Soldier bitches. Media goes wild.

Due to the lack of a television I had completely missed the media burp caused by Corporal Daniel Beaulieu's complaints about personal equipment issued to Canadian troops in Afghanistan. Scott Taylor, however, caught it and is a little incredulous over the corporal's claims.

Then came the allegation from a serving soldier that Canadian troops in Afghanistan are poorly equipped. Anxious as always for any new angle on the Afghan debate, the media eagerly gave voice to the concerns expressed by Cpl. Daniel Beaulieu.

His resume seemed very impressive: An 11-year veteran with the Royal 22nd Regiment, Beaulieu served a tour in Bosnia and has just returned to Valcartier from his second tour in Afghanistan. This experienced rifleman’s memos of complaint had fallen on deaf ears within the chain of command, so he decided to take his message to the local TV station.

To a civilian, Beaulieu’s comments no doubt sounded pretty scandalous. According to this corporal, our contingent is equipped for "peacekeeping, not war-fighting" and to argue his case, he listed several shortcomings.

Alright so, if you missed this little fur-ball, that's the set up. Taylor, viewing Beaulieu's complaints from a more accurate angle, then begins to ask the questions that should have been asked by the daily news media types who purport to "know" the beat they're covering.

Beaulieu pointed out that the current protective vests issued to our soldiers only have pouches to hold four magazines of C-7 rifle ammunition. Add to this the 20 rounds of ammunition in the magazine already on the weapon, and our soldiers carry into combat 100 preloaded 5.56 calibre bullets. According to Beaulieu, this should be increased to 15 spare magazines or a total of 320 rounds of ammo.

Gasp!

Nobody thought to ask this combat veteran just how he planned to carry the extra 35 pounds of weight this would add to an average soldier’s current full kit load of nearly 80 pounds. Nor did anybody inquire if there has been a single instance in Canada’s six-year military experience in Afghanistan where our front-line troops have been forced to break contact with the enemy as a result of an ammunition shortage.

During Beaulieu’s seven-month tour in Kandahar, there were no prolonged firefights with insurgents. The only casualties suffered in the Van Doo battle group came as a result of roadside bombs. Given the nature of this threat, I can’t imagine anyone in their right mind wanting to travel around with 300 bullets strapped to their chest.

The one common thing every infantryman tries to do is reduce the weight of the load. I'll admit that the one thing that I always wanted more of was ammunition. That had little to do with reality, however. I have come close to running out of ammunition, but never got to the point of having to throw rocks. The real reason for wanting as much ammunition as I could carry had a lot more to do with feeling good than real necessity. Besides the already very good points made by Taylor is another point: How much does Beaulieu think the 20 inch barrel of a C7 can take?

Beaulieu’s second gripe about bullets was that infantry soldiers are only issued with one spare clip of ammo for their side arms. He felt they should be issued with at least two spare magazines for their pistols.

As side arms are intended for use only as an emergency backup or in extremely close-quarters fighting, I cannot imagine a scenario to date in Afghanistan where any of our soldiers would have expended one clip, let alone three, of pistol ammo.

Perhaps it is the standard fear of all infantrymen that Beaulieu is expressing. While the ammunition supply might become a concern for some, for more it is the possibility that a stoppage will render one's rifle useless - right in the middle of a firefight. The existence of a 9mm pistol doesn't offer much except to act as a placebo. A reporter might have asked Beaulieu how often he actually drew his pistol and why.

Complaint No. 3 was that the service-issue holsters made the pistol too accessible. Sometimes the handguns would fall out unexpectedly, and Beaulieu stated the obvious by saying this might cause an injury. To date, we have had three Canadian soldiers killed and several wounded by accidental weapon discharges, but these all involved C-7 rifles, or in one case a shotgun — not handguns. As one military spokesman explained in the wake of Beaulieu’s public charges, the pistol has to be able to come out of the holster easily — that’s the way they’re designed.

Indeed, and Beaulieu's complaint flies right in the face of the statement made by Captain Dale MacPherson who, after returning from Afghanistan wrote that pistols needed to be mounted in quick-draw holsters.

The last big revelation from Beaulieu was that the desert boots were substandard. Sure they may be state-of-the-art footwear that retail at around $300 a pair, but after Beaulieu went on long patrols, his feet hurt. I will pause here for a moment to let everyone who once served in the infantry roll their eyes skyward in disbelief.

His feet hurt... Welcome to the infantry corporal. What Corporal Beaulieu hasn't figured out, and no reporter on the military beat nailed him on, is that using Beaulieu's suggested increase ammunition load and increasing his overall load into the 115 lb range, his feet are going to hurt even more.

Taylor ends his assessment with a stark comparison.

If anyone wants to see ill-equipped soldiers, perhaps the media should focus on the ragtag Afghan National Army, which we are supposedly committed to turn into a self-sustaining military force by 2011.

He generously avoided saying anything more about Beaulieu's complaints. Allow me.

The media outlets that thought Beaulieu's complaints were worth repeating outside the confines of the Canadian Forces chain of command have fallen into a trap. Soldiers bitch. It goes with the lifestyle. If anyone had taken the time to actually look into the facts, they might have found out that Beaulieu never once came to a point of exhausting the 100 rounds of ammunition he was carrying during any engagement.

I have no reason to suspect that Corporal Beaulieu is any kind of problem to his unit, but given the attrition rate in the infantry, promotion can be fairly steady for those who earn it. When I saw that he was still a corporal after 11 years service I wondered why.