In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
? For Viet Nam vets
JnRockwall
Member Posts: 16,350 ✭✭✭
How did you get your mags?
Did you carry them over when you left or did you have a place at base camp you could go get what you wanted?
Did you ever see ammo cans with loaded mags in them?
Did you ever see stripper clips?
what year were you over there?
Did you carry them over when you left or did you have a place at base camp you could go get what you wanted?
Did you ever see ammo cans with loaded mags in them?
Did you ever see stripper clips?
what year were you over there?
Comments
2. see 1
3. We loaded as many mags as we could get our hands on and used empty ammo cans to store them.
4. Yes
5. 1970
In the field we got both, loaded mags and ammo in stripper clips. Real pain in the *, 20 round mags olny functioned with 18 rounds. Always had loose floating around, never came out even.
W.D.
KLINE, DONALD G RA16343675
He was also in the Korean war 51-53 Wounded on June 26th 51'
http://www.koreanwar.org/html/army_wia_pow_kia.html
He had a hard time with Vet. BS.
From the time I was a little boy, he told me if anyone said they were a combat veteran in Vietnam, ask them about the little green lizard.
There were Stripper Clips even in the 90's. Sometimes it was hard to find the attachment to the Mag.
How did you get your mags?
Battalion Supply
Did you carry them over when you left or did you have a place at base camp you could go get what you wanted?
Have no idea what you mean by this question.
Did you ever see ammo cans with loaded mags in them?
No
Did you ever see stripper clips?
Yes
what year were you over there?
1971/2
Woody quote:Originally posted by pietro75
My Uncle Don was part of a military advisory group in 65'. He was there from 65'-68'. He was a replacement for the 7th Cav. after the battle of Pleiku.
KLINE, DONALD G RA16343675
He was also in the Korean war 51-53 Wounded on June 26th 51'
http://www.koreanwar.org/html/army_wia_pow_kia.html
He had a hard time with Vet. BS.
From the time I was a little boy, he told me if anyone said they were a combat veteran in Vietnam, ask them about the little green lizard.
Spies
NRA Lifetime Benefactor Member.
OK I will bite Whats the Deal with the Lizardquote:Originally posted by RugerNiner
Little green lizards that sounded for all the world like they were saying "F**k You" when you came up on them and they got scared.
Referred to as F-U lizards and they don't just do it when startled.
It's a type of gecko and they're all over SE Asia, not just VN.
He said that lizard drove them nuts.
Not VN But Okinawa Keep them in my room, they kept the Bugs away. The ones that keep you awake at night type of Bugs.
If you can't feel the music; it's only pink noise!
Dad said he had 10 mags, about what everyone had. But if someone was rotating back to the states, they would leave all their stuff, mags, ammo, grenades, smoke, everything that pertained to the war with the platoon.
So I was curious if this poster was correct in saying they were meant to be disposable. Dad said every ammo can he saw was a 50 cal can and it had 50 boxes of 20 5.56. They opened and loaded their mags by hand. The only gun they had that was prepacked was the m60 and they had cans of ammo for it. He said they could burn the barrel out of it before they ran out of linked ammo.
Uncle Jerry said only officers had carbines when they were over there. Grunts had the full size gun. Dad agreed seeing a carbine was a rare event.
As a ammo collector, I see all sorts of config on ammo and ammo cans. The comment about the disposable mags caught me because I can't recall any war having disposable mags.
Ever war offers a ammo can or a spam can with ammo on strippers, in clips. Never seen loaded mags, but I do know a guy who claims to have a sealed ammo can of 20 rounds mags loaded. I take his word for it, but I have never seen it.
So that's why I was asking. Just trying to get a little better idea how things worked.
I have seen boxed 30-06 ammo on clips! It's cool, 3 clips in a box. And I have seen 1903a3 strippers, 4 of them in a paper box. never seen 556 strippers in a box. Someone mentioned 7.62x51 on strippers for the m14? Never seen one of those either! I want one.
Dad was given a M14 when he arrived in country, a month later he was given his m16. I would TRADE my Corvette to have that M14! Or even his m16.
So that's all. Just trying to learn a little something for you who were there and the history from the boxes of ammo I come across.
Along with the lizards, there was the "re-up" bird. Re-up was slang for re-enlist. Lizard had appropriate response to the Re-up bird.
Their ammunition was never supplied in factory loaded and packaged magazines. Instead it came by the 140 rd. bandoleer, packaged on 10 rd. strips/clips, two cardboard sleeved strips to each pouch. Each bandoleer also contained a clip charger for loading these strips into mags, as well as a big ol' black safety pin for 'adjusting' the bandoleer's fixed carrying strap.
