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Were you ever issued any weapons when sent in country?


The Red Stuff
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When we were TDY out of CCK to Thailand and flying in country we were always issued a survival vest that included, among other things, a S&W 38 cal. Masterpiece that I think had a 6" barrel. They had a bowl of loose 38 cal. ammo that you could get as much as you wanted.

Edited by pwylie
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SEFEGeorge, that works. Cause I know r can saw is in some country. Isn't it? Just kiden...grew up an Okie myself.

pwylie, I take it you were a crew member? Don't know about survival gear myself. Never was issued any :) Did try on a chute when flying with ABCCC. I was so tall it was going to be a nightmare to fit, so the AC said "don't worry about it".....OOK!

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SEFEGeorge, that works. Cause I know r can saw is in some country. Isn't it? Just kiden...grew up an Okie myself.

pwylie, I take it you were a crew member? Don't know about survival gear myself. Never was issued any :) Did try on a chute when flying with ABCCC. I was so tall it was going to be a nightmare to fit, so the AC said "don't worry about it".....OOK!

1

I was a loadmaster with the 37th TAS out of Langley, AFB.

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346th in '68 for Tet out of Clark and '69-'70 out of CCK before going incountry for CRB or Don Muang shuttles, Life Support issued each of us a snub nosed 38 (no holster, so, I kept in my air mask bag) w/ a small box of bullets (that were counted and recorded) and a Flak Vest (which @ 19 yrs old I sat on...) and one crew M16 which the Nav usually kept up at his table.We figured the M16 would come in handy if we were hijacked to North Viet Nam... Of course, it would probably have end our flight abruptly if fired, but allready in '68 we had prisoners in North Viet Nam for more than 3 years and their treatment at the hands of the NVA and the Cong was pretty well known; So, I don't think anybody wanted to be taken alive...Kinda makes one wonder what all the recent domestic noise has been about POW treatment...

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346th in '68 for Tet out of Clark and '69-'70 out of CCK before going incountry for CRB or Don Muang shuttles, Life Support issued each of us a snub nosed 38 (no holster, so, I kept in my air mask bag) w/ a small box of bullets (that were counted and recorded) and a Flak Vest (which @ 19 yrs old I sat on...) and one crew M16 which the Nav usually kept up at his table.We figured the M16 would come in handy if we were hijacked to North Viet Nam... Of course, it would probably have end our flight abruptly if fired, but allready in '68 we had prisoners in North Viet Nam for more than 3 years and their treatment at the hands of the NVA and the Cong was pretty well known; So, I don't think anybody wanted to be taken alive...Kinda makes one wonder what all the recent domestic noise has been about POW treatment...

Chuck,

Prisoners. That thought reminded me of a repair I made 68/69? at CRB. The plane had just transported prisoners and one of the charlies (with obvious hopes of bringing the plane down) had some how managed to work on a hydraulic line until it was completely broken in two. Fortunately, it was a drain line. Score one for the good guys.

It seems to be general consensus that the hand gun issued was .38 caliber. I had always thought it to be .45 but, when issued to me they were in a holster and I never had the need to remove one (thank goodness). If we were staying with a bird, they issued that and an M16 with a single clip. Kinda silly I thought, but, as soon as I hit the ground I'd get an ammo box of rounds from the army, or. They were always cool with that.

JG

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23 Dec 1969- recovery mission out of TSN 834th A/D for 'A' model broke at Soc Trang-issued M-16 with 2 clips ammo plus helmet flak vest -I was dropped by Herc 'E' model upon arriving was told by ranking Air Force Master Sergeant to keep my head down if i had to crawl up on wing. Turned out to be a burned up #1 eng DC generator which I padded. Got finished about 4 in afternoon with help of crew chief and engine mech sent from TSN. We ended up staying the night because it was one of those army installations which Charlie owned after sun down. around 0200 (DARK 30) sure enough all hell broke loose! Got back to TSN late morning next day tool box-helmet flak vest M-16 oh yeah and 2 "empty" clips drank lots beer and JD "HI to all those guys from Blind Bat and 834th A/D" we went to different schools together!!

