Posted on 07/31/2002 11:36:58 AM PDT by 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.
Boy, is he wrong! Doesn't he know their most vital task is to see to it that companies, that is, those that are large contributors, get lots of government contracts? Politicians couldn't care less about what happens to our troops.
No, but regardless of the weapon, whether it functioned flawlessly or not, the primary issue still is the unpowered value of the 9mm round and it's inability to stop a determined foe on the battlefield.
NeverGore
Ah, the Webley-Fosberry "Zig-Zag". One of the world's truly whacky weapons. I've only seen one fired on "Tales of the Gun', but I'd give my eye teeth to own one. It just reeks of British "oddball scientist" (or gun designer), and seems so charming.
I was forced to retire my "very old" Colt 1911- after trying the 3" barrel pocket cannon "Ultra CDP II" from Kimber,.... I could not believe the performance right out of the box - or the extreme light weight or smooth finishes... Slips into jeans or light jacket pocket almost as easily as a wallet... All edges have been "melted" to prevent snags or catches. Very light weight! Shoots tighter groups than my 1911... Best money I've spent in a long time.
Check them out....lots of choices!
http://www.kimberamerica.com/CDP_Series.htm
Semper Fi
I have also heard reports of drugged soldiers in other third-world armies (Africa).
Go .45. 9mm ball won't do when faced with fanatics drugged to the point of feeling no pain.
If you're serious, buy a Mateba .357. It's very impressive and you don't have to spend the museum price.
After looking at the "melted" pistols, I think they wasted their time. The areas that they "melted" aren't the areas that catch and the edges on the slide release and safeties where the cuts and abrasions do occur aren't "melted". Save your money and don't buy an ugly gun.
Leave it to the politicians. It's okay to get hit with a mortar shell or some type of artillery, or get torched by a flamethrower, but Heaven forbid, it's illegal to get shot with a hollowpoint bullet.
Is this the same guy that posted on his website he was an Army Ranger, even though he never earned that distiction?
Is this the same Hackworth that also posted on his website that he was awarded a medal that in truth he never received?
Is this the same Hackworth that was working on a hit piece in Newsweek on Admiral Boorda about an improperly worn device on a ribbon in which Admiral Boorda certainly earned?
Were men still fighting and dying in Vietnam when Jane Hackworth was protesting the war?
It appears Hackworth's resume is a figment of his imagination.
RoseClayborne asks: Of all the medals you received, which one means the most to you?
David Hackworth: I think that of all the medals I've received, the one that is probably the most meaningful to me is the United Nations Peace Award which I was given in 1995 by the United Nations for the work I had done in Australia to create an awareness on the absolute insanity of Ronald Reagan's nuclear policies.
orionsbelt2001 asks: What country was your favorite to be stationed?
David Hackworth: My favorite country in the world is Australia.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.