I would love to see some of your Revolvers that were used or just carried during the War! SEMPER FI

I've seen marines using pencil barrel model 10s in the movies.

Standard issue for Army aviators were 4 inch standard (pencil) barrel Model 10s. As late as 1984 when I got out we still had a wide representation of them. Not exactly Viet Nam, but the same TO&E.
All the way from a few post WWII transitions and 5 screw no models to then current production. As I recall, the most common being 10-4 and 10-5, most did have diamond Magnas though. I am curious to know what became of these, most were fired about 50 rounds or less per year, cleaned and carried alot.
I think I still have an impression of one in a M4(?) holster in the ribs under my left arm. When they came out of the arms room, they stayed on your body 24/7.

My issued weapon was a M10 RB with the heavy barrel, There were several different wheelguns in the arms room; the above mentioned pencil barrels, a couple of Colt 38s, even a couple of Colt Detective Specials. I took my HB with me when my unit was colocated with the USAF at Ubon in Thailand. There the AF guys had M15s, some of which had 2 inch barrels. The armorer there did an action job on my M10 HB that is still the best I have ever had. I was a kid then and foolishly turned it in when I processed out of country, when I think of how many ways I could have "lost" it, I get sick even today. I am sure someone with more experience than I had now owns that gun.
All of the guns were pretty much off the shelf blue models. Looked like the Army just went to a gun shop and bought them. There were a couple of older revolvers that seemed to be parked. Some were marked US property or some such, but many were not.
I still have the Colt M1908 in .380 that my Dad carried through WWI and WWII. He bought it in 1913 when as a very young merchant marine officer he knew he was going to be called up(he was Canadian). He bought the gun in Boston, MA. Just went into a gun shop and bought the gun and 200 rounds of ammo and walked out with the stuff, try that today in MA!
He carried that gun all through the war on a Royal Canadian Navy Cruiser which was assigned to the African theater. He carried it ashore with a boarding party to attack a German Light Cruiser up some river in German West Africa, got into a fight with a German officer who tried to use his sword-really, brought a sword to a gunfight. Dad blocked a swing with the gun then shot the German and took him prisoner back to his ship. They became friends and corresponded between wars while each served a merchant marine officers. Come WWII and Dad got called up again (he had become a US citizen and joined the USNR), and packed the same gun, along with a Colt snub .38 special he acquired in 1930 all during WWII. Never used it except for shooting off the deck of the carrier he was assigned to. I inherited the guns when Dad passed away in the 70s. Both were somewhat the worse for the wear so I sent them to Colt to be refinshed, however dad had made me promise never to repair the gash on the trigger guard of the .380 which the German sword had inflicted. Still got them both. After WWII Dad and the German officer met again, still as merchant marine officers. In 1960 the German came to the US to visit Dad, and in 1964 when I was assigned to Frankfurt as an Army pilot I stayed with him and his family for a while. He passed away in 1982.
Every now and them I take out the guns and clean them, oil them up and put them away. For a while I even carried either of them as an off duty weapon, they both shot well, and carried nicely. I am saving them for my grandchildren via their parents, although not too soon I hope.

Nice story and great history on those guns. You have something to really be proud of.

Hard to say what kind of revolver this is, but it's probably a S&W and I thought the Forum would enjoy the photo. This is USAF pilot Capt. Clint Queen in Viet Nam in 1966 with his revolver.

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USAF pilot Capt. Clint Queen Vietnam 1966.jpg (37.7 KB, 12076 views)

The USAF issued mostly S&W 4" Model 15's to pilots. They could also carry personal weapons. Looks like Clint's gun is his personal gun, judging by the holster and belt.

Great pic, thanks for posting it! I inlarged the pic and the revolver is definitely a S&W RB K frame with diamond grips.

Second tour in Viet Nam as a chopper pilot, I carried M-10. First tour I was issued a Rand 45. Was "required" to wear issued personal weapon with WWII style hip holster. Needless to say, flying 12 - 14 - 16 hours a day the web gear with weapon was hung on the sliding seat armor. Got hit really bad doing LRRP resupplies. Me, peter pilot, gunner spent 3 days doing E&E. Crew chief wasn't so lucky. Had to respnd to report of survey. Lost 45 in crash and still had to pay $47.00 because I wasn't wearing it. Go figure. Wish I could buy 45s for 47 bucks now days.

