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

  1. You learned a very, very, very important lesson that day! The biggest difference between the US Army and the Boy Scouts is, the Boy Scouts have adult supervision.
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  2. Well, it started out at 9 pounds unloaded, almost 11 pounds loaded and yeah, way too light to remain on target. For crying out loud, the M50 weighed in at 23 pounds, the M240 at 29 pounds. That mass kept the weapon in the general direction of the target. Might've as well have a 5 pound version of Ma Deuce!
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  3. Well, he also gave us McNamara's Morons. With predictable results in casualties. He also believed that videos could teach anyone to perform any task. Leading to tapes that featured, for one example, Magic Medic, who carried the tiny M3 aid bag, but would suddenly produce a two foot long erector set of a Thomas Leg splint and a full box of cravats to secure the infernal contraption that was obsolete during the Vietnam war... He also apparently concealed quite effectively, a full litter, Stokes litter, M113 APC and probably had a nuclear reactor inside of that bottomless bag. Earlier in my career, similar tapes on the original Pershing, long replaced by the 1A and then 2 was in progress, with tools being used we'd never even heard of or could find a use for... Highly effective at being inept and utterly incompetent. The only thing he seemed effective at was fucking up wet dreams.
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  4.  @BigBeerus  the idealized usage was recognized to be point blank, last ditch weapon. After all, the thing is going to sound like an M-80 going off in an area otherwise quiet. I would expect that someone might want to look into what made that disturbing noise... So, the idea was shoot, grab and scoot away fast.
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  5.  @DeeDee-bm9hr  an interesting takeaway, given the dozen comments from men who used the forward assist with no problems in combat in these very comments.
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  6. Probably, largely because most of that institutional memory had long been retired and the young-uns just didn't really pay attention, as they'd "never be involved in such a project".
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  7. A far better series of justifications for gaffes than the more typical, "I was shooting a movie, not a documentary", which simply generates a feeling of being beyond disrespected by the filmmaker saying that drivel.
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  8. There were problems with metallurgy, non-chromed rifling, tolerances, political interference that resulted in precisely the prohibited type of smokeless powder being in the rounds and more. If you want something fucked up, ask the Army to handle it, want it mangled beyond recognition, give it to a politician. But, don't forget, not all USAF were zoomie and missile guards. Some did run CSAR missions. One thing though, how'd you get cleaning kits? The early '16's shipped without cleaning kits, resulting in men thinking that they never needed cleaning. At least, per everyone I knew that served in Nam when the M16 was introduced. Loved my M4 in the sandbox, although I really loved the reintroduced M14, brought back updated as an M1A as a DMR. Although, the best things we had beside our Strykers was Kevlar and radios to call for air or indirect.
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  9.  @brucewelty7684  happens in research as well. Some bleeding edge something is discovered, but nobody can replicate the procedure, despite it being painstakingly documented. Not even the original researcher. Only to find, after much hair tearing and finally, someone asked around, one of the undergraduate students assisting prepared step X in the process and when interviewed, one tiny step was never documented. Once that was replicated, the replication efforts worked every time. Not an isolated thing, either, it's actually quite common in scientific research.
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  10.  @kyleschafer6275  shitty ammunition doesn't deplete steel of carbon, overheating during tempering does that. Which is precisely what the problem was in that limited number of defective 1903's. Once they added pyrometers to monitor the temperature properly, the problem vanished. Shitty ammo, that's been a cyclic issue with the DoD - especially if politicians get involved. See the introduction of the M16 for more recent details. See the USS Iowa turret explosion for when incompetent idiots modify the ammunition to be issued, then get in charge of the coverup.
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  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.
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  12.  @kirk2767  well, it's a Navy ship, they've likely had spares. Hell, the USS New Jersey just recently found spare windshields squirreled away aboard ship.
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  13. Yeah, such significant emotional events can "tend to ruin one's weekend plans", but should also be considered "a fine opportunity to discover precisely whose religion, if any, is actually correct". For ineffective fire/weapons, "an irritating opportunity to repaint the vehicle" and "Yeah? Well, this works!".
