Combat Masterpiece (Vietnam era)

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rushbeau

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Hi folks,

My dad flew F-100 Super Sabres in South Vietnam in 1966-1967. He flew 426 missions and was shot down once. He carried a Smith and Wesson Combat Masterpiece (38 Special) in a custom gunbelt and holster, and he is almost sure it had a three-inch barrel. He used his revolver to defend himself while he waited for the rescue helo to recover him after he was shot down.

Some of you are serious collectors with a wealth of knowledge, and I could use your help. Could any of you confirm the existance of the 3" Combat Masterpiece (1965-1967)? My dad really liked his revolver, and I would like to give him one if I could find one.

Thank you for your help.

Happy Independence Day to my fellow American Citizens!
Rushbeau
 
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Hi folks,

My dad flew F-100 Super Sabres in South Vietnam in 1966-1967. He flew 426 missions and was shot down once. He carried a Smith and Wesson Combat Masterpiece (38 Special) in a custom gunbelt and holster, and he is almost sure it had a three-inch barrel. He used his revolver to defend himself while he waited for the rescue helo to recover him after he was shot down.

Some of you are serious collectors with a wealth of knowledge, and I could use your help. Could any of you confirm the existance of the 3" Combat Masterpiece (1965-1967)? My dad really liked his revolver, and I would like to give him one if I could find one.

Thank you for your help.

Happy Independence Day to my fellow American Citizens!
Rushbeau
 
I'm sure that many will chime in with your requested info.

I just wanted to say thanks for sharing
your story about your Dad. 426 missions
is very impressive.
You should be very proud of him. I am
thankful for what he did.
 
If it was USAF issued then it was a 4" M15. If he measured the barrel from the front of the frame then it would be close to 3". True measurement is from the front of the cylinder.
 
I went to law school with a retired Air Force Master Sergeant who was an F-100 combat mechanic in Viet Nam. He had some wild and wooly tales about patching up shot-down F-100s just enough so they could be flown back to base, sometimes taping pieces of beer cans over bullet holes, and of the warriors who were their pilots. Told me about one pilot who allegedly carried 3 1911s, who was adamant that the mechanics hang some ordnance on his shot-up plane, so he could go blow up some more enemy troops on the way back! Your father has my deepest respect and admiration. If his gun was a Combat Masterpiece, it pretty much had to be a 4-incher.
 
Could you kindly relate details about your dad's use of his Model 15 to defend himself. I'd be very interested in actual combat use of the Model 15 and would enjoy your dad's harrowing experience.
 
Did his revolver have an aluminum or steel frame? Was it stamped M13 or Aircrewman? If it was an aluminum frame gun it would have been an M13 Aircrewman revolver, probably with an aluminum cylinder also but some had steel cylinders. This is known as the most faked S&W as it was the first to gain a real premium price. In fact MOST of the M13's out there are fakes, and some even have faked factory letters. Most of these guns were destroyed by the Air Force in the 1950's, but since your dad was flying F100's it is possible that he might have had one of the steel cylinder examples; the aluminum cylinders didn't stand up to firing and led to the replacement & destruction of most of these guns.
 
Thank you to all who responded!

Bmc,

My dad was shot down while he was turning final into Phan Rang Air Force Base. Though most of Vietnam is jungle, Phan Rang looks alot like West Texas - flat ground covered in grass stubble with thin woods about two hundred yards from the overrun (end of the runway). The VC had an encampment in the woods and would fire on aircraft as they approached the runway.

When my dad ejected, the shroud lines for his parachute became entangled in his seat so he took the opening shock across his left shoulder (rather than down the center of his back), which shattered three of his vertebrae and tore the tendens and ligaments in his left shoulder. He landed about two hundred yards from the tree line in the open field. He could hear the VC in the tree line whistling to each other while they were trying to find him. He lay flat on the ground while he coordinated RESCAP (Rescue Combat Air Patrol) with the rest of his flight. He had two F-100s rolling in on the tree line to strafe the VC when the helo set down in their way, which forced him to call off the RESCAP. Just before he jumped up and ran for the helo, he unloaded his revolver on VC who were running after him. When his revolver ran dry, he sprinted the hundred yards to the helo, all-the-while dragging his revolver on the ground behind him on a six-foot lanyard. The helo co-pilot was laughing so hard while watching my dad, he was unaware the VC were chasing him.

