Posted on 12/31/2004 3:00:06 AM PST by csvset
The Associated Press
MILFORD -- A fisherman found a heavy machine gun on the ice of a creek near Fort Riley, and Geary County sheriff's deputies later found two more.
The three Browning .50-caliber guns were all in working condition, Sheriff's Lt. Sandy Popovich said, but none was loaded.
Sheriff Jim Jensen said he didn't know how the guns got there, and the Army's Criminal Investigation Division is looking into the matter.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers owns the land, Jensen said, and soldiers from Fort Riley have used it for training. The guns were found in an area accessible to the public.
The guns were turned over to the Army.
Popovich said the fisherman found the first machine gun at about 9 a.m. Wednesday at Madison Creek, about two miles north of Milford.
He gave it to the Geary County Sheriff's Department, which searched the area and found a second gun under the ice and the third in the grass on the creek's bank.
Jeff Coverdale, a Fort Riley spokesman, said no missing weapons had been reported to his office.
A Corsair. Would have crashed in 1945.
B-25 or P-47.
I would stick those buggers in the pipe, cap it and bury them somewhere. I would then aquire ammunition and accessories, slowly, discreetly, over a long period of time.
These babies would never be unburied...unless they were needed.
A friend of mine once found an M1 Garand along a canal down here in SW Florida when we were out four-wheeling and stopped to take a leak. With a new stock and a thorough cleaning and bit of refinish, it was perfectly serviceable, if not a beauty contest winner.
I bet you were using the wrong bait.
Some clown lost a .45 when we were on an exercise once in Germany. The whole bn. spent days doing the double arm interval, head down, police call thing, only we were trying to police up some LT's missing .45. Never did find the damn thing, probably mashed into the mud by a tank or an APC.
Been there, done that – with a class of brand new 2nd Lieutenants. One of them had lost his M16 on the final field exercise (night land navigation). I was NCOIC of the support company. We found it leaning against a tree along with his protective mask.
Yes. About the most powerful that's made.
After WW2, my wife's grandfather was sent to dump crates of garands still packed in cosmoline in a creek. A few months later, the Korean war broke out and he was sent back to retrieve them.
I've always wanted to know where that creek was in case they missed a couple.
It was a P-47D-25 from 1944 and it apparently slid in while strafing very low during training. Kahoolawe was a major Pacific firing range and both the Army Air Force and the Navy trained there extensively. The "Jug" had leading edge damage, a torn up prop, and the engine and cowl were bent downward (with one piston hanging loose below - more on that in a minute). Since Kahoolawe doesn't have much rainfall and the crash site was high up on the spine of the island, there was very little corrosion. The canopy was open and the seat belts released, so the pilot looks to have gotten through just fine. The tires were still nicely inflated and there was a beautiful nose art painting of a bee riding a bomb on the cowl. Unfortunately, when the leadership of the 1st Marine Brigade heard about it, there was major scavenging so I suspect it isn't in any usable shape now.
Now for that piston: I wanted that as a souvenir, so I asked my EOD Staff Sergeant for a little glob of C-4, some time fuse and a cap. He told me that he was the explosives expert and that he would cut the connecting rod for me - he was pretty indignant that a mere artillery lieutenant would dare to handle explosives in his presence.
I watched him put about two fingers of C-4 on the connecting rod and I told him that it looked like too much. He fixed me with a frosty glare and said "Lieutenant, I'm the trained one here; now let me finish".
We ignited the fuse, went about 200m away and waited. Pow! the C-4 went off, accompanied by the whine of that piston flying off in the distance and bits of the bottom of the engine and cowl raining down.
"Might have been a little too much.." he said.
Maybe he found six of them?
Will your homeowner's insurance cover this?
You might enjoy reading this thread.
An oldie, but a goodie.
Some company armorer is going to be court-martialed and deserved so. Some C.O. is going to have his carrier ended.
Thanks for the link. Interesting and informative article by one of my favorite authors. ;-)
I've got my eye on one, but it's 23 grand.
Since all my kin are poorer than I am, I'll have to win the lottery to own it.
You may have to win the Lotto to feed them.
Sportsman's Guide Online Catalog
http://www.sportsmansguide.com/ctlg/ctlg_page.asp?cid=82&page=65
WOW! 150 rds. of .50 cal. FMJ Ammo with Can.
150 rds. of .50 cal. FMJ Ammo with Can $184.97
Buyer's Club $175.72
Compare at $300.00 Save $115.03!
Or for the more exotic...
http://www.bigskysurplus.com/50_caliber.htm
Company armorer is responsible for a complete inventory every time the arms room is locked. The serial numbers will identify which arms room or storage area they came from. Someone will be court-martialed, his C.O. will probably have his career ended.
I assure you that upon finding one, this redneck would have done a more thorough search to see if there were more. And I would have turned in one fewer than I found.
I would expect that Homeland Security would want to nose around the house to see if I had found more than I turned in, so my new friend would spend some time in an undisclosed location. My biggest problem would be containing my glee. I read it (I think here on FR) some time back and firmly believe --There are few problems in this world that cannot be solved from high ground with a belt-fed weapon.
Hey Archy -- you get moved back to Memphis yet? I think we need to go fishing.
This is a bit of a mystery as I always thought that was a Navy target island. (I dived off that island 30+ years ago.) But here goes, the P-47 Thunderbolt had 8 BMGs, 4 in each wing, however it was an AAC fighter. The year would be 1943, late if the white bars had blue borders and earlier if the borders were red.
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