Less than $6.8k to go!!
Posted on 02/26/2015 7:28:34 PM PST by marktwain
Police were given loaded shotguns outside of police stations during "The McDuffie Riots". McDuffie was a Miami "businessman" whose motorcycle had outrun City of Miami policemen during a chase.
http://beck.library.emory.edu/southernchanges/article.php?id=sc02-7_009
My ship (the Hoel, DDG-13) was homeported in San Diego about that same time and our quarterdeck watches had full magazines. Things must have been done differently on the two coasts.
Air Force, 1981-1985. SP’s on base were said to carry 5 rounds each.
I stood QD watches as a Junior Officer starting in the early 70s. Only the PO of the watch carried a weapon. In boot camp you fired 28 rounds of 45 ammunition. At OCS we fired probably twice that amount. After that there was no more small arms training. When I was based in Norfolk, it was just about a monthly routine for somebody to fire a bullet into the QD shack overhead while relieving the mid watch. Back when we had Security Guard Force on small boys to protect special weapons, those guys were relatively well qualified with the 45. Sailors in general were poorly trained in small arms.
Cold-War MP on a Nato site in Germany with M16’s. When going on duty (24 hrs on-duty / 48 hrs off-duty) we got one 20 round mag in the mag-well (but did not chamber a round) and two sealed packages each containing three 20 round mags for our GI mag pouches. Heaven only knows how old the ammo was. Total of 140 rounds of 5.56 on tap. We also had M60’s and the ammo cans for those stayed on the work site. Each squad had a couple grenadiers with m240’s, but I never laid eyes on a 40mm grenade round the entire time I was there. We also had the 90mm recoiless, but was told by the armorer that there wasn’t a live 90mm round in US Army inventory in all of Europe. This was mid 1980’s.
Next was garrison MP duty stateside and we went on duty with 1911’s and were issued three mags with 7 rounds each. No chambered round (officially), but I’m pretty sure most of us carried cocked & locked in that flap holster. Total of 21 rounds of .45 on tap for duty.
In 1978 I had to investigate an accident that occurred aboard a minesweeper in the mid-Atlantic. A Gunner's Mate had set up a .50 on a pedestal mount for some gunnery practice but he was in no way trained to do so. The first time he tried to chamber a round. it failed to fire. He tried again and the round fired about 1 inch out of battery. The brass fragments from the cartridge case riddled his groin and upper legs and he was bleeding out from dozens of wounds.
A Soviet AGI intelligence (spy) ship was in the vicinity and heard the emergency call and transferred the wounded Gunner's Mate to their hospital spaces and saved his life.
One of those few good moments in the Cold War.
One time I had the XO fall out the SDF in formation on the cruisers helo deck and I did the standard Marine thing of going from sailor to sailor to inspect their M-14s.
You know the drill: I go to the first man, first squad and he brings his rifle to port arms and I snatch it from him and go through the ritual of looking through it and checking for cleanliness and operability while quizzing that sailor.
Not this time. The first sailor wouldn't let go of his rifle and I had to tell him to let go of it to end the tug of war we were in. I looked the rifle over and it was slathered in oil and the sailor in question didn't know anything about it at all. I went to the next sailor in my ritual one step, left face in front of him. I snatched the rifle and when I did, the flash suppressor went sailing off the edge of the helo deck, bounced once and ended up in the sea. I was startled into silence for a second and I asked him if he had ever seen that rifle before and he told me that he hadn't - he'd just been handed that rifle 10 minutes before I got there.
I called off the inspection and spent the rest of my time teaching all those sailors how the rifle worked and how use it in case the ship was attacked.
Nice young guys, but clearly not trained in any way before I got there.
Yep, that is pretty well how it goes with sailors and small arms. The thing though is each of those ships has several rated gunners mates on the crew. These people are actually trained in the use and maintain of small arms. Why they are not utilized to work with the crews is beyond me.
This one was used at the test range, some movie star got arrested protesting there.
NOT true..... was active duty then. Both security an LE side never carried less than 18 rounds for a revolver or 120 for a M16. My EOD detachment kept our small arms at their armory. Watched em at their guard mounts an turn ins at times an issue was standard. Never 5 rounds only.
And his kid Charlie is still a partying SOB as half a man ....:o)
MaDuce headspace..... when in doubt all the way in and two and a half out. Guess I was lucky in my career as I only saw a headspace gauge at the range.
The dweebs at Homestead probably carried five. I think they were afraid the Aircraft Generation Squadron would swipe their guns.
LOL.... “left em in a light all” or on top of a H1 heater etc was their excuse....:o)
Now, of course I haven't touched a .50 in years, but you never know...
Since I was a Marine Captain, the SEALs were not easy to work with and we had pretty wide differences in opinion about what weapons were needed. When I went to their armory to have a look the first time, I spotted everything and anything, including a 7.92mm Czech ZB, a whole bunch of worn-out and ratty AKs and a single Type 14 Nambu pistol and when I asked them about them, they just gave me that know-it-all look and said "who knows where or when we might need them".
My biggest confrontation was when they wanted me to get a dozen MAC-10 SMGs with suppressors. Cobray was out of business for years and they aren't the most suitable combat weapon as far as quality, ruggedness, etc. - they're really mostly a weapon for drug gangs - I recommended H&K MP5s. They insisted on the MAC-10s and the Admiral told me to get MAC-10s. I did and the day they got them, they took them to the indoor range at a Virginia Beach gunshop and burned through 6,000 rounds of 9mm and wore out all of their suppressors.
Being a Marine officer, putting me in charge of these characters wasn't really a good fit and I was happy when I transferred to other duties.
Agree ..... still have a set of Dupont #5 cap crimpers I carried for 25 plus years in the service an 20 more as a contractor...... in the same old keeper box......
Thanks for the story. Never had much contact with you Gyrene fighting men in my 25 years in the Navy. Only one’s I remember were a Capt. and a Gunny that were the Combat Cargo Officers on gator freighter I sailed on. They were both excellent at their duties.
I was once an Air Force Security Policeman. I was at Kunsan AB Korea during the late ‘70s and my usual armament was both a .38 and 18 rounds and M16 with 240 rounds. My grenadier had M16 with M203 40mm grenade launcher with 240 and 40 rounds each. My machine gunner had an M60 with 2500 rounds. Drove around in a M706 or M113.
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