Scary Gary
Member
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 .
S&W In VietNam ?
- Thread starter marine1970
- Start date
Hog-Sniper
Member
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
Scary Gary
Member
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 .
Brian41
Member
Crap 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.
p0838
Member
Hard to say what kind of revolver this is, but it's probably a S&Wand I thought the Forum would enjoy the photo. This is USAF pilot Capt. Clint Queen in Viet Nam in 1966 with his revolver.
Here's the type holster( Boyt) he (Navy Flyers)would have had for the 4" M&P
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Gun-runner
Member
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.
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.
Grease-gun
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.
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.
armsmaster270
US Veteran
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’.
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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bmcgilvray
Member
This has been a particularly enjoyable thread. Thanks guys!
This has been a great thread. Thanks for all the input.
I was a KC-135 Tanker Driver. We qualified with Model 15's with 4" barrel. When we were flying in SEA, we had a big metal box with four Model 15's with 2" barrels inside and some ammo. The idea, if we had to bail out (nobody ever had to - the tanker was a reliable old bird), was to stick a revolver into the holster sewn into our survival vest. The vest contained a radio, extra batteries, mirror, day-nite smoke/flares, and a bunch of other goodies.
Perhaps not so well known is that we drew a revolver (M15 2")and ammo from the armory every time we were scheduled for a flight where we carried passengers - in the event of a hijacking. Thanks goodness we never had to use it, but it was there in the cockpit if it was needed.
Perhaps not so well known is that we drew a revolver (M15 2")and ammo from the armory every time we were scheduled for a flight where we carried passengers - in the event of a hijacking. Thanks goodness we never had to use it, but it was there in the cockpit if it was needed.
mod57
Member
My father liberated this 15-2 from an NVA captain who had no further use for it. When he got it the cylinder would only open just enough to expose one chamber so you had to load it one round at a time. It need a complete set of springs and the bore is pitted some but still shoots acceptable.
regards,
mod57
regards,
mod57
texagun
Member
That gun was most likely liberated from a dead or captured U.S. Air Force pilot. That was the standard carry weapon in Vietnam and highly prized by the NVA. The original owner (most likely no longer with us) could probably be traced with the serial number from USAF records.
Edited to add: On 2nd thought, I don't see any USAF markings on that gun, or any rack numbers engraved on it. The M15 was widely used by American troops in VN. Hard to tell where that one came from.
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mod57
Member
Yes, other than the standard S&W markings, there are no other marks on it. The hammer and trigger appear to have been blued or maybe parkerized at some point. There is no finish to speak of, and what is there does not appear to be blue. Dad did say that he found 6 M41 cartridges in it.
regards,
mod57
regards,
mod57
da gimp
Member
my late cousin N.R. Riddle USN, BUD/S carried a 6" mod 19 S&W
on brown water duty in RVN. During his 1st tour he was able to call his parents & complained to his dad(Unc Don was a WWII DDay inf vet) , that pistols were hard to come by and would sure be welcome in the Riverine Patrol, his dad asked him what he wanted, Randy told him a S&W mod 19, 6", and Unc Don got him one the next day & shipped it to him.
On a side note, they were due to get some 12ga shotguns, and recieved the paperwork for them, listing models & serial #'s, but they never arrived. A South Vietnamese officer that they were friends with, took my cuz & a friend down to the local market & found the dern things, but they had to buy them to get them back. Randy used to laugh at it, and said they cut 1 barrel off just ahead of the mag tube, & the stock just behind the pistol grip on a Win mod 12, it was dern handy in searching sampams.
Thank you for the memories this thread brought back.
be safe, enjoy life, journey well
da gimp
OFC, Mo Chapter
on brown water duty in RVN. During his 1st tour he was able to call his parents & complained to his dad(Unc Don was a WWII DDay inf vet) , that pistols were hard to come by and would sure be welcome in the Riverine Patrol, his dad asked him what he wanted, Randy told him a S&W mod 19, 6", and Unc Don got him one the next day & shipped it to him.
On a side note, they were due to get some 12ga shotguns, and recieved the paperwork for them, listing models & serial #'s, but they never arrived. A South Vietnamese officer that they were friends with, took my cuz & a friend down to the local market & found the dern things, but they had to buy them to get them back. Randy used to laugh at it, and said they cut 1 barrel off just ahead of the mag tube, & the stock just behind the pistol grip on a Win mod 12, it was dern handy in searching sampams.
Thank you for the memories this thread brought back.
be safe, enjoy life, journey well
da gimp
OFC, Mo Chapter
Grapevine
Member
I carried a Model 15 on duty at Phu Cat as a Air Force Security Policeman. Reading this thread really gave me an itch so I picked up a 15-3 last week. It's kinda rough and has Houge grips, I'm gonna be looking for a set of stock grips this weekend at the gun show.
Grapevine
Grapevine
S&W 38 Heavy Barrel in Vietnam
We took in here at the gun shop a 4" HB S&W parkerized. Guy brought it back from Viet. He carried it on duty. He said quiet a few of his group had them Black cartridge belt holster gigs. He said he was told ? S&W found theold guns and rebarreled them in HB and did park on them and sent them to Viet. ?? al
We took in here at the gun shop a 4" HB S&W parkerized. Guy brought it back from Viet. He carried it on duty. He said quiet a few of his group had them Black cartridge belt holster gigs. He said he was told ? S&W found theold guns and rebarreled them in HB and did park on them and sent them to Viet. ?? al
I think that that's a slightly different "organization" in different services. In the Navy, it is composed of folks with a LOT of TIS. Usually don't need help anyway, but it can be had.
When I was on a WesPac carrier, I believe that the ISSUE revolver was a 4" M&P, but pilots used to carry all kinds of stuff, from .25 autos to Ruger Super Blackhawk. I heard a story about a pilot who kept a .25 in his crotch, thus preventing its detection, and used it to gain access to a critical helicopter ride away from the scene of the crime. I have heard another (helicopter pilot) state that the .38 with tracers was once useful for announcing one's presence when ship drivers were negligently unaware of it. I don't fully understand that, but that's what was reported to me.
