Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Snubby in Vietnam

The content ranges far beyond the title, but this thread is an excellent read.

http://smith-wessonforum.com/concealed-carry-self-defense/638212-snubby-vietnam.html

That was outstanding

Great thread dirt. Thanks.

Glad you enjoyed it fellas. Mesmerizing. That one doc has had a full life. His documentary photos and accompanying stories are something else. How he dealt with his wife leaving him while he was in the bush was a story in itself.

Tour 1 for me and chopper jockeys were issued S&W .38s with a shoulder holster. One of my classmates got shot down and was ejected from the bird when the hit dirt. Woke up face down with NVA poking him in the ass with bayonets. His hand was by a quirk of fate holding the butt of the pistol. He said later that he preferred death to POW status, so he rolled over, drew his piece and killed his 3 tormentors.

He liked his .38 quite a bit.

I'll bet he did. Incredible.

Can't be. Everyone knows those 130gr FMJs are useless.

That's some good stuff right there! Thank you.

Good writer and fantastic photos.

Great read.

Excellent post, LD

Thanks

Tag

Thanks for the link, L D, been working my way through it this evening.

True. He had to shoot 3 times.

Great link - thanks!

My dad was a young Marine in Korea, went there at 18 yrs old, In a Marine Long Range Recon Unit...

His 1Sgt told him and everyone else to go over to the PX there in Japan and buy a couple of side arms to carry with them in Korea..
Told them a 22 Revolver and a small, but larger caliber...

My dad picked up a 9 shot 22 Revolver and then some sort of 32 Caliber, 5 shot revolver...

1 Sgt had used the 22 Revolver in WW 2, doing a lot of behind enemy lines missions...

he told the troops, he's seen Japanese soldiers get run thru with a K bar, and then shoot a Marine in the back, when the Marine thought he was dead..

A 22 behind the ear, left them on the ground shaking profusely as they died... but they wouldn't shoot any one in the back....
and the 22 didn't make much if any noise to be heard...

he gave me both when I turned 18... he had tears in his eyes and told me he never wanted to see them again...

coming up behind enemy sentries, he'd throw a hand over their mouth, while he shoved the 22 behind their ear and pulled the trigger...
then let them drop.....he was doing this as an 18, 19 and 20 year old Marine Sgt.... the Korean War ended on his 21st birthday... July 27, 1953....

Seafire, great story, thanks for sharing.

Outstanding read.......

Indeed outstanding. The pictures are great. I don't know if it's just my impression but there is a special hue/color/tint in the pictures I only know from Vietnam era pictures.

BTW, has anyone of you been watching Ken Burn's Vietnam War documentation? I haven't yet but I would like to buy it. In Germany I can get a cut/shortend version, "Cut in Germany" or from the UK (same regional code) the complete series. But before I spend 65 Euros I'd like to know it it's worth. The German cut version will never find its way to my home.

Back in the 1960's, a friend of the family married a soldier that was stationed at nearby Ft. Campbell KY. He was sent to Vietnam, and wrote back to his wife and told her to buy him a pistol and send it to him. His wife's father knew my dad was always trading guns, so he asked him to find a pistol for them. Dad found a 38 snubby, the make I do not know, and they sent it to the soldier.

That was all of the story that I knew at the time. Fast forward a number of years, and this guy is out of the army, and he and his wife are attending our church, where he later becomes the pastor. I asked him about the story, and he said what happened was that his platoon had been attacked and overrun, and that the gooks had shot a number of the wounded Americans, and he then decided he wanted a concealable gun.............just in case. Thankfully he never had to use it.

Thanks Greg, great read !