After ten days, my dad resummed flying. He flew for another ten years (F-4C, T-38, FB-111). Because of his injuries, he could not turn his head while pulling G (manuvering the aircraft), but he never lost an ACM (Air Combat Manuvering) engagement. Today, the lasting effects of his injuries really bother him, and he has had two strokes which have affected his memmory and emmotions, he has nerve dammage, and he has tinnitus (constant ringing in the ears). He thinks the tinnitus is the result of a Chicom mortar that exploded on the other side of a tree against which he was sitting while he was writing a letter to my mom, but he also expended in excess of 80,000 rounds of 20MM (the F-100 had four 20MM cannon). I thank God I still have him.

I also thank God for those of you who have sacrificed your own liberty and pledged your sacred honor to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

CmDermott,

My dad tells me his revolver was completely steel, which leads me to believe it was indeed a Model 15.He has fond memmories of that revolver. Thanks for the information.

Happy Independence Day!
Rushbeau
 
Rushbeau:

Your dad is a man's man! I was in the Army and once I left, it took more than 20 years before anyone ever thanked me for my service - and this was in peacetime! God bless America, and all that keep her safe. Thanks to your dad and all who have gone into harm's way to keep our country safe.

Warmest regards,

Dave
 
I was with the Marines in Viet Nam during '69 & '70. I was language trained in Viet Namese, and during a CAP training exercise had the chance to interview an NVA colonel. One of the guys asked him if there were units or any of our troops that he went out of his way to avoid wile commanding his troops. His immmediate answer was " The Air Force ".

Take from a guy on the receiving end. Your Dad and his wing mates cast a long scary shadow everywhere they went. I know I was always glad to see them, and it gave me a lot of satisfaction knowing that the bad guys were dreading the possibility of seeing them as well.

A belated but sincere Thank You to your Dad from one of the guys he covered for.
 
Please relay my heartfelt thanks to your dad for his service to our country.

I'm in for $25 toward a fund to finance a model 15 to present to your dad in our collective appreciation of his service.

PM me with a PayPal address if you have one, and I'd be honored to contribute.
 
Thank you so much for sharing his story with us. Please tell that some folks on the S&W Forum are grateful to him for his service to our country.

I've had and still have some guns that look dragged on the ground but would cherish one that suffered such treatment under those circumstances.
 
Your father and men and women like him made our country what it is todayand kept it safe for the rest of us, and for that he has my complete respect. And thanks God bless
 
now the F-100 and the F-4 they were fighter planes.not the crap we see today.and the navy had the F-8 crusader.thanks for your dads service.can you post a picture of him maybe ?one with the F100 in it.that is my favorite fighter plane.my stepdad worked on them in the late 50s and early 60s when he worked atlockeheed.I have many big color prints he got from lockheed with the planes in them.
 
I remember reading about book about the Thunderbirds, written while they were flying F-100's. Great book but I don't remember the title.

I do remember this, the 100 was terrible after losing its only engine. The glide ration(sic) was only 6 inches in forward movement for every 12 inches it dropped. In other words, you didn't have long once you lost power!

What did he enjoy flying most?

I wish your Dad the best, and thank him for his service, but also everyone else here.
 
Roger that on Phan Rang being in the coastal desert. There were cacti and scrub-brush around there. We had to go thru the area to get from Dalat to Cam Ranh in our ammo convoys. Exciting moments in the Phan Rang pass at times.

I started my time in the Army with a tour up the hill from Phan Rang. I left in '96 when I was retired early, as part of the "peace dividend", along with the rest of my unit.

Happy 4th of July to all of you.

Tom in Cincinnati
LTC FA AUS (Ret'd)
 
He needs a Model 15!
I was at PhanRang AB, from August 1966, to July 1967, as an aircraft sheet metal repairman.
I can attest to the countryside, there was heat as I recall, and then the monsoons.
I deployed over there with the 352nd Fighter Sqdn., from Myrtle Beach AFB.
What was your dad assigned to?
 
Fascinating reading. I was also stationed at Phan Rang, in 1970-1971. Looking back, it was an interesting place. There were old F100 fighters stationed there instead of the state-of-art F4s, ancient C47s flying PR missions and dropping pamphlets over VC territory, an Australian bomber contingent flying I think B58s, and I believe Korean troops were on the base as well. Brings back memories.
 
