Ugly Hombre
Member
Great thread and photo's thank you SOF VET. And thank you- and all who served in Vietnam for your service to our Republic.
Snubby in Vietnam
- Thread starter SF VET
- Start date
While in 1st ID, I acquired a few non-issued weapons during my tour. Two M2 carbines, 2 AK's, Ithaca model 37 shotgun, short barrel, hand guard and bayonet lug, and a Thompson M1A1 sub machinegun. The old man said we could carry anything we wanted, but outside the wire, M-16 and basic load were mandatory. Anyone who's been there knows you begrudged any extra ounce in that heat. So, those extras stayed at base camp, were used mainly for taking pictures to send home, especially the Thompson.
I had a wide assortment of firearms to have fun with, but when out with the Vietnamese, since I had a PRC 77 to carry, I just wore my issue 1911. I never saw a Thompson, but heard a story from my SFC companion that he had been in a unit where a trooper begged to carry a Thompson, so he did on one patrol, but had to carry a "basic load" and never left the wire with all that wt again. Here, talking a break with a counterpart, note only my 45 and all the mud. All the best, and stay safe.
SF VET
SF VET
Great pictures...made it feel like yesterday. We had access to just about anything, saw lots of grease guns and a few Thompsons, I relocated a sloppy Lt. of his .45 and pistol belt when he left it laying across the seat of the jeep he was driving, carried it for six months before selling it to another G.I. for 50 bucks. That was the only unauthorized firearm I wanted to pack around, it was with me all the time and probably saved my bacon at least once when all I did was show that I had it on under my jacket while being "mugged" by a group of unarmed Korean stevedores.
Guys in my outfit that had 38s had to bum ammo from the RRRforce, our supply didn’t have it. I think they also had 357 & 9mm. The Helicopter outfits also had more than 45acp. We only had 00 12g, we got 7.5s off Navy. They had it for recreational shooting.
LoboGunLeather
US Veteran
Lots of trading took place. Most Army units had at least one guy who was really good at scrounging things no one else could get. The "black market" was a seriously nasty business, but the "good old boys network" was a blessing for those of us not located in large base camps or headquarters areas.
One example that comes to mind now is beer. Beer was not terribly difficult to obtain, each soldier had a ration card allowing the purchase of either 4 cases of beer or 4 bottles of liquor monthly from PX Class 6 stores. Beer was $2.40 per case, most popular liquors were $1.80 to $1.90 per quart. The overwhelming problem was getting COLD BEER. Refrigeration was next to non-existent. The brass ordered CO-2 fire extinguishers kept under lock and key (a 6-pack in a sandbag, then discharge a CO-2 extinguisher into the sandbag, and you had a few chilled beers). Ice was non-existent in most outposts.
Burying your beer under the floor of an underground bunker, maybe 10 feet below ground level, resulted in luke-warm beer. There was always the danger of others locating your stash and leaving a pile of empty cans.
Best solution we ever found was a nearby Marine aviation unit. Always had a F4 Phantom jet fighter-bomber coming out of maintenance and needing a check ride. We could haul over 6 or 7 cases of canned beer, strap them into the bombardier-navigator seat, let a Marine pilot take them up to 35,000 feet or so for a half-hour. Bingo! Cold beer! The Marines kept half, we took half back to the hootch. Of course, at about $30,000 per hour for F4 operation I should add sincere thanks to the American taxpayers for chilling our $2.40 per case beers.
Still rambling on here. Beer seems to stimulate my memory cells.
Sistema1927
US Veteran
Vietnam was before my time, but we also had rationing in Korea. If one used up all of their ration on themselves, they would soon weigh 300 lbs and have serious lung/heart problems. For those who drank beer, the OB off base was as good as what you could get in the Px/Commisary, so the drunks didn't have to worry about running out of ration before the end of the month.
Funny thing was, cokes were rationed. What they sold on base was shipped in from San Francisco, but the local coke products were made with real cane sugar, just like ones in Mexico are today. As such, they were richer tasting, and made you wonder why the stuff shipped from the states was rationed.
Oh well, nobody has ever accused Uncle Sam of making sense.