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  14.  @vladpadowicz5946  in many states, it'd not qualify at all as a firearm. They'd fall back to "prohibited offensive weapon" or something similar, even if it's not explicitly prohibited and watch the court likely reject their charges - still costed you an attorney's fees.
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  15. I don't recall their washing machines, but their vacuum cleaners were quite good. So, if they could make quality products with global renown that sucked, they certainly could work with metals to produce something that gives a serious blow to enemies. I'll just grab my hat...
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  16. But then, he thought that direct impingement was a good idea.
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  17.  @stevenparsons4464  so did my 30-06 hunting rifle. The AK was designed as a short range close combat assault rifle, the M14 a long range battle rifle. Think hedgerows of Europe, that's what the M14 was designed for, the M16 being designed as an assault rifle at closer range.
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  18.  @rockystewart3297  McNamara's Morons? Neckties cause brain damage? Sorry, couldn't resist.
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  19.  @vladpadowicz5946  oh? When did the UK and Australia move offworld?
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  20.  @BurgleArsonLarceny that's Generous Electric, extremely generous with the rounds. I've also fired an M2 .50 BMG machine gun proudly stamped International Business Machines (yes, that IBM), another Singer Sewing Machine Company and an ancient M3 submachine gun that was made by the Guide Lamp Company. If the company could mill or stamp metal, they made weapons for WWII. That was of a much higher national priority than adding machines, sewing machines or automotive guide lamps. The Baldwin piano company made wooden bracing for airplane wings.
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  21.  @vladpadowicz5946 interestingly, the US legal definition is slightly different. Any weapon (including a starter gun) which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive; The frame or receiver of any such weapon; Any firearm muffler or firearm silencer; or Any destructive device. That said, a crossbow is as much a firearm as my bathroom scale is and that scale is a properly silent model, which only displays numbers in exponential notation. OK, not really, my bathroom scale certainly lacks exponential notation, it just displays "One at a time, dammit!" or once, "Maximum capacity 20 persons".
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  22.  @A_piece_of_broccoli not in the US, hell, my glue gun fulfills your daffynotion of a firearm, as does my drywall screwgun. In the US, a firearm is defined by utilizing an explosive to expel a projectile. Hell, your notion even describes a caulking gun as a firearm! Muzzleloaders are not defined as a firearm under US federal law, if it uses loose powder, it's not a firearm. If it fires a cartridge, it's a firearm. That's per the Gun Control Act of 1968.
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  23.  @taestott  nice fish story, all about the one that got away... 'The ArmaLite AR-15 was designed to be a lightweight rifle and to fire a new high-velocity, lightweight, small-caliber cartridge to allow infantrymen to carry more ammunition.' Infantrymen are decidedly not civilians or exceptionally sporting. I know that intimately, given I retired from the 56th Brigade Combat Team. And the gas piston modifications and models don't have more or less recoil than the direct impingement system does. Ask any SEAL or Marine that uses the M-27. The AR-15 was originally designed as selective fire, it was later made in the military selective fire and civilian semiautomatic only models. Direct impingement was chosen for both saving weight and simplification of assembly, the latter making the rifle cheaper.
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  24.  @alanwatts8239  the very source of an old joke of mine. "I've never saw an automatic weapon. Oh, people call them automatic, but if it was really automatic, the damned thing would know to and proceed to clean itself". Typically said while we were cleaning weapons. Always good for a chuckle.
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  25. And the source of a $200 million saga on updating hydrogen bombs. A small change in a component tagged "FOGBANK" during its production yielded reproducible results decades later, when that component had to be replaced and oh, while we're at it, upgraded technologically. The change, a contaminant in the original was important, but never documented and when the aerogel version was tried, wouldn't work, nor could they replicate the original component. So, a rather extended and massively overrun in cost R&D program was needed to rebuild the aging weapons. It only took nearly a decade. Because, guns are easy, compared to thermonuclear warheads. Actually, rocket science is easier as well. Or maybe some things just shouldn't be built... ;)
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  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.
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  27.  @SGTMinguez  heh, just go onto any base and look at the ancient buildings with a T-number on them. T for temporary. Some predate WWII, being built by the CCC during the depression.
