Is Spectre the AC-130 gunship?


As an AF cop, I carried the Victory Model most, occasionally a .45 auto. The Combat Masterpiece was in short supply, and only officers and senior NCO's had them at my base in Denver. One officer carried his own K-38 then and another had a snub Colt .38 with hammer shroud.


No one seemed to care much about holsters, and I and another new guy just out of AP School were told to go downtown and buy holsters, as Supply was out of them. I wore mainly thumbsnap Threepersons styles from Bianchi and Safariland and a Jordan type made by a leather shop back home in Dallas, for the .45.


At a remote radar site in Newfoundland, we had only .45's, as the treaty said that Canada got all the gear when the USAF left. I swapped out some parts to get an all-Colt one, with wide hammer spur and all checkered surfaces that were grooved on later guns. We had a few Colts, but mainly Remington-Rands. No Ithacas. I was the only gun enthusiast in my unit at both bases. Relatively few USAF people seemed to be "into" guns. The exception was the Rod & Gun Club, where we had mainly hunters.


Sometimes, I wore my own Colt Gold Cup .45 bought in the BX at a nearby SAC base. But some grouch told the base commander, and we got orders to carry only issued sidearms and to wear holsters. I had sometimes just shoved the gun in my waistband while acting as desk sgt. and radar access door monitor. I wore my .45 in a Safariland holster, basket-stamped and lined, but have forgotten the model number and no longer have it. The revolver version was Model 29, and I do have several of those. I also had a USGI M-1916 .45 holster, and wore it as the spirit moved me.


BTW, I was one of the few AP's at my base in Denver who knew how to use the .45 auto. I had one that was a WWII Lend-Lease gun, bought in Denver. But I couldn't carry it on duty. My only other handgun then was a S&W .455 MK II that the British had sold as surplus. I paid $31.58 for that gun, with tax. I bought it at Gart Bros., I think, but could have been at Dave Cook, the other big gun store downtown.
Today, a .455 that nice (about 90 % condition) can easily cost $1200!


Military .38 ammo in WWII had a 158 grain metal jacket at a velocity of a nominal 860 FPS. There were also tracer rounds, for night signaling by downed aircrews. I think the tracers were manly issued to USN and USMC crews in the Pacific.


By the Vietnam war, we had mainly M-41 ball ammo that used 130 grain jacketed bullets at a pretty weak velocity. I had very little confidence in it. Our section NCOIC took unit funds and bought some Hi-Speed .38-44 ammo downtown, and I liked that much better. We didn't fire enough of it to loosen our guns, as we mainly qualified with commercial lead WC loads.


USMC embassy guards carried a variety of S&W .38's and many Ruger Speed-Six, all blue. Some aviation and MP units also had those Rugers. I think they were marked as US property and had lanyard rings.


Both round and sq. butt M&P/Model 10's have seen very extensive use with MP and aviation units. Some Army pilots had S&W snub .38's, some Airweights. Some also put M-16's in their helicopters or light scout planes.


I noticed in news photos that Prince Harry in Afghanistan wore a Browning 9mm, and carried a SAR-80 rifle as aa Apache pilot. Most aircrew can't carry rifles aboard their planes. If a fighter pilot bails out, his only weapons are his handgun and his knife.