IIRC, it was packaged 5 or 6 bandoleers per ammo can.
This ammunition was then loaded into mags by the end user, but sometimes individual units maintained stocks of mags they'd preloaded for emergency issue to personnel.
The mags themselves were designed to be lightweight, inexpensive, easily manufactured items which - in Colt's mind - could be simply discarded after use if necesssary. They weren't highly accountable items, with huge amounts of these shipped compared with the number of rifles.
The statement that M16 magazines are 'disposable' items is true, but there's a bit of a misunderstanding.
Their ammunition was never supplied in factory loaded and packaged magazines. Instead it came by the 140 rd. bandoleer, packaged on 10 rd. strips/clips, two cardboard sleeved strips to each pouch. Each bandoleer also contained a clip charger for loading these strips into mags, as well as a big ol' black safety pin for 'adjusting' the bandoleer's fixed carrying strap.
IIRC, it was packaged 5 or 6 bandoleers per ammo can.
This ammunition was then loaded into mags by the end user, but sometimes individual units maintained stocks of mags they'd preloaded for emergency issue to personnel.
The mags themselves were designed to be lightweight, inexpensive, easily manufactured items which - in Colt's mind - could be simply discarded after use if necesssary. They weren't highly accountable items, with huge amounts of these shipped compared with the number of rifles..
This is most correct, as I recall. 6 bandoliers of 140 rounds each loaded on 10 round stripper clips in each standard sized ammo can. Load your own magazines. Mags were 'expendable' - meaning no big deal if they were lost, and usually easy to get replacements. We commonly place loaded mags into the cloth bandoliers and carried the mags in them - attached to the body in any of several ways.
Carbines were around, but usually carried only by special mission guys, or perhaps someone who knew someone... but I never saw one carried in an infantry unit... officers and enlisted carried M16s.
Other than standard issue items (ammo in this case), common practice and availability of "stuff" varied among units and locations in country. I developed a theory that proximity to Saigon equated to accessibility to good stuff... never proven, just seemed that way at the time.
As I stated neither of recall ever seeing a stripper clip, bandolier nothing. They had ammo cans with paper boxes of 20 rounds and they loaded their mags as needed.
I know it's just hollywood, but I can't recall a single movie where they did not "fleece up" their gear. I always had the impression that is probably the most accurate thing hollywood had ever done. If the NVA captured m16's, the last thing you would want is to leave them plenty of mags and ammo for it.
Someone gave me a link once to a couple of websites were you could build a period correct rifle. I have since lost those links due to computer failures over the years. But one of the links had a great article on the history of the mags and the mfg and why and whats of their demise. It's a great read.
As with anything, there are going to be varying accounts, I means hell, pops is 72! He has a mind sharp as a razor, but face it, you don't remember everything.
I find this stuff interesting, some may say I am trying to argue, but Im not. I am just trying to learn something about the history of a gun and a war.
I wish I had the time to just sit and listen to vets tell their stories. Matter of fact, I wish there was an out let for vets to tell their stories for public record. A website or a phone number or a camera crew who could film or record peoples account from the wars.
We were assinged magazines when we got to the unit in the states and those mags staid with us, before we deployed we would get more mags a few months before. Mags would go in our gear, M4s would go on the plane with us.
I was in a mechanized unit and carried a 50 cal can packed to the top with pre-loaded (18 rds each) magazines. I was in the same area at the same time as CapnMidnight although we never ran into each other.
Stripper clips came the same way they do now, in the bandoleers with ammo. I loaded my mags with the 15th and 16th rds being tracers. When I saw then, it was time to reload.
I was there from Sept 68 to Sept 69.
Its usually called "police up"... just an FYI (lol).
If you read Txs description ("Their ammunition was never supplied in factory loaded and packaged magazines. Instead it came by the 140 rd. bandoleer, packaged on 10 rd. strips/clips, two cardboard sleeved strips to each pouch. Each bandoleer also contained a clip charger for loading these strips into mags, as well as a big ol' black safety pin for 'adjusting' the bandoleer's fixed carrying strap." it may match your dad's recollection if you allow a little for time, fading memory, and the occasional lapse in standards. Probably like most similar situations, stuff happened.
I remember never being able to understand why the * safety pin was on the bandoleer, but always kept one for the occasional splinter, or other times when I needed something sharply pointed. The issued ammo pouches were designed for the M14 mags - didn't work well with the M16 mags. We put the mags into the bandoliers, tied them around our waist (above the pistol belt), or did a loop-the-loop thing around out arms and shoulders so the bandolier rode chest high.
But enough fond recollections of the good old days....