Pictures of Romanian Soldiers, Found on Dragunov.net

Well that's the thing.
He was not infantryman... he was a mountain hunter ... he like to think he's special

Is it possible he means Pistol Makarov?

not really ... Romanian Army used the PM (Pistol Mitraliera) to designate the AKM.

Actually more often is used: PM for 'pusca mitraliera' (LMG) and pm for 'pistol mityraliera'.

Iama

PM Mod-68. is definetly the AKM.

False. In our platoon (even if when "marching" exercises were commanded we carried ONLY the PM) everyone had to carry its own gear , that is you had 2 guys for the ATG, 1 PSL , 1-2 MG and these were carried along with the standard gear. There were at least 12-15 applications (war games - year 1996-1997) and there was no discussion at all : gear + role. You didn't walked in the park with a PSL looking for birds. Normal standards (in better armies) will dictate that a sniper would carry a handgun but that was not the case, only officers had that. PM was defense only and remember that mountain troops had that special AK without the wooden butt. The only annoying thing was the fact that I had to carry the 2 clips for the AK as well, and, of course , the length of the PSL. The MG and ATG were heavier so I was quite happy, sort of speak. I did not carried grenades though.
PS: why would one carry dozen weapons just to look like Rambo? You know how it is, you picked it up, you will carry it. I don't have to say to you what a 70 km march from Sf. Gheorghe to Rentea is. And trust me, you didn't wanted to be Rambo. Of course I cheated, I was not the only one.There were trucks behind, you know, just in case. In fact, marching was the easy thing because it started at midnight, by 8 AM we had almost half distance done and there began the mountain.
@tomcat1974 : yes, mountain troops are special and military service was special. We did not worked the field , you know Besides, much more to see/do in the mountains than on the plains.

This post has been edited by Zayets on February 14, 2007 10:39 am

I was drafted at infantry in 2000.

The OOB in romanian platoon was 3 squads (grupe).
Each squad was lead by a sergeant, the platoon comanded by lieutnant.

OOB of squad was:
- squad comander (sergeant)
- AG-ist (soldier with RPG) + submachine gun (pistol-mitraliera)
- LMG (puscas-mitralior)
- PSL ("sniper")
- 5 to 7 soldiers equiped with submachine-guns (pistolari)
"Pistolari" no. 2 and no. 4 was carrying ammo for RPG. No. 2 was carrying 3 rounds for RPG and no. 4 2 rounds for RPG.

There was no machine gun to the platoon.

In case of war aditional AG40 was given to one of the "pistolari".

In trainings each man used his own weapon, there was no interchanging of weapons.

There was no pistols at RPG soldier or PSL (sniper).

PSL-ist (sniper) had an aditional axe so he can chop tree-branches for cammo.

The LMG soldier (puscas-mitralior) had no bayonet, all other guys use to have bayonets.

All soldiers had offensive and defensive grenades, AT and AP land mines and AT magnetic mines, TNT charges (trotil), napalm grenades.

About PSAL (or PSL) is a very accurate weapon, i used to "kill" the machine-gun target at 1.200 m with single shot. (I was LMG gunner, but we all was trained to fire all infantry weapons, including RPG).

Let's dont forget that infantry use and need different tactics and weaponry on the field in comparison with special ops troops (antitero troops).

I think the axe is better than a AK, especially on mountain troops(for the sniper I mean, can chop branches and stuff to build your cover).Somehow I doubt one can "kill" targets at 1.200 m with the PSL. I was drafted in '96. I also find extremely odd no AK to the RPG carrier.

PS: next time when I'll be home I will look for my "carnet" there must be at least the serial from the AK.

This post has been edited by Zayets on April 10, 2007 09:50 am

Zayets, thank u for calling m a liar!

Zayets, thank u for calling m a liar!

Man, you do have a problem.
PS:Even the last line at 400 m was hard to spot, not to mention hitting somewhere to put it down.

This post has been edited by Zayets on April 10, 2007 12:16 pm

Calm down, there is no need to get personal over this.

Dude, if i'm telling u that i shot down "tinta tun fara recul" (recoilles gun)
at 700 m with LMG (pusca-mitaliera) with only one bullet, what would u say?

