Quote:
Originally Posted by MaineProbation
My understanding is that General LeMay disliked the M1911A1 and preferred revolvers. He was commanding officer of SAC from its inception around 1947 until 1957 and then became Chief of Staff until 1965. AF personnel either loved him or hated him as did many politicians. However, when the flak started flying I bet anyone would prefer him driving left seat. I suspect he was personally involved in the Aircrewman (aluminum snub-nose revolvers for air crews) program, choice for the Model 15 for Air Police, and eventually the Model 56 for air crews, missile crews, etc.
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I think you are correct. I read that somewhere, years ago. During my service, one of the range people told me that the general was dismayed with handgun scores by USAF personnel, and thought that the wide target hammer and trigger on the issued M-15 would raise scores. I couldn't tell that it did. What was needed was more training and a better impression of the value of a sidearm on those who carried them.
Actually, the wide trigger made double-action fire harder.
I have to say that few airmen whom I knew were really very interested in handguns. Some were, but we were exceptions. But most managed to qualify at at least the Marksman level.
Besides the Combat Masterpiece, we had a boatload of older .38's, most being Victory Models bummed from the Navy. There were a few Colts, though. Some were commercial Official Police models, the rest the rough-finished Commando model. Investigators carried Cobras with shrouded hammers on the base where I spent most of my tour.
We still had a few .45 autos, and I often chose to carry one. Jeff Cooper had already convinced me of the merits of that gun. Actually, when I was stationed in Newfoundland, we had ONLY .45 autos, and M-2 carbines. They had a treaty that said that when the US abandoned the base, the Canadians got to keep our stuff. So, they never sent M-16's or .38's up there.
My auxiliary AP's, who would have helped us if an attack had come, were so gun naive that most had fired only the carbine, in basic training. In many cases, that had been years before. I found that many of these augmentees could barely recall how to load and fire the weapons! Thankfully, the Cold War never turned hot, and we never had an attack by Spetnaz troops from off a Soviet submarine. I used to be concerned that it might happen. (I was then at a remote radar site on a coastline.)
For what it's worth, I sometimes wore my own Colt Gold Cup .45 on duty in Canada. Then, some officer who went by the regs told the colonel, and I went back to a M-1911A-1, all Colt -made. The colonel wasn't too wigged out over it. Just told me to stop carrying a personal gun, and to use an issued holster instead of the Border Patrol style rig that I had brought from home.
T-Star