Guns while in the U.S. Army

[Kinman]

Things were fast and loose in Vietnam when I was there 70-71
If you were in the company area and a red alert was sounded you went to the arms room and were handed an M-16 and a bandoleer, for those M-79 qualified you got a bandoleer of anti personnel rounds and a bandoleer of flares, M-60s were in the gun towers. If you got your hands on whatever personal weapon you could get our hands on you just kept it to yourself, I seem to remember the going rate for a 1911 was around 50 bucks, the Vietnamese copied the military style shoulder holster for 10 bucks or a couple of packs of smokes. The boats I was on had been decommissioned after WWII and had been sitting in Luzon harbor since 1945, it was like Christmas if you were the first guy into the boat when the hatches were cut open, guys found everything from M-2's to Thompsons, grease guns were fairly common. Each boat usually had an old worn out E-6 for a skipper and most of them didn't give a hoot what went on, jungle rules.
I went from Vietnam to Germany and was suprised when they had guys walking guard duty with unloaded M-16s, not even a bayonet. I had a position that kept me off guard duty but I remember thinking I'd be damned if I'd walk guard duty with an empty rifle...whats the point? But we got into that kind of **** in Vietnam also we were supposed to challenge someone with "Halt...Dung Lai...Halt...Dung Lai...Halt...Dung Lai before opening fire....Right.

 

[wrhk33]

Added pic to first post.

 

[1sg]

As a young infantry troop I served a tour of duty "overseas". Way back in the day force protection was taken very seriously. When forward deployed wE lived in Quonset huts or GP Mediums with our rifles colocated inside and locked in a rifle racks. As a 20 year old corporal I was entrusted with the key and on order, was authorized to release weapons to my squad if the SHTF. As time progressed, rifles were replaced with pickax handles and ultimately radios. I've been out of the game for a long time now but I believe the current plan is to call 911.

 

[alwslate]

When my brother was getting ready to leave for Nam in the late 60s
he told me he wanted to buy a handgun to take with him. I advised
him to get a 1911 .45 because of ammo and magazine availability. We
went to a gun shop and he bought a new Colt Lightweight Commander.
I never asked him much about it when he returned but understood
that he had it with him always while there and it did have a fair
amount of finish wear when he returned. He managed to acquire a
Grease Gun and an AK 47 while there but wisely decided to sell them
to "newbys" when he left. I would guess that things are much different
these days.

 

[jimmyj]

I never could understand the idea of only five rounds in the magazine

 

[Broke Hoss]

I was in from 77-82 & had various experiences.

Korea, 2nd Inf Div, I was assigned to a gun jeep that was security for the Tactical Op Center. Usually we knew alerts were coming & my job was to have everyone's weapon card & gather our weapons; along with 5 rnd mags for the 1911's & 18 rnd mags for M16's. The M60 was just for show I guess, cause we never got issued ammo for it......Till 1 morning we were surprised by an alert. When I got to the arms room, the armorer was pretty much just throwing weapons at whoever was at the door. The mags were pre-loaded with the usual, but he tossed a couple of belts of ammo for the M60 over my shoulder as I stood there. If memory serves me right, they had found some tunnels under the river at the DMZ.

Back stateside, I always tried to have some ammo of the same lot # being used by our arms room. That way, I could replace any rounds my guys might spend dispatching vermin in the Yuma desert.

 

[Coldshooter]

I never could understand the idea of only five rounds in the magazine

Jimmy the Army changes very slowly probably goes back to leaving an empty cylinder for safety.

 

[S&WIowegan]

Nothing in the OP's post surprises me. I served 1965-7 and the Army just simply doesn't trust GIs with loaded firearms until and unless the SHTF! If you've been in you know why. The MPs on our post carried 1911s which they'd barely ever fired. They were never supposed to have that weapon unless on patrol. One MP got off base with a 1911 and came to a party we were having in a private cabin. I know everyone reading this knows what happened...right you are. Cabin got holes in the walls!

That same MP came from an area where babies weren't circumcised. Army fixed it for him.....Seems it hurts bad when you're 20 YO!

 

[rwsmith]

This what we spend billions on?

That's wild going into a hostile area and hoping nobody will attack because nobody has ammo for their guns.


PS I suppose they kept issuing tracer so they could tell who fired their weapon and where it came from.

 

[Kinman]

We did have a couple of situations regarding new weeds being issued fully auto M-16s and being assigned guard duty on a huge ammo barge out in Danang harbor. It seems that one of the guys heard some splashing in the water and unloaded a couple of mags into the noise, this alerted harbor security and when they got to the body there was little left to identify it as a human being. In their infinite wisdom the powers that be took away the M-16s and issued pump shotguns instead, I guess they figured it was just too easy to dump 40 rounds into a body from an M-16 while the shotty would at least make them think about each round. I remember the only thing holding the body together was the green rainsuit he was wearing.

 

[Drm50]

Unauthorized Weapons

When I was in RVn. our CO told us we could carry anything we
wanted as long as we were carrying our issue weapons. You had to be careful if you were traveling in country by air in the big
Beech Front bases. The MPs were always on the look out to take
Thompsons and any non issue side arm. They wanted them for
themselves. My road piece was a m-2 carbine,cut down to
"Enforcer" type gun. Was a lot handier coming out hatches than
M-16, and more useful than a 45. CARs were hard to come by.

 

[oldRoger]

I don't understand the five rounds either, except that we always loaded five rounds on the range.

The course of fire for pistols was almost always 5 shots and mark targets.

 

[OLDNAVYMCPO]

I think you Doggies were limited to five rounds because that's all the higher you could count on one hand. Ha!

 

[Drm50]

We loved it when Navy guys came ashore were ever we were at.
We sold them all kind of official"NVA" items. Someof these we
would have to put several hours in making. It was worth it for
the prices the Squibs would pay! What ever money they had left
we took it off them playing cards.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

As I said in my post on the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, the Army is very much a sissy and pantywaist, and I'll come out and say it-a Papa-Uniform-Sierra-Sierra-Yankee outfit. Small arms are seen as a best a necessary evil and all too often as an annoyance and a nuisance, the firearms enthusiast is derided as a "nut" and view with suspicion.

 

[jimmyj]

The only Combat I was exposed to was a "Working Girl" beat up a buddy that tried to pay less than the "Going Price".However I was a Gunners Mate and worked in the armory. I always had a "Stash" of small arms ammo not on the inventory for the guys that needed/wanted it. Of course back in "The Day" this was .22lr, 38spl, 45acp, 30 carbine,30/06 and 12 gauge.