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Opinion
& Comment
Observations: A Drunken Soldier
by V. Mandosh
The proliferation of drug and alcohol addiction among youth
has raised fears over the effect it could have on soldiers
serving in the army. There is no need to describe what could
take place if a soldier takes hold of a gun when he is not in
control of his senses and his powers of discretion.
A prime example of the possible repercussions took place
recently at an IDF base. The military organ Bamachane
reports that an inebriated soldier entered his unit's firing
zone and began shooting a MAG (a long-range, rapid-fire
machine-gun) and a Galil machine-gun in every direction.
The incident took place several months ago at a base in the
Southern Command. While on duty in his base's armory, a
private brought seven bottles of wine and drank them all on
his own. Thoroughly intoxicated, he took a MAG with a supply
of ammunition and his own private-issue rifle with seven full
cartridges, abandoned the armory, climbed onto a forklift
parked nearby and began driving all around the base. He hit a
beverage machine causing over NIS 14,000 ($3,500) in damage.
Then the soldier went to the base's firing zone and drove
around it until the forklift stalled. Setting out on foot he
caught sight of the powerful gun he had brought along.
Several officers from the base arrived at the scene. Spotting
them, the accused began shooting in every direction, including
shots fired from the MAG in the direction of the officer's
patrol jeep, in which a captain was seated. Afterwards he
fired his Galil and the MAG at another officer, a major, who
had climbed into a guard tower at the edge of the firing zone
in an attempt to stop the shooting. When he had used up all of
the ammunition for the MAG, the soldier continued to shoot
indiscriminately with his own gun, and miraculously none of
the many soldiers and officers at the scene were injured. The
shooting spree stopped only when all of the soldier's
ammunition had been used up, and the other soldiers on hand
managed to place him under arrest.
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