THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY,OCTOBER 6,2010
JUENEMANN|8A
VOLUME 123 ISSUE 35
Walk-on life fine for Jordan
Jordan Juenemann and Jeff Withey have formed an extremely close bond.
CAMPUS | 3A
Report: Crime stayed low at KU in 2009
Marlesa Roney, vice provost of Student Success, said she hoped students would continue to take their safety seriously in 2010.
CAMPUS16A
KU alumnus donation helps music
A $400,000 donation from alumnus James Zakoura to the School of Music will provide camps for kids, scholships, and outreach programs to benefit the school.
INDEX
Classifieds...7A
Crossword...4A
Cryptoquips...4A
Opinion...5A
Sports...8A
Sudoku...4A
TODAY'S WEATHER
FIRE AWAY
HIGH
Sunny
THURSDAY
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
—weather.com
All contents, unless stated otherwise. © 2010 The University Daily Kansan
Behind the scenes in boot camp
In the seventh week of basic training, privates at Fort Leonard Wood tackle heavy machine guns.
BY KELLY STRODA kstroda@kansan.com
Editor's note: For one week, Kansan reporter Kelly Stroda was embedded in Fort Leavenworth in Leavenworth, Kan., and Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, through a media in the military program. Read the blog describing her experiences at Kansan.com.
Gunshot after gunshot rings out. Bang. Bang. Bang.
The intensity is earsplitting without earplugs. When the noise stops, the silence feels deafening — until you hear the echo of gunshots a few seconds later.
This is all routine business at U.S. Weapons, Range 18 at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.
Learning to shoot machine guns is part of basic training for Army recruits. Each year, about 27,000 soldiers go through basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, according to its website.
POWERFUL KNOWL- EDGE
Last Wednesday, almost 100 privates took to the range for lessons on belt-fed machine guns — M240Bs and M249s. The weapons are 41 and 49 inches long, respectively.
Jeffery Woerth.
Knowing how to effectively use belt-fed machine guns, however, could be vital if a soldier is deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. Woerth said soldiers could be assigned as gunners on the top of Hum-vees or other military vehicles.
Even if those guns aren't the personal weapons each soldier may use in the future, it's important for privates to learn weapon basics, said 1st lt.
Pvt. Malik Steen said he enlisted to change the pace of his life. He said he wanted to do something other than sports, which held done most of his life. He had never fired a gun before joining the Army.
"It just vibrated against my shoulder. I expected more of a recoil, you know?"
Steen said when he was firing the guns, he wondered what it would be like to shoot guns in a "real war."
"It was fun," he said, "because that's badass."
GARRETT KIMLER Private, U.S. Army
Like Steen, Pvt. Garrett Kimler also hadn't shot a
arrett Kimler also hadn't shot a gun before entering the Army. He said even though the privates had practiced shooting M4s — small machine guns
— shooting the larger machine guns wasn't what he expected.
"It just vibrated against my shoulder," he said. "I expected more of a recoil, you know?"
tive eyewear and backpack canteens. This makes maneuvering more difficult, privates said. The vest and helmet alone weigh more than 35 pounds. Kilmer said he thought the bulletproof vest might have softened the power of the recoil.
Privates shoot machine guns while dressed in combat gear: bulletproof vests, helmets, utility belts, protec
Basic training is a 10-week program. It is split into three phases — red, white and blue.
SEE ARMY ON PAGE 3A
Soldiers learn the core values of the Army as well as tradition and ethics. Basic combat skills, teamwork and physical fitness are a focus. In this controlled environment, officers help transform the former civilians into soldiers.
HOW DOES BASIC TRAINING WORK?
RED PHASE: WEEKS 1-3
Weapons proficiency, physical fitness, skill development and self-discipline are emphasized in this phase. Officers control the environment less, as the soldiers are expected to show more responsibility. Hand-to-hand training and a 72-hour field training exercise are highlights.
WHITE PHASE: WEEKS 4-6
BLUE PHASE: WEEKS 7-10
tical training, soldier leadership, increased self-discipline and teamwork are the center of this phase. Soldiers use the skills they have learned in a 96-hour field training exercise. The blue phase stresses the soldier physically and mentally. At the end of this phase, there is a graduation ceremony.
Information gathered from Fort Leonard Wood's website
Kelly Stroda/KANSAN
Privates at Fort Lenoard Wood in Missouri receive instructions on how to use belt-fed machine guns last Wednesday. Some of the soldiers had never used a gun of any kind before joining the Army.
CULTURE
Legislation loopholes make K3 a legal substance
BY GARTH SEARS gsears@kansan.com
The problem with making K2 illegal was that the law is nearly impossible to enforce.
K2, a synthetic drug with compounds that affect the same brain receptors as marijuana, has been outlawed in 13 states. Kansas was the first to outlaw it in March.
But just as easily as legislators banned K2, chemicals made K3.
K3 has several variations and names, such as "Heaven Scent" or "Syn." The new batch of creations is legal and acts exactly as K2 did — they just use different chemical compounds than the ones that made K2 made illegal.
The K3 variations are also sold in several places around Missouri, including Columbia, where the University of Missouri is located. This is all in spite of the fact that K2 was made illegal on Aug. 28 in this state.
JWH-018, the compound used in K2, is currently illegal in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Tennessee.
Jill Wienke, a spokeswoman for the Columbia, Mo., Police Department said, "Visually, you can't tell the difference between the old K2 and the new stuff."
QUICK FACTS ABOUT K3
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY SPENCER WALSH/KANSAN
John W. Huffman, from Clemson University, developed the JWH compounds, named after his initials, while he researched the effect of marijuana. There are hundreds of the JWH compounds, and some respond more strongly to humans than others. K2 used a JWH compound, and most legal K3 blends do also.
She said if police come across a bag of white powder, they can test for cocaine, meth and heroin.
However, the police don't have a
test for K2.
"It's almost an unenforceable law," Wieneke said. "It's difficult to crack down on something you can't identify."
Although K3 is sold in Columbia, stores in Lawrence still might
hesitate to sell it, especially in light of how quickly authorities deal with K2 last year.
Food and Drug Administration agents raided Sacred Journey, 1103 Massachusetts St. in February.
The FDA confiscated the store's stock of K2 along with other herbs.
although K2 was legal at the time.
Sacred Journey's supplier, Oskaloosa-based Bouncing Bear Botanicals, also had its warehouse raided.
The company's owner, Jonathan Sloan, was arrested during that raid for possession of controlled subs
All charges against him were later dropped.Sgt. Matt Sarna of the Lawrence Police Department said that K2 hasn't been a problem since it was outlawed.
Regarding the ability to enforce
-
SEE K3 ON PAGE 3A
○