Comments by "Stephen Villano" (@spvillano) on "Forgotten Weapons" channel.

  1. 166
  2. 128
  3. 39
  4. 39
  5. 24
  6. 22
  7. 14
  8. 12
  9. 11
  10. 11
  11.  @Slizzo82  most of the problems, other than wear and tear that should be caught at the armorer level and sent to depot for rebuild, was PMCS. I had the distinction of giving the class in my battalion when we switched over from light infantry to mechanized (and later, Stryker) on the M2. Distinction, as I was a medic. Wasn't always a medic, knew the gun inside and out, so being one of a few who knew the gun well, got to lead the instruction team. We're on the range after class, I'm BSing with some of the other NCO's and I hear a gun's firing rate becoming erratic and varying in volume. Before I could get the word Fire from CEASE FIRE out, the barrel was launched 25 meters downrange. We went to check fire, I approached the position and asked, "OK, you remember class, so who didn't perform their PMCS?". Assorted excuses and bewildered looks, "Remember I mentioned checking your detent spring? How the barrel could unscrew when firing? That could've send the feed dawgs and tray into your faces, which is why it's so high on the list, the correct answer to my question is, "we all failed to perform our PMCS, as PMCS done partially is PMCS conducted not at all. Now, get this weapon off of my firing line and checked by the armorer and fixed and I'll see you in retraining". Recycled them to retraining, never had to mention it in class, but they did follow the standard the best of all classes afterward. Irritating was, I had actually harped on that issue in the first class, as it's a fairly common problem. Used to blow their minds by placing the gun from the M113 deck into the pintle alone. They'd work as a group of two or three to get the gun into position. I'd lift it handles down, lever the barrel up to cantilever it to the roof and lower the base onto the pintle. Basic body mechanics. Work smart, not hard. They also went nuts trying to learn to outshoot me, that never worked out, but at least we got plenty of experts in their weapons in the attempts! Never got to fire the mk-19 or Barrett, the latter by refusal, as my spine wouldn't forgive me for that much of a shove. Did get to be AI in the TOW missile school, given I was present at Redstone when it was introduced.
    8
  12. 8
  13. 7
  14. 6
  15. 6
  16. 4
  17. 3
  18. 3
  19. 3
  20. 3
  21. 2
  22. 2
  23. 2
  24. 2
  25. 2
  26. Many years ago, I was working on the testing line for a broadcast quality reel to reel video tape recorder, with all manner of bells and whistles, including bleeding edge digital processing. I was assigned to test power supplies as they came off of the assembly line. Hipot testing, visual inspect, etc, then live and load testing on our custom jig made for that purpose. It was an early SMPS, no biggie. Everything checked, just like the drawing, plus out testing sailed through, connected, powered it up, BANG and a mushroom cloud erupted from the Teflon insulated wiring, breaker tripped for my section of the floor. Visual inspection revealed nothing different from the drawings. Set it aside, checked another, exact same problem, as did a third to be sure we had a production problem. Time to earn my money and justify the cost of electronics school! Ended up tracing the schematic, comparing it to the drawings, line by line, from AC input through... the output of the fullwave bridge rectifier, which the drawing had the positive and negative connected to the same filter capacitor terminal, creating a short circuit in a high current circuit. They followed the drawing, alas, the drawing was wrong. Over 100 power supplies ended up going back through the assembly line, once change manglement was done mangling the process sufficiently. And no, I actually like change management. Not having change management leads to pure frigging chaos. They ended up fixing a little over 200 power supplies, as power supply assembly wasn't halted, so by the time change management gave approval, yeah, the number of wrongly wired units had more than doubled.
    2
  27. 2
  28. 2
  29. 2
  30. 1
  31. 1
  32. 1
  33. 1
  34. 1
  35. 1
  36. 1
  37. 1
  38. 1
  39. 1
  40.  @namenotfound8747  never had anyone complain my uniform was dirty, just after a day out with scouts getting asked why my uniform wasn't pressed and starched. He wasn't exceptionally happy about his career outlook when I turned around and he saw I was two grades superior to him. And your weapons were a wee bit better in quality. Nice custom shop pistols, tighter group capable rifles, why, it's almost as if the Corps expected you guys to actually hit your targets, rather than do what we did - make a shit ton of noise and behave as if we were static displays when engaging. Oh well, we promoted quickly, not based upon competency, but PT scores, so fire and maneuver tended to be beyond the capabilities of thought in many leaders. "Like, flank them with the gun, keeping them occupied and approach from here, here and here." "But, the gun isn't in that position." "If only it was on a vehicle that could move..." "They could engage it!" "It's armored, braintrust! And our rich and retarded Uncle has plenty more that look just like it. Now, move the goddamned vehicle, engage them before they bury us and that isn't a fucking request!" Covered in Kevlar, got more fire support than God and afraid to move at times. Peacetime fucks infantry up - always. Took months to get them to actually stop being pretty and capable of breaking shit again. Got in country and they fought like REMFs for far too long. If my uncles had fought like that in WWII, there wouldn't be a synagogue next door to my apartment today and a different flag! And be completely united in loathing our political leadership - oh wait, that's a constant throughout human history, disregard. ;)
    1
  41. 1
  42. 1
  43. 1
  44. 1
  45. 1
  46. 1
  47. 1
  48. 1
  49. 1
  50. 1