An Open Letter To Members of Congress from Col. David Hackworth

WorldNewsDaily.com ^ | July 9, 2002 | Col. David Hackworth

[blau993]

TUESDAY JULY 9 2002

An Open Letter to Members of Congress

© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com

Dear Honorable Congresspersons:

One of your vital tasks is to ensure that our warriors who hang it all out on the killing field are equipped with the right stuff.

I don't see that happening anytime soon unless you get enough straight skinny to counteract lobbyist propaganda and other military-industrial-congressional-complex spin. So to help provide more fair and balanced input, I plan to occasionally pass along some of the most commonly recurring bitches that come my way weekly in e-mails, letters, phone calls, etc., from our warriors.

Let's begin with the M-9, the 9 mm Beretta pistol – which our combat troops say is the first item that should be tossed into the junk pile!

"They're constantly breaking," reports a warrior from Afghanistan. "To make matters worse, the 9 mm round is like firing paint balls. I had to pump four rounds into an al-Qaida who was coming at me before he dropped. We're dealing with fanatical crazies out here who won't quit until they die for Allah."

The Beretta can only be used bone-dry. Even then, it jams repeatedly if sand or grit gets into moving parts. Its ball round has proven to be worse than the .38 Colt pistol slug used by the U.S. Army in the Philippines until it was retired almost a century ago in favor of the .45 ACP M-1911 pistol – fielded to stop the Moros, who ironically were also Islamic fanatics.

Now Special Forces and Light Infantry soldiers in Afghanistan want to bring back the century-old .45, and some elite Marine units already have. A Special Forces sergeant says, "The large-caliber, slow-moving .45 bullet puts the bad guys on the ground. Lighter stuff like the Beretta's 9 mm will, too – eventually – but on the battlefield you almost always have to double tap, and in close combat a gunfighter hasn't the time or the ammo to lose firing two rounds."

Rangers, Marines and most Special Ops troops are some of the other elite warriors in the U.S. military who carry personal firearms in combat while the brass look the other way. Quite a few choose to pack two purchased handguns. But the only Rangers who use the Beretta – even as backup – are those who can't afford to buy their own firearms, and they and the rest of these elite fighters unanimously agree that they "can't trust this fragile, unreliable sidearm."

Almost all the Rangers engaged in hand-to-hand combat during Op Anaconda packed their own personal sidearms. "When I ran out of ammo with my rifle, I pulled my pistol," a Ranger sergeant says. "It saved my life. I hit a number of enemy 30-40 yards away who went down immediately from my .45 rounds. With a Beretta, I wouldn't have made it because of the far-too-light 9 mm bullet, play in the action and its limited range."

In another fight, a Ranger fired several torso shots with a .45 pistol before his foe fell. "When we looked at the corpses, we found their mouths full of khat," he says. "It was like these guys were pumped up on PCP. With the Beretta, I'd have had to fire all 15 rounds and then thrown the pistol at this wild-eyed dude."

We went into Vietnam with a bad weapon, the M-16 rifle, which was responsible for killing thousands of our soldiers. It was a jammer, and if you have a jammed rifle in a firefight, you're dead. The M-16 was such a loser that some jungle-smart grunts refused to carry it and packed captured Soviet AK-47s instead.

What the M-16 was to Vietnam, the Beretta is to Afghanistan. And a soldier with no confidence in his weapon isn't the most motivated fighter in Death Valley.

"We're frustrated here that no one in Washington seems to have the slightest concern for our survival," writes a sergeant from Afghanistan. "It's a damn good thing that we have air superiority and so far haven't had many heavy fights."

Perhaps you congressional folks can figure out how to recycle some of the bucks we'll save from the Pentagon-zapped Crusader and get our combat troops a decent sidearm. This would surely relieve some of that frustration and, just by the way, keep our warriors alive.

[blau993]

Hard to believe this wasn't posted, but I've searched high and low and couldn't find it.

Is the Beretta really bad news, or is it just unfortunate to be following in the footsteps of a legend?

I am interested in the Freeper take on this issue.

[jjm2111]

I'm no expert, but personally, if I had to be confronting enemy soldiers, I would rather have my glock .45 or 1911 .45 than the beretta any day. The safety is tough (for me a least) to get to, grip is chunky, and I can control .45 recoil as easily as 9mm. Never been in combat, but I'd rather have a .45 than a 9mm.

[nevergore]

The article is not as much a complaint against the Beretta as the 9MM Hardball round it fires.....If I understood the field guy's, they wouldn't care what sidearm they had if it was firing 9MM, they want a round with more punch like the venerable .45 cal.......
NeverGore

[Future Snake Eater]

Rangers, Marines and most Special Ops troops are some of the other elite warriors in the U.S. military who carry personal firearms in combat while the brass look the other way.

Try doing that in a conventional line unit in the Army, I dare you. Get your @$$ tossed in jail faster than you can say "dishonorable discharge." Yet another reason I want to be on the Spec Ops side of the house...

[blau993]

While admittedly a lot of the dissatisfaction is with the light load, the article also talks about jamming and breaking which I would think is damn inconvenient in a combat setting. I had always heard the Beretta was a fine, well made weapon, and this surprises me.

[harpseal]

The Beretta is an exellent sidearm for Army tests. It was adopted in order to have the US military firing the 9mm Nato round in sidearmsThe stats when one is comparing "ball" ammunition show it to be an ineffective stopper compared to .45 acp ball. Check out evan Marshall's work on this subject.