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  28. I know that weapon well enough, we got one full auto and later brand new DMR semiautomatic only models for designated marksman rifles. Great semiautomatic long range rifle. Fired three rounds in auto and well, I was dubious before and I'm quite proficient at full auto fire, three rounds convinced me it was rubbish. One round on target, the other two shooting butterflies and birds, in damned near any direction save the intended target. Way too light, uncompensated and rubbish in auto. Full auto in .308/7.62x51 NATO needs around 24 - 30 pounds of rifle to remain even an area fire weapon, anything lighter and it's a danger to everyone save the enemy. Semi, rated to 800 meters, I hit reliably at 1 km. A sniper system it wasn't, but it was close enough for a DMR.
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  29. Funny, back in '82, we used either phaser rifles or hand lasers. Bullets were for bozos. We cooled our weapons with taps off of the LT's tank, not that we told him...
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  30. Did my basic in '82 at Dix, rifles were worn out, one in my platoon had the ancient split flash suppressor and actual Mattel fore grips. Rarely needed more than a slight jarring if something hung up, even in the sandbox.
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  31. 28 years in uniform, retired at the end of 2009 and contracted for DoD. Yeah, get Big Army involved, it gets complicated. @robinstewart6510, I used the hell out of the forward assist in basic training, back in '82. Largely because the weapons were just worn the hell out. Rarely needed it in any of my units, just jarring the weapon usually brought the bolt into battery just fine, despite desert dust.
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  32. Out of CLP, believe it or not, I've used diesel for lube. It actually worked quite well, got good mileage out of mileage jokes about it too. The ugliest I had was using bacitracin ointment to lube a pistol. Ugly, PIA to clean later, but it worked.
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  33.  @MaggieKeizai  the majority of my failure to feeds were all not rifle related, but magazine related. Those issues disappeared completely with our M4's, as when those arrived, so did brand new magazines, replacing the entire brigade's mags on a 1:1 basis.
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  34. Just send them to the Wikipedia article on Fogbank (a nuclear weapon component). One thing wasn't documented, took a decade and $200 million to finally reinvent that critical component. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fogbank The last batch of the original was last made in 1989, so they figured they'd upgrade a plastic foam to aerogel. Missed, one step and a contaminant that turned out crucial. Oh well, at least recovering from that mistake was cheap. I'll just get my coat...
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  35. Did... Did you just take my batter- battery?
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  36. A typical US Army operation then.
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  37. A chain gun does not need an electric motor, it can be any kind of motor, hydraulic or for aircraft, where most early chain guns were used, the main propeller motor (aka, engine). The energy source is just an external motor. Initially, the chain gun was used to both drive the action and time firing, as it's kind of embarrassing to shoot your own propeller off. A couple of problems with a man portable chain gun is, well, blammo kinda weighs ya down - a lot of blammo, loads of testicles inside of one's socks. Then, there's the power source (I'm assuming a non-human motor here). Not a hell of a lot that one could call useful or man portable when you're up to a quarter ton at the non-starting gate. Think a can or three of blammo, plus batteries are not included. Then, there's recoil. Something I'd do just looking at being asked to lug a quarter ton, but I'm talking weapon recoil. You know, "Stop shooting up there, He might just start shooting back and He's a lousy shot!". I can see them on vehicles, especially given remote weapons station equipped vehicles. Why have a weapon a crew has to exit the vehicle that's protecting them, hence it being remote, just to clear a misfeed or misfire? The chain can be trivially replaced as they were frequently in cars with a timing chain, a cogged belt.