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When flying volunteer ACM duty(flare kicker and spotter) with Blind Bat, after a full day of getting all the aircraft ready to fly that night, it was normal for the crew chiefs and other TDY maintenance folks out of the 817th to be geared up with survival vest, blood chit, S&W .38 Airweight revolvers. Nice and cool at altitude with the doors open. When tasked with recovery missions for broken or damaged aircraft out of TSN(834th ALD) it was normal to carry an M-16, a few mags along with flak vest, helmet, and a case of C-rats(older than the consumer, by the way). The M-16 I carried did not remain unused.

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I flew 130's out of CCK in 1970 and 1971. For each in-country shuttle I signed out a survival vest and a .38--here's the form:

We kept them in a big aluminum box and rarely took them out, but here's a photo of one time I did: :cool:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/0YsEE6s96YcNDtzhHJj5pw?feat=directlink

Alan

And I thought I had kept a lot of paper work. :) Pictures. I have nine boxes of slides from back then, and haven't looked at them since they were taken. Perhaps it's time to look at them again.

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I used to fly with my plane quite a bit in 69-70, but the only time I was issued a weapon was one night I was waiting on my bird to return to CRB when ops sent for me to come in and said my bird had been hit at Ben Hou and the base was still under attack, me and my asst. c/c were told to go check out two M16's and caught a hop on a Caribou. The attacks had stopped by the time we arrived, we had quite a bit of sheet metal damage and #2 engine was totaly destroyed, was the next day before we got it fixed and flew back to CRB. I do remember the gun box always being loaded on board, but knew it was for the flight crew if needed.

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When I moved to W. Germany to the 37th TAS the load and FE had to get a .38 out of the armory for every flight!! Seems the regs said if you were landing at a an overseas base you had to pack heat, so that meant we had to be armed even for a Pilot Pro.

In the first gulf war we went to war with a .38 each and 12 bullets -WOW they had better not mess with me huh?

I had the wife mail me my P38 and a hundred rounds of ammo and left the .38 with my junk back at base.

Just after the Gulf War, May 01, we got rid of the .38's and went to that wimpy little 9mm and one mag of ammo.

When I came back to the states I move to AFSOC, they had just gotten rid of the shotguns but we still had GAU's and 9mm's for everyone.

It always scared the snot out of me when a zero had a gun, I have seen those guys trying to qualify - EEEEK

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When I moved to W. Germany to the 37th TAS the load and FE had to get a .38 out of the armory for every flight!! Seems the regs said if you were landing at a an overseas base you had to pack heat, so that meant we had to be armed even for a Pilot Pro.

Dan,

Yeah, I remember stopping at the armory in the crew bus and me and the load would get our weapons. Usually after the flight, we'd get in our cars and stop by the armory on our way home. One evening, though, I remember stopping for a beer at the Rod & Gun Club on my way home. I was a smoker back then and as I reached into my pocket for a cigarette, I realized I was still armed! Well, I finished my beer, had a couple more and then drove back on base at turned it in.

Don R.

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When I moved to W. Germany to the 37th TAS the load and FE had to get a .38 out of the armory for every flight!! Seems the regs said if you were landing at a an overseas base you had to pack heat, so that meant we had to be armed even for a Pilot Pro.

Yeah Dan that's what I mentioned earlier, in the 32nd TAS during '75-'76. Every friggin flight, load and me had stop by the armory and get a weapon, and then drop it off after landing. What a pain. Especially since the 32nd building was at one end of the flight line and the cop shop was near the other. At least the Zeros didn't get any weapons. That would have been scary.

Remember during Jack Frost '76, the 32nd sent crews to EDF for the exercise (before it was called Brim frost). We flew into Fort Wainwright one night and had a starter go bad. It was cold as a b....h. Had to spend the night, so the load and I unloaded our guns, without an unload barrel, put the bullets in one locker and the guns in the other, and called it a night. Reloaded the next morning and went back to EDF.

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In 65-66 at Mactan all flight crewmembers were issued 38 revolvers with 6" barrels and ,I think, 50 rounds. We drew the weapons before leaving Mactan and turned them in when back from RVN. We bought holsters in TSN. I had a shoulder holster while the rest of the crew had western style gun belts. I got the shoulder holster because a gun belt would hang up on things like vehicles when chaining them. We also "found" 2 M-16's which we kept at TSN in a connex container when we were not flying.

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