tell him to put his glasses on so he can see the sights and the target!
The question comes to mind:
What would the Marines say?
P. S. Some people also apparently just have a certain knack to it, or were just trained by wonderful instructors.
What would the Marines say?
Here is a video where they walk the talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU17hG4zZvw
However, the bottom line is, despite what appears to be less than optimal form and technique, MG Williams did qualify. Improvements in the form and technique can be achieved with training. Who will help him with that?
SSD…. SAVAGE! (Golf Clap)
BTW… they deleted it from their page.
John Wick shoots like this all the time. And he kills everyone. :0
At least he’s there, and working on a great m9 cheek weld! I shot an m9 once in 7 years as an 11B and sucked, so about the time I commissioned I took a class on my own dime with former 1/75 1SG and now I look like I know what I’m doing and I’ve been getting a perfect score at the pistol range every time. We all have different focuses on our field, he may not care much anymore. No matter what desk I’m behind I ensure I never stop being a dangerous man.
combatives should be enforced more with rear line units more than front line imo because in a conventional war the enemy isnt gonna send regular joe infantry behind our lines he is gonna send the meanest baddest mother truckers he has and rear line units need to be able to put up a fight
The converse of this is that our SOF guys will most likely be swarmed by the enemy’s version of the 69th Mess Kit Repair Detachment.
The Fighting 69!!!! Wait, that’s not right. 😉
Oh what a battle that would be.
I already picture ladels, forks, and spoons somehow creating casualties while ineffective fire completely missed their targets.
Oh, and fear the broken canteen.
Without seeing the score he shot, I’d hesitate to start talking shit about the man.
When I was on active duty, and running M9 qual ranges, I had a couple of folks whose eyesight was completely kerfuckety–Mostly older field grades, I might add. One of ’em was a female LTC nurse, whose technique looked just like the one the MG is displaying. She had to hold the pistol like that because that was the only position where her vision/glasses worked for her to see the sights and be able to align them on the target.
Crazy thing was, she actually shot an honest high expert, like that. So, without knowing more about the situation, I’m not sayin’ shit. What works, works, and if it don’t look cool, who gives a fuck? So long as he can defend himself effectively, what does it matter what he looks like?
Now, if he can’t qualify honestly, and couldn’t hit the side of a barn from the inside…? Well, that’s a different kettle of fish.
I think this is two separate issues. 1. The qual is antiquated and needs to be modernized to adequately assess the skills we want soldiers to have with a pistol. And 2. “what works, works” is great if it leads to tangible results. I will give you the weapon close bent elbow technique has been successfully employed by open class USPSA shooters. Now the reason it worked was the gun was comped. The technique was also executed with elbows up which allowed the shooter to drive the gun quicker between targets. With a non comped gun his hand position is not optimal for recoil management.
The point wasn’t to make fun of the General, the point was that this isn’t how this works. Unless you know for a fact that the General shoots this way due to a medical condition, don’t try to explain it away. This is not a good example of properly employing a pistol.
The point to me was that this is a case where there isn’t enough information present to make mocking this man a thing of honesty. I don’t know his score, we’re not shown the targets he was shooting at, if it was paper, and we also don’t know if he’s got some kind of medical issue with his eyesight.
So… Easy shot to take, but it sure as hell ain’t an honest one. The man’s a Major General, so until I see actual proof he’s an idiot, I’m gonna suggest that mocking him isn’t right. Show me the score sheet where he missed everything, or the paper target where his hits are all over the map, and I’ll happily chime in and say he’s worth mockery. Absent that? I’m not willing to–And, I think anyone who does is a fucking tool.
I’m sure if he just “looked right”, that would fix everything–Even if he wasn’t actually hitting shit downrange, right?
The point here was never to make fun of him. Rather, it is the perfect example of the Army’s marksmanship deficiencies. If a Major General isn’t doing it right, how can we expect a Private to do it right?
The photograph stands alone. It is obvious he is incorrectly using the pistol, regardless of what he scored. If what he is doing was right, and it isn’t, that is what would be taught to everyone. To state otherwise is dishonest.