AKAOV1MAN,
Great history for your pistols. They are heirlooms to pass on from generation to generation.

Here is a 15-2 that seller bought from a Vietnam era veteran.

__________________
John. SWCA #1586

Only pic I have for posting is this. I bought the S&W for twenty bucks from a chopper pilot (1970). I used to trade them .45acp ammo for the .38 they were issued. I could get all the .45 ammo I wanted but could not be issued a sidearm (11B, Spec4). I upgraded later as you can see. Short, last month in country, workin for the SP. Oh the greasegun cost me the princly sum of $45.00.

I got my 10 year old boy a S&W Mod. 15 this summer when he got out of school . It's an early 1950's and it look's like it had never been fired . It has three small spots where the bluing is gone . I gave it to him in an after market Navy air crew shoulder holster with the 13 round canvas cartridge holder . I know that my boy's Smith is not military issue but he got and still does get good history lesson's about the air crews that carried then in Vietnam . He just loves that 15 .

Not the same one -

I didn't have a personal (privately owned) sidearm but, I was issued a S&W Model 10-5, as a helicopter crewmember. I sadly, had to give it back after 10 1/2 months and 700 hrs. of flight time.
Fortunately, I never needed the Smith's services but, I sure shot the heck out of the country side with her.
I found this M10-5 (Circa 1966/67) a while ago and picked her up.

Bruce

Milt does WOPA mean anything to you ? I was an Army Aviator in Viet Nam . I also was issued a Rand .45 while I wanted for someone to sovenir to me a S&W .38 , I beleve it was a 10 but in those days , it was a Smith and that seemed like being given a Cadillac by the motor pool . But if the Army will give a beezillion dollar Cobra to my 20 year old , can't grow a mustache yet behind , who knows what they will issue .

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Idaho , Elmer and Milt

This world is getting smaller or something . 196 th LIB and 23rd InDiv (Americal) Sounds like like what one of my Blue Ghost old pals would just before an IG and we had too manty weapons . Welcome home , live long , shoot straight .

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Idaho , Elmer and Milt

I've posted pics of this S&W model 10-5 before, I bought it locally and was able to trace it's former owners. The revolver was brought back by "Jim", a US Army Captain who served with MACV in 1972.

The S&W was previously carried in 1966 by a friend of his, "Jay" who served in the 1st Airborne Brigade, 1st Cav Div, and Co. C., 5th Special Forces Group. Jay was wounded in the 1st battle of Lang Vei in May of 1967. He returned to RVN later in 1967 and served with Company B, 5th SFG until 1968. Jay returned again in 1971 served with MACV until 1972. Also, shown here is a photo that Jay sent me of 2 of his knives, one is a 5th SFG RVN Presentation Model and the other his regular issue knife along with his beret.

A special thanks to these two fellows and all our other service members.

__________________
Linda
SWCA #1965, SWHF #245

I was an armorer for an agency in San Francisco and the Chief, a retired Army LtCol brought in his handguns to be cleaned as he hadn't done it in years..he had a model 12 with a 4" barrel and I asked where he got it..told me he took it off a a dead VietCong..it was in so-so shape but was an old 5 screw..it must have been there when the French tired to tame that place..bet there were all kinds of stuff brought back have not seen the light of day in a long time..all5x

digi-shots,

IMHO, both of the knives shown are SF "presentation" knives. Some did have the brass fittings, rather than steel.

BTW, I carried a 1911A1 or a Browning HP, depending upon the situation, rather than an S&W.

A picture of my knife.

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SFSOG_Knife.jpg (47.5 KB, 1335 views)

Thanks for the shots of the SOGs .