Funny thing was, cokes were rationed. What they sold on base was shipped in from San Francisco, but the local coke products were made with real cane sugar, just like ones in Mexico are today. As such, they were richer tasting, and made you wonder why the stuff shipped from the states was rationed.
Oh well, nobody has ever accused Uncle Sam of making sense.
We got free beer, I forget want it was but it gathered up while we were in the boonies. We only got it when we came in to HQ. We got a big box called a Sundry Pack. Had cigarettes, chew, pipes, candy bars, and all sorts of everyday stuff. We did have a ration card for PX. Somehow we sold our ration of everything we didn’t need to “ good old boy network”. Like a small refrigerator, or electric fan, ect. Only guys at permanent bases could use that stuff, big enough to have 24/7 electric. I bought wrist watches and cameras to send home as gifts and hard booze. I only remember being in PX in Chui Lai but I’m sure I was in others.
Ziggy2525
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Slight thread hijack. I was at Casey in 74/75. Similar recollection to yours. I don’t remember anybody ever buying beer or coke in the PX. It was always in the ville. OB and Crown were really excellent beers. And the bottled Korean Cokes seemed better than the American ones.
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There was just the two of us, sometimes three, when I was a District Senior Advisor in a Vietnamese compound way deep in the Delta, for my second six months "in-country." A big box of useful things called a sundry pack, designed for 100 men in the field, had things like paper and envelopes, soap, snacks, other useful odds and ends for troops out in the field. but it also had Wilkinson Sword razor blades, and one of my treats, was to use a new one every day to shave. A pic of my bodyguard squad. Half were Ex-VC, who changed sides. Absolutely ruthless, fearless, and brutal. Second from left has a silenced XM 203, with the under barrel 40 mm.
All the best, and stay safe, SF VET
All the best, and stay safe, SF VET
An aside to my earlier post, regarding to the Ithaca Model 37. The guy who gave it to me found it buried in the mud at a fire support base. I cleaned it up, inside & out, but never fired it. Used to take it along if we were mounted. One day, one of the guys asked to borrow it, had to dispatch a rabid dog. A few minutes later, I heard the report, dog's gone. When he returned it, the guy said he had to rack it three times before it fired. Turned out the firing pin was broken. As the pin rotated in the bolt, it would intermittently line back up. Said a silent thanks I didn't have to find that out the hard way. Turned it in to the armorer, never to be seen again.
I still have a 33 beer mug on my shelf. Our shower/kitchen with the barrels for water. One day, higher cautioned us an inspection team was doing a surprise visit, and would check our water safety. Each drum took one vial of chlorine. To be sure, I dumped in 5 or 6, and after they left, Kahn, one of my two interpreters, took a shower, and come out with swollen eyes, and completely blond. He later stepped on a mine, and blew off his legs.
All the best,,, and stay safe. SV VET
All the best,,, and stay safe. SV VET
Local fine dining establishment. Would have a 33 beer in a glass with ice, which was full of river debris, or just drink it warm. I don't recall if this restaurant had a Grade A rating or not.
All the best, and stay safe, SF VET
All the best, and stay safe, SF VET
I will see if I can find the picture of real 33 Beer. That is Rolling Rock from the glass lined tanks of old Latrobe. Made with pure mountain spring water
not to be confused with Coors, the dishwater beer. I have pic of Long Neck Rolling Rocks being iced in helmet on tripod made with three M16s. Our guys in picture look pretty ragged and we captioned it” Miller time my ***”
Buddy of mine sent the beer. Hard to believe they made it without blowing up from heat & handling.
not to be confused with Coors, the dishwater beer. I have pic of Long Neck Rolling Rocks being iced in helmet on tripod made with three M16s. Our guys in picture look pretty ragged and we captioned it” Miller time my ***”
Buddy of mine sent the beer. Hard to believe they made it without blowing up from heat & handling.
The only 38's I saw in the Danang area were worn by the "White Mice" Vietnamese cops. The best beer of all in Vietnam was San Miguel, I was fortunate to know a Korean tug boat crew that had a ready supply on ice. I worked at Harbormaster as a radio operator/tug dispatcher and got invited down for a few parties. We got our canned beer cooler than ambient temp by wrapping it in burlap and pour gasoline on it, the gasoline evaporated and cooled the beer down to 70 degrees or so. The other way was to lower it down to the bottom of the huge freshwater tank located right near the Harbormaster office, the tank supplied Deep Water Piers with all their fresh water needs. That beer actually was pretty good, we sat up there drinking beer/smoking weed taking in the harbor scene many an evening.