In short believe the guys coming back from the boonies they know what the problems are and what works. remember it does not help if the guy you are shooting dies one second after he inflicts a mortal wound on you. The .45 acp works.

Stay well - stay safe - stay armed - Yorktown

[harpseal]

definete bang.

[scooter2]

Is the Beretta really bad news, or is it just unfortunate to be following in the footsteps of a legend?

Nearly every police agency that used Beretta's has trashed them and gone to other handguns, usually in larger calibers than 9mm. Most departments are now using .40 S&W or .45 ACP in their semi-autos. A fair number of departments still use wheel guns (revolvers) in .357 magnum.

[danneskjold]

My father has been a gun dealer for many years. He would always tell me that the .45 was considered by many to be one of, if not the best, combat handguns ever made.

[housethatruthbuilt]

good luck with your pursuit....

[jackliberty]

Now that this problem has been brought to light by a true American hero, it should be corrected in one week. If it's not corrected, the congresscritters and/or military procurement officers involved in switching to the Beretta should be tried for aiding and abetting the enemy.

As far as standardizing with NATO, screw it. These are American, not French, troops we're talking about.

The money saved on life insurance payouts should more than compensate for any increased cost to procure a good sidearm.

[harpseal]

Statistically the 9mm with a good hollowpoint can be an effective stopper. However, if one is limited to ball ammunition (round nose full metal jacket) one is much better armed with a .45acp than any other round. I fired a ten shot group from my .45 acp last night and I could fit both hands through the one ragged hole.

This is not to say I advocate ball for carry in a .45acp. I most strongly reccommend hollowpoints as they are less likely to overpenetrate. Overpentration is not so severe a concern in a military situation as it is for a self-defense situation.

Stay well - Stay safe - stay armed - Yorktown

[harpseal]

I note that it is possible for any member of any service to volunteer for BUD/S.

Stay well - Stay safe - stay armed - Yorktown

[housethatruthbuilt]

question to you and others:
i just purchased my first handgun, a 9mm which is fine for target shhoting. my next purchase will be a 45. which ones should i be loking at? heard good things about the Para Ordinance 1911. thanks.

[harpseal]

While I agree with you about what should happen it will not happen.

Stay well - stay safe - stay armed - yorktown

[Gunslingr3]

"The Colt Model 1911 was the product of a very capable person, namely John Moses Browning, father of several modern firearms.

The pistol was designed to comply with the requirements of the U.S. Army, which, during its campaign against the Moros in Philippines, had seen its trusty .38 revolver to be incapable of stopping attackers. An Ordnance Board headed by Col. John T. Thomson (inventor of the Thomson sub-machine-gun) and Col. Louis A. La Garde, had reached the conclusion that the army needed a .45" caliber cartridge, to provide adequate stopping power. In the mean time, J. Browning who was working for Colt, had already designed an autoloader pistol, around a cartridge similar to contemporary .38 Super (dimension-wise). When the Army announced its interest in a new handgun, Browning re-engineered this handgun to accommodate a .45" diameter cartridge of his own design (with a 230 gr. FMJ bullet), and submitted the pistol to the Army for evaluation.

In the selection process, which started at 1906 with firearms submitted by Colt, Luger, Savage, Knoble, Bergmann, White-Merrill and Smith & Wesson, Browning's design was selected, together with the Savage design in 1907. However, the U.S. Army pressed for some service tests, which revealed that neither pistol (Colt's or Savage's) had reached the desired perfection. The Ordnance Department instituted a series of further tests and experiments, which eventually resulted in the appointment of a selection committee, in 1911.

Browning was determined to prove the superiority of his handgun, so he went to Hartford to personally supervise the production of the gun. There he met Fred Moore, a young Colt employee with whom he worked in close cooperation trying to make sure that each part that was produced for the test guns was simply the best possible. The guns produced were submitted again for evaluation, to the committee. A torture test was conducted, on March 3rd, 1911. The test consisted of having each gun fire 6000 rounds. One hundred shots would be fired and the pistol would be allowed to cool for 5 minutes. After every 1000 rounds, the pistol would be cleaned and oiled. After firing those 6000 rounds, the pistol would be tested with deformed cartridges, some seated too deeply, some not seated enough, etc. The gun would then be rusted in acid or submerged in sand and mud and some more tests would then be conducted.

Browning's pistols passed the whole test series with flying colors. It was the first firearm to undergo such a test, firing continuously 6000 cartridges, a record broken only in 1917 when Browning's recoil-operated machine gun fired a 40000 rounds test."

http://www.m1911.org/history.htm

some info on the beretta, and comments from soldiers can be found here: http://www.dtic.mil/soldiers/sep95/p18.html

[CPT Clay]

As an Army officer, quailfied on both, I agree with Mr. Hackworth!!!

[meandog]

"If Iraq came across the Jordan River ... I would grab a rifle and get in the trench and fight and die," Clinton pledged.

...Any chance of outfittin' Beelzebubba with one of them 9-mm Berettas?

[Future Snake Eater]

I note that it is possible for any member of any service to volunteer for BUD/S.

Is it really? I've often wondered that, but no one ever had a straight answer if it was true.

[ReaganIsRight]

I've got a Glock 9mm -- should I buy the .22 conversion kit for it and get a real gun? I've read good articles about the 1911 .45.