<span style=”color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, ‘Times New Roman’, Times, serif; font-size: 12px;”>HAMMER: During the battle of Osan Soldiers of TF Smith talk about how their bazooka rounds “burned out against the thick Russian Armor without penetrating.” The narrative Fehrenbach gives us is the equipment was too old and the Russian armor to strong. Challenge this. Look at the steps required to put a bazooka into operation and the armor stats on a T-34 tank. What else could have caused the bazooka rounds to have no effect? What parallels can you draw between the Soldiers of TF Smith and our own Soldiers/Leaders?

</span>TF Smith had six 2.36 inch shoulder held anti-tank rocket launchers commonly known as the M9 and M9A1.
TF Smith used old inventories of M6A3 rocket ammunition from World War II. This type of ammunition is very sensitive to moisture. The ammunition was not stored properly and exposed to salt air/humid environments. This moisture exposure causes the rounds to deteriorate over time. The rounds deteriorated to the point where many  would not detonate on impact. If the rounds did detonate, they were not explosive enough to fully penetrate the almost three inches of armor on a T-34.
A two man team is required to operate each “bazooka.” It takes about a minute or two to put put the bazooka together and load it.  Depending on the the crew, 6 to 10 rounds could be fired in a minute. The maximum effective range of a bazooka is around 365m. These two man teams needed to be relatively close and exposed in order to fire effectively on a T-34 tank. Since soldiers were equipped with ineffective ammunition, they probably exposed themselves quite a bit while trying to engage T-34 tanks. The “ill-trained” soldiers of TF Smith probably had limited experience with the weapon system. With limited experience, its hard to believe the crews were very lethal (poor aim/many weapon malfunctions). Its also important to note that once the crew fires that first round, there position would be compromised. The T-34 has an 85mm cannon and two 7.62 DT machine guns with an effective range of 800m that could easily take out an AT crew in seconds. With that kind of firepower and armament, the TF Smith soldiers did not stand a chance.

One similarity we share with the TF Smith soldiers is the lack of training surrounding our dismounted anti-tank weapon systems. Unfortunately, the only way we are able to train our Javelin gunners is through a dated simulator. The simulator gives our soldiers a good familiarization but it does not replicate the experience of firing live rounds. Given our mission set, I believe we should focus on training with this weapon system more frequently.