[NathanielBaking]

Safety guys always ruin the fun. I was in the Marine Corps and every time we got to test some new piece of gear the safety officer was like "No, you can't live fire it off the flight deck of the ship" or "No, not here, that village is down wind of the dust you will kick up when it goes off." No, that has a kill distance of 6 miles, you have to fire it into a hill." Blah, blah, blah.

So after I got out I joined the National Guard.

[RandomThoughts3]

I may or may not be aware of hull damage being caused or not caused by a rifle being fired from the flight deck of a ship. My point being, your safety officer had a point.

[dctoedt]

> hull damage being caused or not caused by a rifle being fired from the flight deck of a ship

How did that happen? Our MarDet would occasionally do live-fire training off the flight deck (CVN-65); they naturally pointed their weapons away from the ship ....

Or are you talking about hitting the hull of a different ship, e.g., one of the tin cans in plane guard, or alongside during an UNREP? Seems like that would ... get noticed by a lot of folks.

[trelane]

I think they know that. I read their comment as sarcastic.

[ooterness]

I am reminded of the "Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest son of a bitch in space" speech from Mass Effect 2.

https://youtu.be/hLpgxry542M?feature=shared

[elzbardico]

Compton is a bitch for astronauts too.

[talldayo]

It's all fun and games until you walk in front of a live AESA radar and sterilize yourself.

[khorne]

Save $300 on a vasectomy.

[onemoresoop]

I'm guessing there are other adverse effects beside sterilizing.

[SXX]

Is it scientifically proven though? If it that powerful wouldn't it cook your brain as well?

[archgoon]

> that village is down wind of the dust you will kick up when it goes off.

I'm always happy to hear that there are people saying these sorts of things in the military. I'm sorry it wasn't fun at the time, but the Safety Officer really was looking out for you. You really don't want to be the unexpected cautionary tale, like Bob.

[gumby]

> I was in the Marine Corps and every time we got to test some new piece of gear the safety officer was like "No, you can't live fire...

I thought the whole point of the Marines was to cause maximal amounts of damage. Are you implying there is a constraint on that?

But now I understand why the marines hate the navy: I had a buddy who'd been in the navy and he said they kept the kids busy by cleaning and painting everything but frequently they'd let 'em blow off steam by tossing cardboard boxes and stuff off the end the flight deck and shooting at them with the 50 cal machine guns.

We were good friends, attended MIT together, but if I thought the Navy would take many people like him I'd doubt their ability to fight a war. He was only in the navy because it would pay for school and AFAIK he managed to avoid getting any rank advancement at all. MIT requires, or used to, a lot of all nighters and he once said "I'm probably only sane with these all nighters because I did so much extra sleeping in the navy"

[afterburner]

> I thought the whole point of the Marines was to cause maximal amounts of damage.

I thought their point was to expose themselves to maximal amounts of damage.

[robertlagrant]

> But now I understand why the marines hate the navy: I had a buddy who'd been in the navy and he said they kept the kids busy by cleaning and painting everything but frequently they'd let 'em blow off steam by tossing cardboard boxes and stuff off the end the flight deck and shooting at them with the 50 cal machine guns.

If anything this should be why the taxpayer doesn't like the navy.