Back in the Day: Iron Sights

Technology is cool and we're glad our fighting men and women have the best technology available. Hell we loved our ACOGs in Iraq, they were super accurate and man they could take a beating! In fact, most optics will generally improve your hit ratio...that is if you know how to shoot already. If you can't hit with iron sights you ought not to be utilizing an optic.True story, sometimes your optics as tough as nails as they are, can break, or have a cracked lens, or lose their zero. Iron sights are king. Back in our day, when men were men and OIF was only in its third iteration. Back before we caught Osama Bin Laden, in the early times when iPhones were not a dime a dozen and all the stupid shit that the new soldiers/airmen/sailors/Marines do wasn't caught on video for all the world to see (we totally would have been court-martialed, well maybe not court-martialed but definitely NJP'd or Article 15). Back then and from time immemorial we qualified with iron sights.Once you've demonstrated that you're not totally inept at making adjustments based on your wind calls and your distance with the tiny peep sight and front sight post, then, and ONLY then, should you be trusted with a high-speed piece of equipment. Things like ACOGs (RCOs) and EoTechs, or even one guy had a Leupold, those aren't cheap! You can't be handing those things out to privates and PFC's who couldn't hit the Euphrates if they jumped in it!All kidding aside, (but not really) qualifying with iron sights sets up the fundamentals for proper technique and develops habits for effective shooting in the future, optic or not. We know you can't help it either if your branch decides to make you qualify with optics, guess that's just the price you pay for not being born earlier, boot.