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Idaho , Elmer and Milt

My best friend (now a retired physician) was an Army Flight Surgeon at Ban Me Thuot (up in the Central Highlands). He was also a helicopter pilot. He was issued a S&W .38 Special but didn't remember if it was a Model 10 or a Model 15....probably a M-10 since he was Army. He said he also carried a Colt .45 Auto on missions, plus two (2) M-16's. I asked him why he carried 2 M-16's and he said they were having so much trouble with them at that time, he checked out an extra one from the armory whenever he went on a mission.

Hello

I'm not certain if I should be posting in this topic, seeing as I was in the Service a bit later (1989-1993).

Anyway, here is a photo of my 1966/1967 era made Model 10-5. So revolvers similar to mine were issued to Aircrew?

This is one of my only two S&W Revolvers, and I have used this photo already like 26 times, sorry about that LOL.
Thank you
Mark

Hello again

This might be of a bit of interest. This is from a manual I have from my time in the Service in the late 1980's and early 1990's. The manual was printed in 1986.

Notice that the drawing of the revolver is of a WWII Era M&P with the commercial grips. Not exactly from a Vietnam era manual, but I thought it was a bit interesting.

Thanks
Mark

I served in the 196th Light Infantry Brigade in I Corps May 67 to May 68. I saw only three S&Ws that I can remember; a Model 15 Combat Masterpiece on the hip of an USAF Military Policeman (AP) in Danang, a Chiefs Special stainless given by my CO to our Army Chaplain for personal protection, and a decrepit Victory model rechambered to 38 Special.
I remember the Model 15 since I was astonished to find that most Airmen in Danang were not allowed to carry a weapon. The M16s were kept in a locked Conex container between the barracks and were to be issued only in emergencies. Only the APs were armed. I remember the Chiefs Special because I was assigned to bodyguard the Chaplain. The VC had made several attempts to kill him and had killed all of the local priests. I remember the Victory model because we had only 12 rounds of dirty old wadcutter ammo. The piece shot way low since the bullets were undersized for the .360 bore diameter of the Victory. Since the M16s were not working and the VC were not taking prisoners, we were desperate for anything
that would shoot. They did not usually issue revolvers for anyone in the Infantry in 67/68.All except the model15 were privately owned.

In Vietnam I traveled quite a bit. Somewhere in the delta, I came across a bunch of captured VC, hands tied, squatting on the gorund, waiting to be airlifted somewhere. There were several armed guards around, but the guy in charge was American, in civilian clothes, holding a clipboard, probably listing the prisoners. He had a Model 39 in a belt holster. Looked pretty good after all the parked 45s there.

One of my high school buddies went into the Army, through OCS, and qualified as a pilot on choppers and the Mohawk twin-engine observation aircraft. He carried an S&W in Nam, but I'm not sure if it was a Victory Model or more recent issue.

This is a pic of Lt. Edward B. Cribb in Vietnam. He's the tall guy with his back to the camera, inspecting a blown tire on his Mohawk. You can see his shoulder holster, and it's clearly a .38 revolver, with loops for extra ammo. Sadly for all of us who knew him, his wife and two children, Eddie was shot down by enemy ground fire in August, 1963. He ejected too close to the ground, and when he landed, his back broke in three places and he died an agonizing death. There's not a day go by that I don't think of my fallen friend, a true hero. Every Memorial day, I go to the Arizona Wall and salute his name.

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

The photo of the Mohawk brngs tears to my eyes. I flew them early on, when they carried ordinance (JOV1A). The Mohawk was the only Army AC to have ejection seats. They were the Martin-Baker type and were petty good. They were not the 0-0 seats that we have now, where air crew can eject literally on the deck and survive. IIRC there were only 2 Mohawks shot down in VN. They took a lot of damage and kept on flying. While I was flying them, the BG did not shoot at us because we could shoot back, with an impressive array of ordinance, later on when they were used as unarmed battfield intelligence AC, they took a lot of fire as the BG were quite quick to learn which AC were dangerous to them and which were not.
By the time they had disarmed the Mohawks I was back in country flying gunships, first the Hogs, then the Cobra. The BG would not pick a fight with a Cobra, so we trolled for them using a scout ship low and slow, and when Charlie or the VN started shooting at them we would come in from altitude and literally brighten their day.
We don't have any Mohawks left now, NOAA has a couple and the IDF have a few(they never throw anything away). Really neat aircraft, I kind of felt like a real fighter pilot, for a while anyway.

