When I was on active duty with the U.S. Army (1993-2000) I was military intelligence. More specifically I was a 96R - Ground Systems Surveillance Systems Operator. I worked mostly with man-portable radars and REMBASS (Remote Monitered Battlefield Sensor Sytem). We worked in three and four man teams and usually got attached to other units. My team usually went to the division (10th Mountain Division) aviation and artillery elements for field problems and rotations down to Fort Polk, Louisiana.
Since we were often on our own we were actually had a pretty heavy selection of firepower. Two of us had M16A2 (in 98 we got M4 carbines), one of the team members had the M16/M203 and the 4th man had the M249 SAW. For a brief time we were all issued the M9 in addition to the other weapons. Then after a few months the Army decided only the SAW gunner needed the M9. A few months after that the Army took the M9's away and never gave them back. At least not as of 02/14/2000 - that was my ETS or end of service date.
So that's my experience with pistols in the Army. Well I was a tanker in the Idaho Army National Guard (88-93) and we were issued the M1911A1 until 92 when we got the M9. Before we switched over to the M1 tank we were still using the M3A1 "Grease Gun", but after we switched to the M1 from the M60A3 we turned in the Grease Guns and got one M16 per tank. We were expected to take the M240 that the loader could fire from his position if we had to abandon the tank. So between the M240, pistols and the M16 I guess the Army thought we would be okay.
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