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Were you ever issued any weapons when sent in country?


The Red Stuff
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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.

More than one time I would hang out in the Loads office after a flight taste testing a dozen 1868's only to realize later I was still packing heat.

No problem, just went home with the damn thing and turned it in nice and sober like in the morning.

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No! when my older Bro heard I was going to Viet-Nam in 1967 he said son you need a Gun! I bought a Smith and Wesson 9mm Auto and took it with me to Guam. Used to carry it to Thailand for the Missions! Got 160 on it!! They used to issue us a 38 for each mission so I took that too! The guys called me 2 gun Pete! One night in 68 we lived downtown in Udorn Thailand the base was attacked by some people who where sympathetic to the NV! A prisoner of war had been released and was on a civilian flight but it landed in Udorn and they were going to be Transferred to a C-141! Anyway we were downtown and got the call to come back to the Base why I dont know so downstairs we went every one wanted to get into my cab cause they all new I was armed- it was a panic ! I can look back and smile but we were all quite concerned at the time!

Anyway the Thai Army guys killed most of them and took a few into custody! End of incident! we where back dowtown by Mid-night! I carried that gun at all times! oh those were the days!! Of course I still have it and shoot it from time to time!

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When I was flying Gunships in Thialand we carried a 38 in the survial vest, checked it out at PE when we got our helmet,radios etc. When I got back to MAC in 1977 the FE and Load carried 38 cal. S & W "anti hi jack devices" which we checked out at the air cops armory [Yokota and Dyess], with the 3 hollow point and the 3 red rounds which where supposed to be loaded first, supposely they wouldn't go through the aircraft skin and then the 3 hollow points. Had to wear the shoulder hostler under the flight suit, who on the crew had the weapons, the 2 EM's with the big left tits.

Mike

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Served at Lai Kai, 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division as ALO for three months in 1967. Was issued, and carried a M-16 with 4 clips at Naha. Burned through hundreds of rounds at Lai Kai, the Army encouraged people to go to a makeshift shooting range. Also fired several rounds out of an O-1 at "suspected" VC. While in Blindbat, we all carried S & W 38 Model 15 Combat Masterpieces. I have been trying to find one in good condition for a long time. Really liked the heft and feel of that piece.

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Like Pat, I was issued a 38, etc, from CCK. Had one for each crew member, along with the usual survival vests, etc. I had a web belt with holster . My AC required that i carry it like that, especially with PAX, and make sure they saw me load it each time. I took some of the cartridges and cut X's into the tips, caught pure hell for that when we went back to CCK. The stuff was carried in a big ammo-box like thing, if i remember right, and when we flew out of NKP, I always had to take it to Life support and check it in and then check it out to go aviatin.' Can't remember what i did other places.Once when we came back to CCK, I don't know why, but half the sky cops in Taiwan surrounded our plane, checked each of us out, for what reason, i still don't know, heard they even took the insulation blankets outof the airplane, got into the dry bays, all that. When i carried the gear box in, they took all the cartridges, and used an inertial bullet puller and took them all apart. Anybody got any idea what all that was about????????

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Back on my first deployment in 02' Crew Chiefs were not given weapons. However, we somehow managed to check an extra out to the crew that wound up in the CC's holster. I still remember my M9 training course on the ramp in Kuwait. I got a shoulder holster in A-stan to keep it in during flights. After a couple years they started actually issueing M9's. Though I hardly ever got one on missions. Somehow my buddy managed to get shotgun qualed and carried a 12ga on missions with him. Still not exactly sure how he pulled that off.

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Never was issued a weapon but while on rote to Mildenhall from Dyess in 1970, I was asked by someone in the unit if I knew how to use a .45 or qualified on an M-16. I said I knew how to use the .45 but had never qual'd on anything. I figured out later, when we started painting big red crosses on our planes that we were doing something that may need a weapon. It turned out that we were part of the mission that carried a mobil hospital into Aman Jordan. Before the hospital there were plans to evac civilians out of the country and we would have been part of the group that did that. Later on the same rotation, we flew to Incirlick and carried a fighter squadron's maint troops back to Torrejon, Spain. That part kind of hijacks this thread but also answers Gizzard's questions. When we got to Torrejon, we were surrounded by sky cops. Turns out the fighter guys had a whole lot of a fine psychedelic substance in their gear which was easily purchased in Turkey. Searching went on for several hours, dry bays, oil/hydralic storage and cans, many other places. Usually I liked going to Torrejon but that trip everybody decided it was time to go back to Mildenhall that night.

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My first trip in country in 1967 I was issued a M-16 at Naha. When I landed at CRB I was asked if I had been issued a weapon and when I replied "Yes" they took it from me until I rotated back. The next time I went in country I didn't tell them I was issued a weapon and kept it locked in the gun cabinet. Fool me once!!