If you want to see a Mohawk in the flesh now, the Pima Air Museum near Tucson, Arizona has one. Impressive aircraft, and it took guts to fly one in unarmed condition over BG territory.

__________________
- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

Hi Marine1970,

My dad flew F-100 Super Sabres out of Phan Rang in 1966-1967. He flew over 400 missions and was shot down once. He carried a Smith and Wesson Model 15 "Combat Masterpiece" in a custom gunbelt he had made to wear with his G-suit before he left for Vietanm. He really liked his revolver. I've tried to find him a Model 15 for some time, now without success; so, I purchased a Model-67 (stainless version of the Model-15). He really likes it. My dad has several thousand photos from his tour, but he cannot find one with him wearing his revolver!

Best wishes,
Rushbeau

I figure desk driver was the surveying officer... :-)

but I could certainly be mistaken. At least they didn't charge you for the helicopter......

rayb

22 years in the green machins

Though I no longer have the article, I know I read that the famed "tunnel rats" carried and used some S&W revolvers with the barrels cut down to almost nothing. It was nearly a cylinder with a nub of a barrel....Perhaps someone can fill this idea out.....Zebulon

The QSPR was an off the shelf S&W Model 29-2that was modified by AAI Corp.

__________________
You do what you are.

I believe it was Gizamo that posted a picture of a snub nose .38 on a book that was used by a tunnel rat in days long gone by. There was also some documentation from the period in the picture.

Great picture and history presented, but somehow that thread went awry, and harsh words or something came about.

Maybe he will chime in again with the picture?

I carried a 4" M28 that was mailed to me by my dad with 2 boxes of shells. I sold it to my platoon sargeant when I left. Wish I had it now.

I was a Viet era AF vet but not in that country. I was trained and issued a S&W Model 15 at the SASS site I was stationed to. After an Airman shot himself in the leg playing quickdraw at another site they took them away and issued M16-A1s as we were with an Army detachment instead of AF M-16s.
I later did carry my own S&W Model 19 on deployments with a Combat Comm. Gp. It was probally not 100% legal but my NCOIC knew and approved.

There is a Mohawk at the Army Aviation Museum at Ft Rucker in AL, as well as a lot of other Army AC. I have gone there a couple of times. As I get older, I think of the guys who did not get the chance to do so. I help out at the local VA hospital whenever I can, but it is depressing(not nearly as much for me as for the poor guys who are living there, strike that, existing there).
I am taking a sabbatical from there for a while as there is one guy who keeps asking me to assist him in killing himself. He is a quad amputee, with not much face left, I am afraid I just might. There but for the grace of God..............
I would certainly rather have been killed than exist like some of those poor guys. Sorry if I am bumming some of you out, but I think we need to remind ourselves about those who not only gave all, but who are still doing it, decades later.
Whenever someone thanks me for my service, I thank them for allowing me to do so, and survive with only a few sctatches, and live to have another career and a half. The only thing I would change is to have had fewer WIA, of course that is beyond my pay grade.
If you would, remember those who came back, and are still suffering. Not that I would have anyone forget the KIAs or MIAs, but the suffering of the permanently disabled has to be witnessed to be believed.
Gunfighter five, out.

AKAOV1MAN,
Great story and history. Thanks for posting.
Make sure all the heirs know the full stories.

I saved this from the forum a few years back. Don't know the history.

That's interesting, a 1917 in Viet Nam.

All sorts of guns turn up in war zones. A friend of mine was clearing a bunker in 'Nam and found an 1861 British Enfield muzzleloading carbine, complete with sword bayonet. Someone stole it from him before he was able to ship it back home.

While I was in Kosovo, a Nazi marked MP40 was confiscated, and a number of early Mausers, including a few sporters, turned up.