“Right” means using the sights. If the man has bad vision, that may be where he needs to hold the pistol in order to use them properly. By the time you hit MG rank, you are lucky if you’ve still got anything close to the visual acuity of a teen-ager. Hell, if he’s wearing trifocals or something, that might explain the problem–If you look, he’s got that pistol held at about reading distance–Which is something I’ve seen before, in people his age.
I’m not saying he is right, I’m saying that without having the full information about this situation, you can’t say–So, holding him up as some kind of exemplar for poor training is both invalid, and unfair to the man that’s being mocked.
And, he is being mocked, make no mistake about it. I kind of expected better from this site.
Dude, all that’s wonderful, but that thumb folded over the other hand in a half attempt at a 1970s cops show cup and saucer grip? That’s not right. Let that thumb wiggle around a bit and it will affect the cycling of the slide, resulting in a malfunction. It may well also result in injury.
One more time; the Major General is not employing the weapon properly. There is a right and a wrong. When you defend the wrong it sends a message that you don’t know what you are talking about.
Ill bet the General’s email inbox will be full of some comedy gold from his peers tomorrow.
70% of the Army is on non deployable profiles and y’all are worried about a Logi GO who doesn’t know how to hold a pistol?
Stupid priorities is the Army’s problem.
They are?!?! 70%?!?! Wow a lot has changed…
It’s an organizational problem. The fallacy is that every NCO is a marksmanship trainer. The reality is that nearly all NCO’s have very little shooting skill, of greater concern is that nearly all of them cannot effectively impart shooting skill to other Soldiers, especially when they don’t have the skills themselves.
If the Army were serious about its shortgaps in combat shooting skill, it would address the problem effectively. First, in each brigade an organization should be created solely responsible for individual and crew served small arms training and maintenance. The Soldiers in these organizations should have their own career field, that develops them as small arms maintenance, small arms ammunition, small arms training instructors in one shop. These small arms professionals would be rated on how well they impart individual and crew served combat shooting skill to their assigned brigade and also on rated on the readiness of that brigades individual and crew served weapons. Such a career field in the organization would be led by Warrant officer responsible for accurately gathering information to determine small arms readiness in each brigade.
Small arms, ammunition and weapons accessories are increasingly complex, and units are saturated with these items. The lack of skill and institutional ignorance among the Army means that all of these weapons, ammunition, accessories, and training means that we have the most expensive small arms package with capabilities that most Soldiers are completely unable to take advantage of. Why? Because the Army continues to push a “good enough” philosophy, where any NCO is a trainer, and a 60% on the IWQ range means qualified for combat.
The force structure is the first problem to solve.
Look people! The real problem here is that the US Army Public Affairs paper pushers allowed such a photo to be put out there in the first place.
So, who’s the badass good guy who could help this man and his command?
I would love to help. Just had an issue once over the length of my hair with a GO post commander a few years back. Ended up being a training distractor for a couple of his Brigades for a day. (He actually never saw my hair, but his wife did… long story). While I think the I could definitely help, with his presentation, recoil management, accuracy and eventually speed. Gonna have to pass in an effort to not make his focus for the next week AR670-1.
I have always invited enablers to shoot, and would never turn down anyone seeking help.
This picture sums up the difference of what is wrong with the way the Army’s attempt at instilling “warrior ethos”. There was a reference that this GO was a logistics officer. That is great, but now he is technically a generalist and an expert in all things military. I have over a decade of infantry and SOF experience, doesn’t mean that I don’t know the in and out of contracting, the TLS program, working through lines of accounting, or managing maintenance. I learned logistic regulations and process in order to make mission. Similarly if mission requires, I have had to learn how to setup and run an airfield, plan for and support US, foreign, and contract aircraft. These aren’t infantry/SF tasks, but a professional soldier and leader is adaptable to make mission. Marksmanship is an army wide requirement.
SOF has a lot of resources: advanced marksmanship courses, preservation of the force (API/EXOS, THOR3), well established SOPs for an assortment of missions from you 7-8 field battle drills, to taking down linear targets or conducting VIs, and our medical/comms sustainment is well resourced with reach back to SMEs from the medical community. This is just how SOF resources the big four of soldiering:
1. Physical Fitness (Move)
2. Marksmanship (Shoot)
3. Battle Drills (Shoot, Move, Communicate)
4. Critical Common Skills (Communicate, Medicate)
However, every soldier and leader including the General above, is responsible for ensuring their soldiers possess a basic level of these big four skills. If as an SF guy I can do logs and contracting, a logs guy on a non linear battlefield needs to possess basic soldiers skills. The Army establishes a qual, which is the bare minimum for marksmanship, it has a min PT score which is again a minimum.
