[Chainmail]

That's funny! I carried a grease gun for a couple of weeks while in Vietnam because it looked and felt cool - but it was very heavy with a loaded magazine, slow firing, and the massive bolt that slid forward when you pulled the trigger made accurate aiming very difficult. Worse, the enemy always showed up and 10 meters and 300 meters - so the grease gun was OK for 10 meters but useless at 300 meters. The magazines were a B-tch to load and once you fired all your magazines up, you were in a lousy position to try to load more while the shooting continued.

I finally realized that a loaded M-14 weighed the same as a grease gun and was much more effective at all ranges, so I traded the grease gun to the SeaBees for beer.

Carried an M2 Carbine for a short while too - an excellent, controllable full-auto weapon but all I used it for was killing a crocodile we spotted in a river. As before, when your life depended on it, the M-14 was the only choice.

[central_va]

Funny thing about my dad. We were watching some war movie and the solders were going house to house kicking in doors and running in. He laughed at that. Before his squad went into a house the first thing they would do is use frag grenades, tommy guns and grease guns and reduce the door to splinters. There wouldn’t be a door there anymore. Then the next thing was either smoke and/or frag grenades went in. Only after that did someone go in through a window with a 1911 and never through the door - only if there were no other choice of entrance.