Honestly, I can't say I disagree with your instructor. There are
only three places where a weapon should be: in your possession, in
your buddy's possession, or in the armskote. Even if you can't
sling the SAW, the least you could do is put it at your feet or
leave it with someone else. For all you know you may end up
forgetting about the SAW once you're done servicing the BX.
And you should be all the more careful in a foreign country. One of
my men lost his SAR 21 in Thailand just because he didn't sling it
and was too shagged out to realise that it wasn't with him.
Needless to say, everyone was in a state of near-panic (we were
doing ATEC in Thailand) until the weapon was found.
And yeah, I gave him pure hell when we returned to camp.
