I do not remember ever standing a watch without strapping on a 1911 45 with two 7 round magazines and accounting for every bullet when I accepted the watch and when I was relieved. Watch meant quarterdeck watch in port and prior to E4 it meant walking a post guarding a facility of some sort.
Not that the 45 was going to save my ass. I fired dozens of them and most were less precise than flinging rocks. For most of my time my standard plan of action should I need to use that thing was to get as close as possible and then shoot until I was out of bullets and lastly to fling the damn 45 as hard as I could at the person I was shooting at and then run for help. Kind of embarrassing, if I may be so bold as to say.
"All that the South has ever desired was that the Union, as established by our forefathers, should be preserved, and that the government, as originally organized, should be administered in purity and truth." – Robert E. Lee
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