I dont take personally ur doubts, but i know what i was able to do with a proper gun in my hand.

At 400 m I was able to shoot down "tinta alergand" with 1-2 bullets with AKM.

Ok, i wasnt good at all at throwing hand grenades and shooting with TT pistol

I am partially agree with u that is not easy to see or to shoot to "kill" a target at 400 m, but with good training, one is able to do shootings like this.

In my platoon, all LMG soldiers (puscasi-mitraliori) were able to "kill" a target at 700 m with 1-2 bullets. The only one who needed 3-4 bullets at this distance was a guy who use to had glasses.
Also, our heavy infantry platoon wasn't able to shoot a target at 400 m with AKM, but they lack proper training with infantry weapons, they were focused on 82 mm mortars or AG9.

This post has been edited by 21 inf on April 10, 2007 02:18 pm

Hallo 21 inf,

what is: "tinta alergand" and why would you shoot at a "tinta tun fara recul" ??

Hitting a man sized target at 100, 200, 300, 400 meters is standard for Irish Army soldiers armed with the Austrian Steyr AUG with .223 round.

Snipers get trained on bolt action weapons to targets out to 1000+, and the Rangers are using Barret Light 50 Cal rifles to much greater distances.

Irish soldiers are trained on the rifle first, if you cant shoot with this, then you dont get to play with the bigger toys, or do any weapons course.

Pistols are reserved for Officers, NCO's, Drivers, but the Steyr is optional as well.

All soldiers have to pass their rifle shooting test yearly regardless of wether in a Mortar Platoon, Artillery, Air Defence, Anti-tank etc.. etc...

Kevin in Deva.

Hi Kevin!

This is standard training for regular romanian infantry:

- first shooting is to calibrate weapon. Each soldier fires with his own own weapon 3 bullets on a specific target and according with the holes on target one officer calibrates the weapon.
- after that their is specific shooting session on wich every soldier has to shoot all weapons with wich the infantry squad has: AKM, LMG, PSL (sniper rifle), RPG. All in one session.
- we had one session to shoot with TT pistol on electronic target (actually we was not firing life ammo with it).

I was also trained to fire 14.5 mm and 7.62 mm machine-guns from TAB (TAB is armored amfibious transporter for infantry squad).
The 14.5 mm machine-gun is mainly for AA use, and 7.62 mm machine-gun is used for ground targets.

"Tinta alergand" is a target shaped as a man runing on the field.
"Tinta tun fara recul" is a target wich represents a recoiless gun with it's crew.
I shooted at recoiless gun target cos i was manning the LMG of my squad, prior when i became sergeant and squad leader, when i had to change my LMG with a AKM.
LMG is destinated to destroy the living force of the enemy and it's main weapons (for example machine guns, RPG's and so on). LMG shoots on a sector of fire and in barage fire, the other infantry men are shooting only on "direction" of fire, not in sectors, and in the barage fire.

The sniper was shooting at machine-gun target cos he has also to destroy some specific targets as machine-gun crews, enemy officers and so on. He also have sectors of fire.

Of course also in romanian army soldiers has to pass the fire test with all weapons of the platoon, on day light or by night, regardless the weather; our former heavy infantry platoon use to have different results on firing range cos their officers.
We were just better trained and motivated than the others.

When i was LMG gunner I was also replacement (i took comand) for squad leader if he was killed or wounded in battle.
When we was transported on TAB i was also asigned machine-gunner on the turret.
This was standard in infantry.

I remember the stupid training for "tank hunting": being in a foxhole you wait until the tank comes at 5-6 m (the blind zone" of the tank crew) and then you must try to put 2 hand grenades bouned by a rope around the gun barrel. I wonder in a real combat situation how efficient this suicidal act can be and what kind of damages will inflict to the gun barrel.
Being student (TR-ist) and volunteer at paratroops (Caracal) I had a shooting session with "Carpati" pistol, target at 25m. After 4 magazines, all I can say that the target was still intact!
Unfortunately, the Dragunov sniper rifle was the privilege of lieutnants, we soldiers being just spectators...
Anyway, being an elite regiment, I don't remember to see any sniper rifle in the soldier's hands. This was in 1985-86, maybe today the situation is different.