Murphy's Laws of War

Off-Topic Off Topic - Militaria
#21

Yes, and even if a weapon was made by the lowest bidder, it wasn’t always made to the lowest price, as endless defence blowouts prove.

Glib comments like the above about weapons supposedly being made cheaply by the lowest bidder can be attached to good weapons which performed badly for reasons entirely unrelated to tender price or design.

The M16 in Vietnam is a perfect example.

Good weapon, good design, well built, wrongly accused of being made by Mattel Toy Corporation to exemplify its allegedly shoddy nature.

Just destroyed by government / military idiots specifying cheaper ball powder rather then the manufacturer’s carefully calculated powder for the load and efficient operation.

Killed a lot of grunts for fractions of cents a load, but it had nothing to do with cheap tenders or bad manufacture and everything to do with bean counters in administration imposing their ill-informed views on ordnance and military matters.

#22

Dont smoke too much,and avoid to use your lighter too much

#23

How else are you going to get a brew on?

#24

pdf27:in the frontline or the foxhole don’t use if you don’t want to die too shortly,by the snipers
the light your first cigarette,the sniper spot you,at the second kill you

#25

Only if you’re a $%£&ing moron. Get down in the bottom of your shell scrape, get a cover over the top and you’ll be fine. How do you think you give a set of orders at night?

#26

The soldiers were also told they didn’t need to clean their space-age wonder rifles, and cleaning kits were not initially issued for the AR-15/M-16…

#27

This is advice from one old veteran who survived the eastern front in 1944,not my idea

#28

You mean that they actually had people dumb enough to smoke in the open at night? If any of my lot did that they’d be doing the Spoon of Doom all night long!

#29

LMAO! :smiley:

Do you care to describe this corrective activity?

#30

Well, you know that in a triangular harbour you have a triangular track plan just inside the people? And that crawling around said track plan is a popular way of punishing miscreants (such as those who leave their rifle more than arms reach away)?
Well the Spoon of Doom combines the racing spoon you keep in your jacket (for eating boil in the bag meals with) with crawling around the track plan. Or to be exact stabbing the back end of the spoon in the ground and pulling yourself around with it.

#31

Leaving aside the Spoon of Doom, do you allow independent movement in night harbours?

It used to be the Australian rule in Vietnam that nobody moved independently at night unless they wanted to risk getting shot or grenaded by their own side.

A mate of mine in Vietnam made the mistake of moving out of position at night on patrol and getting caught in a blinding downpour, crawling around trying to find his position, getting lost and realising he had no idea where he was, then shitting himself for ages when nobody would answer his whispers and waiting for the muzzle flashes or grenades after the downpour ceased. As dawn neared it turned out he was in the middle of the perimeter rather than outside it, which was just as well as the clearing patrol would have been his next problem if he was outside.

#32

Yes, within strict limits. People have to come and go from the night stag position (on the apex to the left of the section), and to do so in pairs means you either have to leave nobody on stag or have at least 3 on stag at all times. Given that sections are 8 men (and sect comd doesn’t stag on) and sleep is always at a premium on ops/exercise, that isn’t practical. So the only time you’ll be moving by yourself at night is to/from the stag position. Otherwise you should be nicely tucked up in your gonk bag!

#33

Ooof! :smiley:

They just made us do “grass drills,” or cardio-calisthenics until muscle failure on a field…

Of course if Drill Sergeant was really angry - he’d have the miscreants do them with NBC gear and respirators on!

#34

That’s true for the first six months of '64 and '65 at least.
I have a friend, let’s call him special forces at the time. Often, coming back from a patrol they’d bivvy among GI’s, and be asked if they had cleaning gear.

As I understand it, some guys were writing home and having their families post kits out to them.

Officially, this has been denied as occurring.

Can I “source” what I’ve written? Well, the guy put in three tours, and I’m the only one he’s ever spoken to about any of it, mainly because I have just enough knowledge to be able to understand what he tells: because his own family does not. To me, that’s a reliable source: my friend has no need to lie.

Regards, Uyraell.

#35

I didn’t see my favorite one in that list

  • Sucking chest wounds are a myth, ALL chest wounds suck!
#36

I’ve got a copy I from Ft. Bragg I got in the '70’s - they might be even older.