I have 20 dwarves, not enough for a arsenal dwarf. I have two squads of dwarves with 5 and 4 dwarves, and both squads are assigned a uniform. The uniform consists of an individual choice melee weapon, and a full set of bronze armor. I do actually have all the bronze armor necessary and it is in plain sight. There is a barracks that overlaps the armor (and various melee weapons) with individual equipment and squad equipment enabled for both squads. Dwarves are willing to train, and willing to attack targets, but they will not pick up any equipment first.
Monkey wrench in the issue: This is a reclaim fort. I've had other pathing issues I've been able to solve involving ramps no longer working, and workshops needing to be destructed and remade. I don't see any connection between that problem and this one, and there are no ramps or different levels involved here.
An additional problem:After my first immigration wave, I created a 5 man squad. Only one dwarf in that squad was ever willing to actually train. The other dwarves would not train. no matter the squad shuffling, alert level, or other jobs assigned to the dwarves, they just acted like they were not in the military unless given a direct order. After my second immigration wave I created another 5 person squad and the dwarves on that squad work perfectly fine (except for the equipment problem I am asking about above). I can shuffle dwarves back and fourth between the two squads all I want, but it's the same dwarves who refuse to do military work no matter what squad they are in, and the dwarves that DO do military work will do it no matter the squad they are in.
It's a rather annoying problem but the initial equipment problem is by far more important. If I have 4 dwarves who refuse to be in the military I can deal with that and assign other dwarves.
Thanks a lot guys