Weapons Man

A great deal of mythology about the M16, CAR-15 and other weapons in Vietnam continues to circulate. Here are real lessons-learned as discussed in a period document, the 2-part USARV Long Range Patrol Conference Summary, which discussed a conference held from 9-12 August 1968, in other words, at the height of the US Army’s combat involvement in the Vietnam War. While those attending were primarily officers in grades of 2LT through MG, they clearly brought the experience of the units most involved in running long-range patrols, including the “letter” Ranger companies then of the 51st Infantry Regiment, the greek-letter projects, Mike Forces, MACVSOG, the SAS from OZ, and the Special Forces-run RECONDO school, where LLRP leaders from many US and Allied units trained.

… as in, in the hole.

We had the following posts planned for Saturday that you haven’t seen yet:

• The Underground & Auxiliary: a Case Study
• When guns are outlawed…
• Saturday Matinee 046: …
• That was the week that was: 2014 Week 46

We may get to some of ‘em today. We may not. And we may or may not get Monday’s stuff all set up like we like to do. Just the way it is on this day, 16 November, 2014 AD.

We know that not everybody loves the TW3 posts, but we find them useful for blog management, and a good way to call attention to some back stories that didn’t get a lot of hits for whatever reason. The Matinees are just time consuming, as the Underground Case Study has been.

How many guns should you actually practice with,? That’s a common question, but maybe it’s not a common enough question. On one extreme you have the aphorism that says, “Beware a man that only has one gun, he probably knows how to use it.” On the other extreme you have the idea that someone who’s a “weapons expert” can pick up any firearm and instantly use it to trim gnats’ eyelashes a mile away.

Remember the Trayvon Martin target? Yeah, bad taste.

So, after having a cop buddy warn us off fluorescents that are also used as “grow lamps” (“You’ll never get the DEA to stop bugging your phone and reading your mail after that”)  we settled for LED lamps, and bought a pair of GE lamps.

Potemkin Relief exposed at a Hurricane Sandy press conference, CEO McGovern in front of trucks pulled from relief efforts to be her backdrop.

From time to time we take a look at developments including technologies as well as designs, to see if this field is progressing as rapidly as everyone originally expected it to. Today, we’ll put up the data and let you be the judge of progress.

Welcome to Buffalo, New York, home of most of OJ Simpson’s pre life-of-crime career, and what appears to be a completely crime-free environment. There must be no crime, because the police aren’t chasing their hundreds of cold and cooling homicide cases, nope: their priority is confiscating guns from dead guys. (Well, when it isn’t stealing $130 from a turned-in wallet. More on that Buffalo cop in a bit).

This one won’t buff right out, although we can’t help but wonder if the driver in this case is counting on an executive amnesty to resolve his legal problems.

This one is pretty far out there. But the guy who went on to be in the longest-serving draftee in the US Army, nearly didn’t serve at all. He was already to go to Canada. It was his mom who talked him out of it.

The Border Patrol has been “effectively disarmed” of its M4 carbines by its political leaders. But there’s a solution to the M4 problem.

The spelling “Defence” gives the game away — we’re talking about British defense issues here. Here’s what Think Defence says about itself:

There are several versions of this video going around. This one may not be the best, but it was handy on YouTube, unlike the one that just came in via email. The pistol in question is a Taurus 24/7 DS in .40 S&W, and the State Military Police in Saõ Paulo, Brazil, issued nearly 100,000 of the damn things before recalling them all for inspection and repair. (More on the agency below, but they are they comprise the majority of the urban and rural uniformed police for the populous Brazilian state). There are a lot of Taurus warranty-problem stories out there, but this one is currently the record.

Social conservatives are expressing shock that foul-mouthed rapper Eminem — now, as ever, a creation of the nihilistic suits in the commercial music industry, who wanted an “artist” who was beholden to them, white, and “authentically urban” — acted like, well, foul-mouthed rapper Eminem, during a massively industry-sponsored Veteran’s Day concert. Really?

This came in email. I wish I knew who the original creator was, because he’s worth following, whoever he is:

The best lines?

“Australia punches Turkey, and gets punched back. There are no hard feelings because Britain made Australia do it.”

And:

“America waits till Germany is about to fall over from sustained punching from Britain and France, then walks over and smashes it with a barstool, then pretends it won the fight all by itself.”

Any mook can write Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August. To write the same thing as a 21-paragraph allegory is an elevated level of brilliant.

Yay! We figured out how to upload an .mp4 movie. Hey, it may not be rocket surgery but it had us stymied for the longest time. And speaking of rocket surgery, hold this beer and watch this:

We don’t often run into a word referring to weapons that’s completely unfamiliar to us. Even more rarely, we can’t even track the word down. That’s what happened to us in reviewing a 1952 document by the Operations Research Office, a now-defunct FFRDC1 operated by the US Army at the time.

It’s no secret that we are big fans of the Walther PPK. This pocket pistol, introduced in 1931, was a compact version of Walther’s excellent PP, whose initials stand for Police Pistol in its native German. Walther, which had previously made several models of high-quality but otherwise unremarkable small pocket pistols, introduced the PP in 1929. It was the first shot of a revolution; it became the model for most double-action/single-action auto pistols that would follow it, using a trigger bar that runs along the right side of the frame to activate its sear, and containing a then-patented decocking safety.

A Veteran’s Day Message from Col (Ret). Jack Tobin, US Army SF, President, Special Forces Association. 

This was the pinnacle of Shannon Richardson’s acting career. Maybe the virus made her do it.