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gizzard, DRUGS. If you were coming off Bangkok shuttle, the MP's had connections downtown with the "local" drug sellers. We had a (~about all of 19 yrs old at the time...) LM in the 346th that got caught twice in late '69 or early '70: Before he even took off from Don Muang right on the tarmac by the MP's. The Army cops just took the weed back downtown Bangkok to the local for the next sucker...He wanted to extend at CCK in the worst way! So, they finally cured him by telling him if he did it again, that they would send him back to the States immediately! It worked...(it would have worked on me too, in '68, over there for Tet, but, I would have been on the first plane back in '70...(the difference being single and carefree, vs. married and a little one, I guess (& Walter Cronkite...)...I would go back in a heart beat now tho... if I could...They really should let us old guys do the fighting...

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On a rote from Sewart to Clark in 1964 a crew took my bird into Vietnam and they brought out a cardboard box with five 45 auto pistols with a few extra clips. They were only in-country for one day. The next morning I started my BPO and found the box-o-guns. Well I moved them to a more secure place on the acft...behind the insulation in the ramp area. Well out came the copilot butter bar lookin' fer his guns. He had a heck of a time finding them....I never did tell him how they ended up there. Never saw a second louie sweat so much. Bill

Edited by Spectre623
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A few years ago at Al Udeid, I brought my plane in and started my postflight. I started putting troop seats up to sweep and lo and behold there was an M-16 with a full clip wedged in behind the dual rails. About that time the expeditor pulled up. I slung the rifle on my back and went out to grab my forms like nothing was going on. The first words out of his mouth were "Who in the hell would give you a weapon?" He got in rouch with the troops they hauled and the weapon got back to them. I do feel sorry for whoever left it though.

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  • 2 weeks later...

At Mactan we were issued old Navy 38's with the little rings on the handle. They were in a room between the two squadrons as I remember and they had little yellow tags with the squadron number and your name on it. There was a holster in the survival vest, but most of us bought cowboy holsters in-country. I actually fired my pistol in-country while leaving Song Be with the CCT team. It was nothing but a dirt strip with daylight only flights in early 67. We had a main tire shot during landing and a 123 was flown in with a spare and jack as they couldn't land any C-130's because we were blocking the runway. Took almost until dark to change it out and we left hot with incoming small arms. The CCT guys were firing out the back in the direction of the incoming and I figured I might as well take the opportunity to shoot my "weapon" as I was closing the ramp and door. I'm sure I hit the runway and perhaps killed some weeds. Bad choice. Back at Mactan I had to fill out paperwork to account for the missing rounds. Missed return night in Cebu because of that.

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  • 2 weeks later...

with the 3 hollow point and the 3 red rounds which where supposed to be loaded first,

According to MACR 55-130 (at the time) Anti-Hijacking weapons were to be loaded with three "short stop" rounds (frangables) and three hollow points, but in practice I never saw a "short stop" round, they were all six hollow points, man that caused a sh*t storm when we showed up for Gulf War 1, they were freaking about hollow points and the Geneva Convention - what a joke.

When i carried the gear box in, they took all the cartridges, and used an inertial bullet puller and took them all apart. Anybody got any idea what all that was about????????

Yep, drugs and considering the time-frame most likely heroin.

They really should let us old guys do the fighting...

Man do I second that one, late night flights and really crabby old men missing out on thier naps are not likely to have much sypathy with some terrorist moron, "damn you, you think you want to kill me for allah, hell man try sever sciatica for a real basis for snuffing your caveman ass."

I do feel sorry for whoever left it though.

I found the same thing after a shuttle to Rafah, except it was an M-60 E whaterver, the load and I were cutting cards to see who got to keep it when they finally showed up to re-claim it - damn it!!

later during the Sarajevo runs in 92, I always checked the gun box on my preflight and one day, lo and behold, there were seven pistols just sitting there in the unlocked box. The load or FE or whoever actually got his lock off but complely blew off getting the guns out. The base pigs kinda freaked when I came in to turn in my pistol after flight - I cleard mine, then pulled one out of each of my pockets to clear, kind of like a magic show when the magician pulls that fifity yard scarf out of his sleve. The didnt think I would ever stop pulling out pistols to clear LOL.

Bad choice. Back at Mactan I had to fill out paperwork to account for the missing rounds. Missed return night in Cebu because of that.

HAH HAH, thats one reason I have the ol lady mail me my P 38 and a hundred rounds when I was in the desert for Gulf War! They can keep thier "combat load" of .38 pistol and twevle rounds!!!

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My first flight into South Vietnam was in May 1965 and my last was in August 1970. In each case I carried a pistol - usually a .38 but sometimes a .45. At Naha enlisted crewmembers were required to go by the armory and pick up an M-16 and .38 while officers were required to carry a .38. There was something about the engineer and loadmaster taking up stations at the nose and tail if an airplane was grounded at a forward field. When I got to Clark I was issued a Colt .38 snubnose which was kept at the squadron in a locked cabinet under the operations desk. Each crewmember had a weapons card corresponding to their weapon and operations or the duty NCO pulled it out and gave it to him before each flight. (I traded my Colt for a S&W Combat Masterpiece when someone turned me in and my ops clerk buddy held it for me.) On the Blind Bat mission each enlisted man carried both a .38 and an M-16. Loadmaster/flare kickers used to fire them out of the back at targets on the ground until Combat McNorton holed a B-57 and that put an end to that.

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