In Afghanistan, there were lots of SMLEs, P14s and P17s, as well as Martini-Henrys, Sniders, and 1853, 1858 and 1861 Enfields.

__________________
John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

Can any one tell me the Model S&W Revolver issued to Naval Aviators in Vietnam.

I think they were S&W Mod. 10's . That is what we had , that and the 1911's . I was in from 1982 to 1988 and almost everything we had was WWII , Korea and Vietnam left overs .

Love to read these post..Keep em coming. I'm afraid the younger generation doesnt have the same appreciation for the history of these guns...I especially like to read about bring back guns

I spent six years in the NAVY trying to figure out how to bring back my 1911-A1 but I could never come up with anything that didn't have me sitting in leavenworth .

**** you wouldn't believe the hoops I jumped through to bring back a SXS shotgun from Italy mid 1970's. They even found the switchblade I hid in household bagage and took it.

Here's the type holster( Boyt) he (Navy Flyers)would have had for the 4" M&P

How'd you like that "Grease-Gun" ? I ave an uncle that served in Vietnam and he says it was a really reliable and worked under the harshest conditions.

It was totally a reliable and fun to shoot sub-machine gun. I never carried it in the field, it was meant more for crowd control at the rear base where, unless on bunker/tower/main gate post, all issued weapons were in the armory. Simple and effective.

Up until the late 80's The Engineer Company I was co-located with still issued the grease gun for their M-113 crew.

I thought you folks might like to see a few pictures of an early S&W Model 60 that ‘served’ in Viet Nam (VN) in most of 1967 and part of 1968. The gentleman who owns it was kind enough to let me take these pictures and make ‘sanitized’ scanned images of the paperwork he had to obtain to bring it back to the States when he departed (he used the term DEROS’d) VN. He told me that when he purchased the piece in late-1966 he had to give the gun store a copy of his orders sending him to VN, which he believed was forwarded on to S&W so they would allocate one of them (Model 60) to the store / him. Unfortunately the piece didn’t arrive before he left for VN, but it was sent to his parents. His mother wrapped it up in aluminum foil and enclosed it in a large box of oatmeal-raisin cookies and mailed it to him. It came through just like it was supposed to – he still remembers having a hard time deciding which he was happiest to get -- the Model 60 or the cookies!

In one of the pictures you’ll notice a small cloth bag, similar to the one he used to carry his spare ammo. According to him, at that time there weren’t any speedloaders or Bianchi speed strips available, so the bag was the easiest solution to carry his spare ammo. He said that he usually carried the Mod 60 in the upper right breast pocket of his fatigue shirt, with the spare ammo (in the cloth bag) in his left front pants pocket. On occasion (when, he said, he didn’t want to look too lumpy), he’d tuck it inside the waist-band of his pants, behind his right hip, where it would be covered by his fatigue shirt.

He said he never had occasion to ‘use’ it, but the one time when he thought he might, he felt woefully ‘undergunned’ – during TET in Jan / Feb 1968, when the 199th Infantry Brigade Main Base camp came under attack he was made platoon leader of a provisional rifle platoon made up of clerks, cooks and mechanics. He said there was not a rifle to be had anywhere – NObody was giving up a perfectly good rifle to a clueless Lieutenant!

This model 60 has an approximately 1/10th of an inch wide front sight with a correspondingly narrow rear sight channel. As can be seen in a couple of the pictures both the trigger and the hammer have a dark brown (or antique bronze) finish. He said that is the original finish, as the only changes he made to the piece were to use a ‘magic marker’ to try to blacken the serrations of the front sight and to add the Tyler T-Grip adapter, which was added well after his return to the U.S.

In so far as ammunition was concerned, he used the standard GI .38 Special M41 ball ammo. He did mention that he acquired some .38 Special tracer rounds, and he carried one round in the cylinder, positioned to be the last round fired so he’d know when he had run ‘dry’.

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	IMG_0560.jpg (64.2 KB, 1865 views)
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	RVN-Mod6002 -mod01.jpg (52.5 KB, 1741 views)

This has been a particularly enjoyable thread. Thanks guys!