I'm retired AF too. Your Dad sounds like a neat guy. Gotta say that every Combat Masterpiece I ever saw in Vietnam or elsewhere between 1969-1992 (my career) was a four incher. Nice guns. Poor ammo. Fortunately it was good enough for him on that day. That 20MM is a different story altogether. I worked SUU-16s and SUU-23s on the F-4 Cs and Ds as well as the later M-61A1s on the E-models. You could put lots of rounds on target with those guns. The F-100, which I didn't work on, had the M-39 if I recall correctly. It didn't have the rate of fire the Vulcans did but still was a great aircraft gun.
 
I think B58s
Click to expand...

Would that be the B-58 Canberra, the short, squat two seat that was used only during Vietnam? Or was it B-57? I don't have time to look now.

B-58 Hustler comes to mind as the supersonic bomber that arguably resulted in the development of SAM's by the Russians.
 
Hi folks,

Your reponse to this thread has been overwhelming. I shared it with my dad, and you have encouraged him greatly. You even brought a tear to his eye. When he returned from Vietnam, this country welcomed him with accusations of "baby killer!" shouted in his face as he disembarked the airplane, and he is greatly encouraged to see that some American citizens remember the truth and still love the "Constitution of the United States" and the national ensign whose red stripes represent the blood men faithful to liberty shed for us. Independce Day and Memmorial Day can sometimes be depressing for my dad. He just finished a ten-year battle with the VA, and he has just remembered the name of his friend and wingman who was killed during the mission on which he won his Silver Star. This has haunted him for forty years. Because of citizens like you, there may still be some hope for the liberty with which God has so richly blessed us.

Doc540 - Your offer is most generous and thoughtful. Thank you so much for honoring my dad. You made his day! I will PM you later.

SW44Spl - My dad has loaded onto his computer some photos of him with the airplanes he flew. I will try to post some of those in this thread, or I can email them to you. Thank you for asking. My dad loves to talk flying. He really misses it.

TNRat - My dad flew the T-33 Shoting Star (affectionately known as the T-Bird), T-37, T-38 Talon, T-39, F-100 Super Sabre, F-4 Phantom II, FB-111 Ardvark, and O-1 Bird Dog. He has accumulated over 5,200 hours of flying time: he was an instructor pilot for five years (T-33, T-37, and T-38), and he flew alot in combat. His favorite airpalne to fly was the F-100. He really liked single seat-single engine. He graduated from flight school at the top of his class, so he had his pick of assignments. He chose F-100s over F-4s so he could fly CAS (Close Air Support) and other ground-attack missions rather than air intercepts (which was the purpose of the F-4 at the time he graduated from flight school). The F-100 was a difficult, tricky airplane to fly, and many pilots referred to it as the "Widow Maker". It was particluarly difficult on take-off and would sometimes stand on it's tail, but not fly, if the pilot tried to rotate (pull up the nose on take-off) too early. The airplane would continue down the runway almost in a vertical attitude until it fell back onto the ground. The pilots referred to this as the "Sabre Dance". My dad lost several friends to this.

He flew the O-1 Bird Dog as Foward Air Controller for three months after his F-100 tour. He directed thousands of air strikes in support of the First Armored Division.

He flew the F-4 for Chuck Yeager at Clark AFB, Phillipines upon his return from Vietnam. He was a flight lead and the Nuclear Safety Officer. He remembers Chuck Yeager as his best boss. He didn't care about politics, his standing order was "Do your job to the best of your abilities and don't bother me unless you have a problem".

The Air Force asked my dad to fly SR-71s when he finished his F-4 tour, but he was having alot of trouble with his shoulder, back, and neck. The flight surgeon was unaware of this (my dad hid this from him). He turned down the assignment, because the astronaught physical would have revealed his physical problems, and the Air Force would have grounded him. The Air Force then assigned him to B-52s. He was livid! After much battle with the Air Force, he was ordered to a B-58 Hustler assignment (at least the B-58 was supersonic). He arrived at Little Rock AFB to learn the Air Force had retired the B-58, and he was reassigned to FB-111s (393rd Stategic Bomb Wing - the same unit that deployed the atomic bombs over Japan to end WW-II. Their unit patch prominantly featured a mushroom cloud. He wore this patch while he was the base safety officer for Yakota AFB, Japan. At that time (1975- 1976), the Japanese had become very anti-American with the resurgance of the Nationalist Movement. None of the locals who worked for him ever understood his patch.)

