We had a young LT in Cambodia. They were on a so called peace keeping mission and all they had to arm themselves were a couple of 9 pistols and their Steyers, I think they might have had a couple of Mag 58's too, but very little ammunition.
Anyway, nearly every night their perimeter would be probed by unkown's and a shit load of fire would be incoming including rockets etc.
The LT put in his report and requested additional weapons. The answer was, 'There is no know enemy in that area, so you don't need the weapons.'. After about the fifth time they went into the local black market and purchased M60's, Grenades, RPG's, etc.
During the day they were locked in a trunk and they just kept their normal weapons, and when the shit hit the fan they would break out the heavy stuff and fight back. Of course there were never any bodies, but blood trails in the morning.
This went on for a couple of months. They even had a couple of higher ranks visit when the shit went down and they said nothing when the weapons were pulled out, and they reported heavy fire when they went back.
All this time they reported every day during their sitrep that heavy fire happened at night.
Finally after a few months they sent out a Major and a MP Staff Sergeant to investigate. Sure enough that night the firefight began, it got so heavy that they broke out the trunk and even the Major and SSGT got involved.
The Major and the SSGT went home the next day.
Two weeks later the Platoon Commander and the Platoon SGT as well as the Section Commander a CPL were replaced and they were recalled to Phnom Penh and were charged with procuring black market weapons. It was not the Major that visited, but the MP SSGT who was chasing his promotion to Warrant Officer.
The LT chose Court Martial and was busted to 2LT, a rank that only existed in our reserve forces and he was posted to a shit kicker unit for three years. The Platoon SGT who was actually a SSGT chose to take the charge and he was found guilty and was fined and told he would never make Warrant Officer. The Section Commander took the charge and was fined and told he would not make Sergeant. They both discharged. The LT however made it all the way to Colonel.
The MP never made Warrant Officer.
The whole thing of it, yeah he did the wrong thing, but if they had not procured those weapons there would have been lives lost.
That guy who got caught out because of his own helmet cam. Maybe if he did not mention the Geneva Convention and pleaded ignorant.