My problem is it is now 2017 and we have not changed these minimums. As stated above if the GO passed, he met the standard. A standard that has not changed after a decade of fighting a terrorist threat on a non linear battlefield. He may have passed, but I can safely say with that stance, he probably does not have a sub 1.5 second draw, or a sub 8 second El Pres. The reality is that his soldiers are at risk. There are logistics soldiers in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, as well as a dozen other countries, while not war zones are not safe enough for US forces to operate without defensive weapons. Again we are talking about skill with a Soldier’s personal defensive weapon system, not crushing plate racks at 25m with a makarov or making a 4km engagement w/ an ATGM (not basic shoot skills). Green on Blue is a reality, I have lost two friends to G on B on secure bases. The reality was even a sub second draw would’t have saved them, but the truth is also that more of my friends were not killed in those instances because they had the skill to finish the fight with their personal weapons.
In closing this stream of rambling- If you are a leader, assess the threats and build a training plan that will equip your soldiers with the level of marksmanship they will need to be able to survive possibly their worst day of their life. If you are soldier, always seek to better you ability to shoot (seek out civilian competition), move, communicate, medicate. And if you are a SOF guy, who considers your pistol a 100m gun and shoots a sub 2 sec bill drill (surprisingly only a small fraction of SOF guys), then after you finish tan ops, find some other Soldiers who don’t have your level resourcing and take the opportunity to make them and the Army better.
In all fairness spending half a billion dollars on a new pistol will probably fix the issues with pistol marksmanship in the military. It is definitely more beneficial that spending half a billion on pistol ammo, which equates to almost 5000 rds per existing weapon system in the military inventory, or to essentially tripling the STRAC allocation per pistol for the next decade. – I say this all in jest as I understand that this is not how logs works.
Well he is the perfect example of why the Army needs to spend some time and money focusing on marksmanship skills from the top to the bottom. Usually shooters will hold a pistol too close to their face like this due to non-corrected vision (near nearsightedness) while they attempt to focus on the front sight. His grip and body position are a result of poor training or an instructor who is too worried about insulting someone of a higher rank to fix what is severely broken.
If I were him I would take a course of private instruction from one of the top civilian firearms instructors in the USA such as Travis Haley, Rob Pincus, Gabe Suarez, Sonny Puzikus, or a whole slew of other shooting masters before setting foot on a military range in front of his men again. Trust me officers can usually afford these classes.
Kohima, Battle of the Admin Box. Cooks, Bottle washers, pen pushers and blanket stackers!
Id like to know what his honest score was though.
http://www.cascom.army.mil/about/ldrs/cg.htm
WTF is wrong w y’all? He shoots just like Michonne on the Walking Dead and she’s a badass! LMAO!
Lemme tell ya boys, it’s the same way at a major LE agency of immediate concern to me. Everyone above Lt. Has special range day once a year…
If he were in the Air Force that’d be pretty alright. Yep Airpower…
Next you’ll be telling me the MG was on the MHS selection board. XD
I think we need to see the target before final judgement….if he was dead-on bulls-eye every shot,… he may be on to something.
I’m glad this picture came out because it shines a big fat light on a system wide training deficiency, but one wonders what the PAO was thinking when they allowed this photo to be published. The PAO was either also so poorly trained that they didn’t see the problem with publishing the photo, or they just had no problem letting the General be embarrassed. Either way, not good.
Ft. Lee’s PAO team is mostly GS civilians if I remember correctly. They may not be shooters and may not know what they don’t know.
Is it not possible that we’re watching him demonstrate (on purpose) how not to shoot? Or that this is an action shot and he just came around a piece of cover or something?
Not wanting to even remotely appear to be making excuses for this clown, but doesn’t it look like he’s in some kind of a kneeling position? After looking at the photo awhile, it looks like he’s sort of weirdly hunched over like he’s somehow resting his hands on his knees or perhaps a low obstacle(?!!). Check out his overall body and head position…it just looks weird. Of course nothing could excuse the goofy grip issues.