Long Barrel- I understand "Peace Dividend". I was an intelligence officer in the Navy and was "riffed" in 1993, because the Executive Branch directed the Legislative Branch to reduce the Navy by half (500,000 men) "reasoning" we would forever be at peace since a Republican was no longer in office. I was in aviation intelligence (F-18s) in Airwing Fourteen. I had several friends who flew A-6 Intruders who were senior 0-4s (LCdr) with good reputations who were retired early for the same reason. Congratulations for making it to Leutenant Colonel! I enlisted in 1984 and went from E-1 to 0-2 (LtJg). My war was Gulf War I.

Maxbnc- My dad was assigned to the 614th TFS based at Phan Rang from Sep66 - May67. His recollection of Phan Rang mimmics yours! He says it was misserably hot for six months and miserably mucky for the other six months. He still has flight suits stained red by the red muck that covered the ground. He kept the mechanics and repairmen busy during that time. The F-100 was a tough old bird that could really take a licking and keep on flying. Thank you for making sure your pilots could continue to fight. There are alot of grunts whose lives you saved, because you were faithful to do your job so your pilots could do theirs.

Again, my dad and I thank all of you.

Happy Indepence Day!
Rushbeau
 
Hey Rushbeau, when your dad instructed in T-37s and -38s, where was he stationed? Before the clintonistas' "BRAC Commission" repaid Lubbock for voting 76% for George Bush I by closing it, we had Reese AFB, and for many years I enjoyed watching the 37s and 38s as I drove past the base, going to and from grad school, then law school and work. Depending on whether he was here and when, I might have seen him fly by a few times!
 
The Canberras or B58 were an Aussie AC used by us and them.

I think we had two or three squadrons of them.

The early ones were started with an explosive charge set at the intake of the engines, one on each side.

They were there in 67-68 that I know of.
 
I would like to see the photos also, if he can send them to me.
The Aussie Canberras were B-57's.
The b-58 was the supersonic Hustler.
The 8th and 13th Bomb sqdns. had the USAF version of the same a/c.
 
Originally posted by rushbeau:
Thank you to all who responded!

Bmc,

My dad was shot down while he was turning final into Phan Rang Air Force Base. Though most of Vietnam is jungle, Phan Rang looks alot like West Texas - flat ground covered in grass stubble with thin woods about two hundred yards from the overrun (end of the runway). The VC had an encampment in the woods and would fire on aircraft as they approached the runway.

When my dad ejected, the shroud lines for his parachute became entangled in his seat so he took the opening shock across his left shoulder (rather than down the center of his back), which shattered three of his vertebrae and tore the tendens and ligaments in his left shoulder. He landed about two hundred yards from the tree line in the open field. He could hear the VC in the tree line whistling to each other while they were trying to find him. He lay flat on the ground while he coordinated RESCAP (Rescue Combat Air Patrol) with the rest of his flight. He had two F-100s rolling in on the tree line to strafe the VC when the helo set down in their way, which forced him to call off the RESCAP. Just before he jumped up and ran for the helo, he unloaded his revolver on VC who were running after him. When his revolver ran dry, he sprinted the hundred yards to the helo, all-the-while dragging his revolver on the ground behind him on a six-foot lanyard. The helo co-pilot was laughing so hard while watching my dad, he was unaware the VC were chasing him.

After ten days, my dad resummed flying. He flew for another ten years (F-4C, T-38, FB-111). Because of his injuries, he could not turn his head while pulling G (manuvering the aircraft), but he never lost an ACM (Air Combat Manuvering) engagement. Today, the lasting effects of his injuries really bother him, and he has had two strokes which have affected his memmory and emmotions, he has nerve dammage, and he has tinnitus (constant ringing in the ears). He thinks the tinnitus is the result of a Chicom mortar that exploded on the other side of a tree against which he was sitting while he was writing a letter to my mom, but he also expended in excess of 80,000 rounds of 20MM (the F-100 had four 20MM cannon). I thank God I still have him.Rushbeau
Click to expand...

I was very interested in this thread especially when Phan Rang AB was mentioned.

I know that my post is completely off topic but I couldn't not post a response.

During the first part of my tour (1971-1972) in Vietnam I was an Army Caprain and S-3 Air for the 7th PsyOps Batallion assigned to the 9th Special Operations Squadron (aka Bull Sh*t Bombers) at Phan Rang.

rushbeau, here are some photos of Phan Rang AB.
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One of the 9th SOS aircraft.
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A 9th SOS bird.
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Enjoy

Hawkeye
 
This model 15-2 was recovered from Vietnam. It received heavy use..... by both sides.

DSC00424.jpg


DSC00422.jpg


regards,
Ralph
 
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