The thing about San Miguel was it had to come from the P.I. to really be any good, the stuff that came out of Hong Kong was second rate by comparison.
While stationed on an LCU for awhile, it was a liveaboard. We learned early on that if a pallet load had its band broken it was fair game, we talked fork lift drivers to pop a band for a few cases of beer, then literally filled our lazerette with cases. We did that to get ahold of those "sundry packs" that lived in the center of a pallet of C-ration cases. Those packs were worth $100 on the black market, I loved the chewing tobacco.
The Army used LCUs to haul stuff that would never get five miles down the highway, stuff like 105mm howitzer pusher charges, beer, C-rations. We loaded right off the ammo ship, then hauled it in convoy up and down the coast where it was then choppered into fire bases. Beer and C-Rats were loaded from a ramp. From Danang we went as far North as Tan-Mai, as far South as Chu-Lai. We would leave the harbor, go out about a mile then cruise up and down the coast just out of hostile fire, we did get banged by a Dushka once, took a round through our conning tower. At the time we had 100 short ton of howitzer charges on deck.
The thing about San Miguel was it had to come from the P.I. to really be any good, the stuff that came out of Hong Kong was second rate by comparison.
While stationed on an LCU for awhile, it was a liveaboard. We learned early on that if a pallet load had its band broken it was fair game, we talked fork lift drivers to pop a band for a few cases of beer, then literally filled our lazerette with cases. We did that to get ahold of those "sundry packs" that lived in the center of a pallet of C-ration cases. Those packs were worth $100 on the black market, I loved the chewing tobacco.
The Army used LCUs to haul stuff that would never get five miles down the highway, stuff like 105mm howitzer pusher charges, beer, C-rations. We loaded right off the ammo ship, then hauled it in convoy up and down the coast where it was then choppered into fire bases. Beer and C-Rats were loaded from a ramp. From Danang we went as far North as Tan-Mai, as far South as Chu-Lai. We would leave the harbor, go out about a mile then cruise up and down the coast just out of hostile fire, we did get banged by a Dushka once, took a round through our conning tower. At the time we had 100 short ton of howitzer charges on deck.
Ranger514
Member
When I joined the NPS as a LE Ranger in the late 80s, the agency had been in the process of slowly upgrading and replacing older firearms. My first posting, I was issued an old Mod. 10. I replaced it with a 686 I bought with my first paycheck. We didn't have any M16A1s, since the upper echelons decided the more popular, heavily visited NPS units had higher priority than us hicks in the sticks. We eventually received Colt "Sporter" AR15s, and then, new Remington 870s to replace military surplus Winchester Mod. 12 Trench Guns (much to my disappointment.)
Later in my career, I assumed armorer duties in another unit which had half a dozen Vietnam-era M16A1s that showed considerable wear, but were completely serviceable. One of them was stamped GM Hydramatic Division. The others were all Colts. As far as I know, all of those rifles are still in the armory, although M4 carbines are now standard issue. The Hydramatic was issued to an officer who has since been promoted to Chief Ranger. He had the opportunity to exchange it for a more modern version, but chose to keep it.
Later in my career, I assumed armorer duties in another unit which had half a dozen Vietnam-era M16A1s that showed considerable wear, but were completely serviceable. One of them was stamped GM Hydramatic Division. The others were all Colts. As far as I know, all of those rifles are still in the armory, although M4 carbines are now standard issue. The Hydramatic was issued to an officer who has since been promoted to Chief Ranger. He had the opportunity to exchange it for a more modern version, but chose to keep it.
Triggernosis
Member
One for the AF guys, a Jolly Green rescue chopper, sitting on the pad at Tan Sahn Nhut, near Saigon.
I have ridden in the Navy versions of this in Africa. I love this aircraft.
All the best, and stay safe,,,, SF VET
Was that Jolly Green hauling PJ's?
BTW, good stuff, SF_Vet.
