'Nam era movies and Hollywood hype

Old Gunny

Platoon did show the "poopburners detail"-the music was Bach I believe, Apocalypse Now was based on Joseph Conrad's l902 book "Heart of Darkness" whic describes Bobby McNamara and Light Bulb Jonson, our C-in-C when 1st.MARDIV hit Red Beach in l965 to change the hearts&minds of the VietCong-But Tom Hanks as a Ranger Capt. leading a recon patrol on a suicide mission-first, they all should have carried M-1 Garands (like I "dinged a 244/250" with at Pendleton's Camp Matthews rifle range in l962) for commality of ammo-the BAR was too heavy, the M-1 carbine had no stopping power, the Thompson was a "spray&pray" weapon- the Ranger sniper with the l903 Springfield (shooting left-handed) used three different detachable scopes during the movie, and at the end, when they hooked up with the troopers from the 101st. A/B- he went up into the tower, cranked off eight accurate rounds from a 5 round capacity BA rifle before he paid the price all rookie snipers to- never get about ground cover, Gy/Sgt. Carlos Hathcock practiced that, as did all of us snipers that didn't come back in body bags.

MMOMEQ-55

Had the pleasure of meeting Gy/Sgt. Hathcock when I was in sniper school. He was a wealth of knowledge. Shame he was taken from us to soon. The man could flat out shoot[8D]

Never carried the M-1 carbine but I own one now. Love it. Never could understand why people say it has no stopping power. No one will argue the stopping power of the 357 magnum yet the M-1 Carbine has double the energy and twice the speed of the 357. The so called experts say that the Carbine is not up to killing a deer but I have killed 5 with mine, one a 10 pointer. Course this was done with reloads and soft point bullets. Sure it is not the 7.62, or the 30-06. Or even the 5.56, but with proper bullet placement it will do the job.

Old Gunny

To MMOMEQ-55. Semper Fi and great letter. USMC scout/sniper school initially opened in l976 at Quantico, VA- home of the infamous "Death Valley" 1000 yd. range, with Gunny Hathcock (White Feather) as NCOIC/Primary instructor. I trained at that armory prior to being issued my green skivvies, we knew where our next duty station would be- main Regt. Armory DaNang- At Quantico someone had quoted something from Robin Hood about Armorers-went like this, if old memory hasn't slipped her moorings: "The sword is a weapon to conquor the world, I honor the man who shakes it-but what is he, nor what could he be, without first the man who makes it." I belong to the Marine Corps League, we had quite a fund raising drive for his family after his tragic death from Cancer- There are several books about Carlos N. Hathcock- her's a short bit FYI- raised in rural Arkansas, his father was a WW2 decorated Army Vet- brought home a Mauser, removed the firing pin and gave it to Carlos at age 6- at age 8 he had a Stevens .22cal single shot rifle, and fed the family on all the wild game he head shot (don't ruin the meat)and at age 12 he bought a single shot 20 gauge for birds, left it at home most of the time because he could kill a single quail flying (not on the ground) with it almost every time, .22 shells cost a penny, 20 ga. shotgun shells cost 20 cents back then- entered the Corps at age 17, one of the very few Marine Distinguished Riflemen to set new records at Camp Perry 1000 yard Wimbledon Match Cup= to say Carlos could shoot a rifle extremely well is like saying Eric Clapton can play a guitar-Hope this info adds to your profile on L'ong Tran..