There was absolutely nothing special about being a young draftee in 1968. Six months after he got his draft notice, Lamar touched down in Pleiku. He knew exactly nobody in the entire godforsaken country of Vietnam. The vagaries of fate and the inscrutable machinations of the Army admin system landed him in the 4th Infantry Division.
-Alemaster
Absolutely LOVED the, 'blooper'. First qual course was in '74. Stayed current until' 85. Super accurate, much more so than the XM148 or M203....
ReplyDeleteBloop. I have seen Blooper men that could damn near drive nails with them things. See that brown left to the left of the hooch? Put one there. Gott damn on the money.
ReplyDelete"the inscrutable machinations of the Army admin system..."
ReplyDeleteThere's a truism if one ever existed.
The XM-148 was a painful bastard to fire repeatedly due to the narrow buttstock on the old M-16s but the M-79 was much better. It was accurate as hell too.
ReplyDeleteThe thumpers were amazing and simple to operate and punched way beyond their weight class. A thumper story... we were loading a squad into our UH1 for a move to an active sector. As they all climbed in, the guy carrying the thumper banged the stock on the deck as he sat down and the round fired. It punched a hole through the overhead but missed the rotor. Due to the short travel distance, the round never armed and we never found where it landed. As to the aircraft, a quick look saw no wires, cables or tubes were hit so I helped the crew chief put some green hundred mile an hour duct tape over the hole and away we went.
ReplyDeleteI worked with a Vietnam vet 35 years ago who loved the M79. He delivered dispatches to units in the field and carried one loaded with beehive rounds when he went out. He said when he'd get on the chopper to go out the pilot would take the M79 away from him and give it back when they set down. I guess he'd heard about incidents like this.
Deletewildbill
I was a mech grunt '81-'83. Never got to handle a blooper but loved the -203. I learned to use the sights at Benning but later did it by feel. Pissed off some of the powers-that-were when I shot better with it that way than when they ordered me to use the sights "...like you're supposed to, PRIVATE!"
ReplyDeleteFuckwits.