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  38. Sandstorm, my balls. Those were portland cement dust storms, shit got damp, it turned into concrete. BTW, seen the new M-27 DMR? I asked Santa for one for Christmas, he told me I was too fat, get the fuck off of his lap... Why does Santa hate the Army? ;)
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  39.  @namenotfound8747  they toyed with a half dozen names when testing it. It was to be a DMR with full automatic capability and well, it's been expanded a bit beyond that, largely to be well and truly rid of the direct impingement mistake Stoner made. The problem with the SAW is, well, it's a SAW. Great when new, lousy when used and well, worn out. I literally danced a drink can at 100 meters (I'm still mystified as to whatinhell a soda can was doing downrange on a US Army range) with a brand new SAW. Old ones, I danced for joy in not having to lug the damned thing. As for logistics, lose logistics, what are you going to do, shoot dirty looks at the enemy? Besides, for most of our nation's history, the Army was job security for the USMC. Marines would come in and take the land, Big Army would move in, set up a nice sexy fire base, give it back to the enemy so that the Marines could come back and take it again. Otherwise, the Marines would run out of things to break and take and be out of a job! Yeah, I fucked with everybody, even my own branch. Including reminding buddies who were ever so impressed with our Strykers that nobody else had, it's really a LAV 3. ;)
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  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. ;)
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  41.  @danielwardlhl5d900  gotta admit, I did that once - as an E-I-owe-ya-one, never again. Slammed the flash suppressor to the ground and the bolt carrier happily came forward again. Sarge only laughed at me, "Bet ya won't do that one again!". Nope, never did, I never make the same mistake twice - I make all new mistakes. ;)
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  42. During basic training, way back in '82, I needed to use the forward assist incessantly to close the bolt against sand. That said, the weapons, like all of our weapons at Fort Dix back then were worn the hell out. Got to my units over the decades, rarely needed to use the thing. Not never, but rarely. Most of the time, just jarring the weapon allowed the bolt to slide forward into battery. As for the decision, let's face it, which generation ordered the specification for a forward assist? The generation that used those M1 Garand rifles when they were brand new during WWII. The WWI veterans had tried to order them bolt action rifles, rather than those new fangled Garand rifles. Let's suffice it, some of the more senior personnel in charge of such programs, well, not exactly optimal for the task at hand. Need I mention the mark 14 torpedo? The modification of the powder bags for the Iowa that cost a turret crew their lives? We're just lucky that the M16 didn't come with a T&E, since it had automatic... ;)
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  43. Go onto any older (which is most) Army basis, note the building designators and look for the T. Temporary. Some, literally predating WWII.
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  44. But, but... But, production and fabrication are magic and Star Trek! Yeah, more like Mission Improbable.
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  45. If it's broke, we can fix it. If it ain't broke, we can fix that too.
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  46.  @standingwhilepooping4685  did you ever wonder where section 8 came from? Article I, Section 8, Clause 1, the General Welfare clause. If We The People is a waste of money, whatinhell are we defending then, when the Constitution already declared We The People the United States? Besides, we wasted more money than God has every year. Like each and every year, SOCCENT would send a warehouse full of state of the art network equipment, brand new and in the box to the DRMO auction for pennies on the thousand dollars. Or a war "because he tried to kill my dad". Or the $200 million and a decade of R&D to replace a thermonuclear weapon component that they literally didn't document how to make. Look up Fogbank some time. And investigating flying saucers a half dozen times, when we already knew they were mostly our own test vehicles. Or the littoral combat vessels that are being retired brand new because they're cracking apart. Meanwhile, you'd piss and moan if we didn't use equipment until it was falling apart because of the taxes being raised to cover it. And we gain the benefit of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines learning how to clear stoppages, even if they'll never have to do so again because their unit equipment isn't worn out.
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  47.  @davidgolden1776  in full auto, it was shit. Way too light for the job, might've done middling with a compensator, but it didn't have one designed for that purpose and even then, a proper MG did the job far better. What it was great at when we had them was as a DMR platform. I was accurate to 800 meters, could still hit the target at 1 km. DMR's are largely being fielded to replace the squad MG, as well, nothing suppresses fire more than when one of the other side sprays pink mist at range.
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  48.  @jeremyadams7395  murder button? I always called my murder button my trigger. Still, isn't everything illegal in California?
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  49.  @doc_sav  better wear the full ESAPI plates as well. If those coons were anything like the bastards at Drum, they might just shoot back. The sure did work as teams to actually shake soldiers in the field down for snacks. And no shit, they would actually move in echelon formation.
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  50. You were fortunate, guys who got the initial issue were issued the rifles without cleaning kits. As bad, the early models didn't have a chrome plated inner barrel, so the rifling would corrode and pit. Now, it's neigh impossible to not find a chrome lined barrel, even in civilianland. Lessons hard learned!
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