Sporting Lad
Regular
- Location
- Vancouver Island
(NOTE: This post is a pre-ramble to the thread about my M-14 Project Gun-- If you don't want to read all the introductory Forrest Gump stuff, just jump ahead
to "Part 2" (upcoming in subsequent post).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was the spring of 1962 in the USA. John F. Kennedy was President, and my peers and I were all paraphrasing JFK's immortal words, "What can we do for our Country?"
There were hints on the news about a 'trouble spot' somewhere in SE Asia that would have to be seen to, but the crisis at hand was in Berlin where the Soviets had just put up some kind of wall. I was about to graduate high school with no clear direction in mind, but I needed to make a decision. I wasn't ready for college and four more years of academics. My big brother was already a captain in the 101st at 26, but there was something about jumping out of a perfectly good airplane that just seemed wrong to me. No, I was a tank junkie for as far back as I could remember. During a family visit to Ft. Campbell, KY in 1961, he arranged for me to test drive one of their M-41 'Walker Bulldog' tanks, and from that moment I was totally hooked--all the firepower I could want, in an armored vehicle with gobs more hp than my Hot-rod Ford!
I enlisted in the U.S. Army as a 'Regular Army' soldier in January of 1963. Six months after graduation day I found myself at Ft. Dix, NJ in the dead of winter, with a Drill Sgt scaring the piss out of me. Wow, the first two weeks of Basic really sucked. Everybody want to go home. The thing that saved me from becoming a 'recycle' or worse, was the day I was issued my M-1 Garand. Oh, man, it was like,
"Baby, where have you been all my life?"
We spent the next six weeks of Basic living with and learning about the M-1 rifle. On the final day of our "Trainfire" qualification, I was two rounds away from a perfect score when a target rose up at 300 yards. I took my time and punched it.
It went down just as all the others had before it, but the 'Cadre Corporal' holding my score card wouldn't let me have it--"Heh-heh, it was on the way down before you fired, troop." I thought, 'What a prick!' When the final target of the test came up at 350 yards, I took a snapshot and nailed it (dead center, I'm sure). He had to score that one as a hit and I ended up with the company's highest score--299 out of 300.
Next stop was Ft. Knox Armor School and eight weeks of some really fun training in more relaxed surroundings.
Yeah-- Our NCOs were not all psychotic killers! It was all tanks and .45 ACP pistols and SMGs.
Fast forward to a TO&E unit 'somewhere in Germany' where I'm low man in the crew of an M-48 tank. Wow, I didn't
care that I was treated like a general dogsbody, cos I had a whole new array of weapons to play with!
It was there I was issued my first M-14. It was not 'love at first sight' in the same way as it was with the M-1. I wasn't sure if I liked that long, skinny barrel sticking way out in front like that, and the 20 round magazine looked cool, but it was getting in the way all the time.
Thankfully, we didn't have to stow them on board the tanks--when we were in the tanks, the M-14s were sleeping in the arms room.
We got them out for cleaning, pulling guard duty, qualifications, parades, and field maneuvers not involving our armour. Sometime I'll tell you the story of the CO who insisted that the M-14s must be carried on-board the tanks...
Time went on, as did the formative years of transition from late adolescence to early adulthood. Over the following years we got a new M-60A1 tank,
and I eventually got moved up to tank commander.
I thought I had found my place in life.
But Kennedy had gotten murdered, the war in Vietnam was really heating up, and the times were a-changin'...
OK, enough stories of army life, let's get to my project gun!
to "Part 2" (upcoming in subsequent post).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was the spring of 1962 in the USA. John F. Kennedy was President, and my peers and I were all paraphrasing JFK's immortal words, "What can we do for our Country?"
There were hints on the news about a 'trouble spot' somewhere in SE Asia that would have to be seen to, but the crisis at hand was in Berlin where the Soviets had just put up some kind of wall. I was about to graduate high school with no clear direction in mind, but I needed to make a decision. I wasn't ready for college and four more years of academics. My big brother was already a captain in the 101st at 26, but there was something about jumping out of a perfectly good airplane that just seemed wrong to me. No, I was a tank junkie for as far back as I could remember. During a family visit to Ft. Campbell, KY in 1961, he arranged for me to test drive one of their M-41 'Walker Bulldog' tanks, and from that moment I was totally hooked--all the firepower I could want, in an armored vehicle with gobs more hp than my Hot-rod Ford!
I enlisted in the U.S. Army as a 'Regular Army' soldier in January of 1963. Six months after graduation day I found myself at Ft. Dix, NJ in the dead of winter, with a Drill Sgt scaring the piss out of me. Wow, the first two weeks of Basic really sucked. Everybody want to go home. The thing that saved me from becoming a 'recycle' or worse, was the day I was issued my M-1 Garand. Oh, man, it was like,
"Baby, where have you been all my life?"
We spent the next six weeks of Basic living with and learning about the M-1 rifle. On the final day of our "Trainfire" qualification, I was two rounds away from a perfect score when a target rose up at 300 yards. I took my time and punched it.
It went down just as all the others had before it, but the 'Cadre Corporal' holding my score card wouldn't let me have it--"Heh-heh, it was on the way down before you fired, troop." I thought, 'What a prick!' When the final target of the test came up at 350 yards, I took a snapshot and nailed it (dead center, I'm sure). He had to score that one as a hit and I ended up with the company's highest score--299 out of 300.
Next stop was Ft. Knox Armor School and eight weeks of some really fun training in more relaxed surroundings.
Yeah-- Our NCOs were not all psychotic killers! It was all tanks and .45 ACP pistols and SMGs.
Fast forward to a TO&E unit 'somewhere in Germany' where I'm low man in the crew of an M-48 tank. Wow, I didn't
care that I was treated like a general dogsbody, cos I had a whole new array of weapons to play with!
It was there I was issued my first M-14. It was not 'love at first sight' in the same way as it was with the M-1. I wasn't sure if I liked that long, skinny barrel sticking way out in front like that, and the 20 round magazine looked cool, but it was getting in the way all the time.
Thankfully, we didn't have to stow them on board the tanks--when we were in the tanks, the M-14s were sleeping in the arms room.
We got them out for cleaning, pulling guard duty, qualifications, parades, and field maneuvers not involving our armour. Sometime I'll tell you the story of the CO who insisted that the M-14s must be carried on-board the tanks...
Time went on, as did the formative years of transition from late adolescence to early adulthood. Over the following years we got a new M-60A1 tank,
and I eventually got moved up to tank commander.
I thought I had found my place in life.
But Kennedy had gotten murdered, the war in Vietnam was really heating up, and the times were a-changin'...
OK, enough stories of army life, let's get to my project gun!
