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From The Captain's Journal:My love for the firearm puts me in good company. Regardless of your commitment to high capacity magazines, the 1911 still lives, and today earns more respect and demands more money than plastic pistols.
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Thursday, September 17, 2020
The Model 1911 in Vietnam
During the close-quarters situations that most infantry engagements occurred in during the Vietnam War, the pistol often took on a more important role than it was intended to fill. Notably, the venerable M1911 pistol became the principal tool of the “Tunnel Rats”. They were the brave men who crawled into enemy bunkers, underground fortifications and tunnel complexes often armed with nothing more than a pistol and a flashlight.
MORE
My love for the firearm puts me in good company. Regardless of your commitment to high capacity magazines, the 1911 still lives, and today earns more respect and demands more money than plastic pistols.
MORE
MORE
My love for the firearm puts me in good company. Regardless of your commitment to high capacity magazines, the 1911 still lives, and today earns more respect and demands more money than plastic pistols.
MORE
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Yeah, I crawled around more than a few caves with a headlamp and an M9. Not a fun time. "Hey, grab my feet, and when I yell, yank like hell, I'm about to pull the pin!"
ReplyDeleteFrom a friend who was a tunnel rat, shooting a .45 in an enclosed space is an ear drum banger. He went to a smaller cal to save his hearing.
ReplyDeleteOne thing left out was C-4. I'd have a quarter stick all set to go, primed with fuse. Also, had my handy zippo with Lucy standing on Snoopys dog house yelling, "Hey Marine, you wanna blow job?" Of course the required shit bird on the other side. The anchor and globe with a eagle, beat to shit, with a few feathers stickin out of it's ass. Sometimes a rope and tie both feet if ya please. If yer injured and ya only got one leg tied when they try to pull you out and the other leg the cocks up in the tunnel yer fucked. Most of them tunnels led to rooms. The rooms were covered with split bamboo and damn nice. Marines were stingy with handing out weapons. The radio, blooper carried them and I had one cuz I was demo man. I always thought every man should have one it he wanted to carry it.
ReplyDeleteMy wife had an uncle that drank himself to death. At the funeral, his sister stated that he was a tunnel rat and killed one of his fellow teammates in a tunnel. Thought the dude was a VC. He only told her about that event. She said he never got over it.
ReplyDeleteShit, what a memory to live with. That would a been a tough one. War sucks.
DeleteA good High school buddy of mine joined the Army instead of waiting to be drafted. He did his basic and came home on leave. While home he sold everything that was his, and then he went to Vietnam. He wrote me he was a tunnel rat. Later he came home in a bag. His Mother reached out to me, she couldn't put all the pieces together. Why did he sell all his stuff? Why did he volunteer for tunnel rat job? Why was he unhappy?
DeleteI was just a kid myself. I knew my friend was a pool hustling genius and feared nothing.
I had a car and he didn't, so I was his ride to pool halls around the county. He'd sucker in the farm boys and take their money and we would just barely escape with our lives. And then he joined the Army. Death wish?
Has anyone ever found stat's on the casualty rate of tunnel rats compared to ground troops? You read these great stories of short guys with giant balls going into these tunnels armed with a pistol and a flashlight but I've never seen any info on how bad the attrition rate was. If you can point me at a great book about the tunnel rats I would appreciate it. I read the book about (Chui Hoi ?), damned if I can remember the name, a giant tunnel system they found. Some of those stories gave me a monster case of the willies.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't down South but I think you speak of the Cu Chi tunnel system. Seems it went all the way into Saigon but it was many, many miles of tunnels. By the Bye Chieu Hoi means, I surrender.
DeleteGot three of 'em. Two Springfields and an H&K. Hard to master caliber, but bless Mr. Browning's memory.
ReplyDeleteI just LOVE my Springfield slab of iron. 45.
ReplyDeleteI've had a Charles Daley and about five Springfield's. Also have a Rock River in 9 mm and a Colt Mustang in.380. The Mustang is not the most accurate, but is easily concealed. Plus it doesn't weigh my pants down which helps with concealed carry, not having to hitch the pants up every three steps.
ReplyDelete