#M60 gunners

[johnpodlaski]

15 Recommended Memoirs of the Vietnam War

Added to Booklisti.com: My books and my recommended memoirs of the Vietnam War. Including POV by infantry grunts, officers, medics and nurses, pilots – both fixed wing and helicopter, and Navy Brown Water River Rats. The collection offers readers a well-rounded view of the war from those who fought in it.https://booklisti.com/booklist/books-about-vietnam-war-john-podlaski/lxpqwwa

[pukindawgsblog]

Doorgunner's M60D w spades and IFD - Improvised Feed Device - otherwise known as a Coke can (or any can) to help keep the Pig fed 😎

[auntmime]

So I've been playing Gunner Heat PC

[mileena--kahnumm]

*Sympathy for The Devil Starts Playing*

Me:

[sgtgrunt0331-3]

A U.S. Marine M60 gunner, lays down fire on an NVA position as other Marines take cover behind a stone wall, during the initial days of the battle of Hue in February 1968.

(Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)

[rockyp77mk3]

Huey door gunner with the M60. Note the C Rat can to help the ammo feed. Vietnam era.

[ca-dmv-bot]

Customer: (not on record) DMV: M60 tank gunner weapon Verdict: DENIED

[freedoms-per-eagle]

Sarah is angling the M60 door gun on a Huey flying from the HELIOS ONE garrison to the Mojave Outpost, with Pete’s AH-1 flying in front and a Vertibird with three more soldiers to the left, in a triangle formation.

The helicopter radio is tuned to the Coalition Forces Mojave station, which has been playing a high pass filtered California Dreaming for the fourth time since the helicopter took off. She takes a short glance at David, the SAW gunner of her fireteam, who is also sitting there.

He looks at her and she can read his expression that he’s also sick of the music too.

The pilot doesn’t care, while Ramirez and Takashi, the assistant gunner and new M79 grenadier are sleeping like the dead.

She continues looking out of the door, but sees nothing but sand, cracked roads, the occasional Eagles armored column, the infrequent artillery dugout and/or command center.

[tanksandbeyond]

A United States Marine Corps M60A3 TTS with reactive armor bolted to its hull and turret moves inland after coming ashore during Exercise SOLID SHIELD '89.

The M60 is an American tank that entered service in the early 1960s. In total, 26 nations used the M60, not including the United States. The M60A3 TTS variant was a further upgrade of the A3 model, fitted with the Raytheon AN/VSG2 Tank Thermal Sight (TTS), allowing the gunner to engage targets in nearly any condition. The tank above has been fitted with Explosive Reactive Armor (ERA), intended to pre-detonate chemical munitions before they could penetrate the armor.

[freetheshit-outofyou]

Sharing an old post I made.

Today on the radio they were debating FAIR and EQUAL. They seemed to be lost in their assumption of their own topic. They want things in life to be fair and equal for everyone, that is not a possibility. That’s like wanting to swim and stay dry at the same time.

In 1989 the Army taught me all about fair and equal in one event. On a force march the platoon was all souped up and was given a leisure break to contemplate failure and our need to correct ourselves. We received purpose, direction and motivation to make those corrections from our ever-loving Drill Sergeants who were always attentive to our need to make corrections in the most hasty and effective means possible. That came in the form of rifle drills.

When that command came to assume the start position I had a deep internal smile, see I was an M60 gunner and they were not going to make us do rifle drills with M60’s. So yeah I had a big grin going on inside. The M16A1’s we had were 7 pounds 8 ounces, 10 pounds 8 ounces if they had an M203 on them but the M60 was just shy of 24 pounds. So it was with great glee that I would be sitting this one out.

Senior Drill Sergeants Stewart even addressed us M60 gunners in front of the whole formation, I can still remember his exact words, and this is where I learned about fair and equal. “M60 gunners, I hate it for you, get them up.” In his calm even toned voice. So every one of us M60 gunners assumed the rifle down position and on the count of one hoisted those machineguns over our heads. The tide had turned, because now every M16 and M203 operator had huge shit eating grin visible on their faces.

The platoon had screwed the pooch running around the Alabama forest like a monkeying trying to hump a greased football.

Was it fair that we all shared in that loving correcting even if we were all not responsible for the failure?

Was it equal that gunners with weapons almost 3 times the weight of the M16 had to bask in the heart felt course correction administered by the Drill Sergeant?

In this moment I learned that fair rarely translates to equal and equal will rarely be fair. I think people confuse the two and want them to be the same when they just are not.

[fictionalafvsmybeloved]

M-12 Sabretooth from Resistance: Fall of Man?

You know, the closest I ever came to playing that game was an ARMA 3 Halloween operation.

Anyways, The M-12 Sabertooth

Aliens are invading Earth again, and this time they're coming hot on the heels of WWII.

So, this chassis has some pretty clear inspiration from the M1 Abrams; Running gear, side-skirts, mud-guards, even the front of the hull bear similarities to some extent.

Engine Deck is a mix of Leopard 2 fans, M60 rear grill, and even the air filters from early model Tiger 1's. Turret draws lineage from British Centurions (notably the Mk1 prototype which mounted a co-axial 20mm auto-cannon) and the add-on armor on the turret brings to mind a T-80 with ERA fitted.

This is apparently a "Light Battle Tank" so its mobility should be decent. Those road-wheels are packed in there pretty tightly.

Its also light enough to be air transported, so armor won't be stellar by any measure, but it should be sturdy enough. It's also equipped with so form of add-on armor on the turret, whether its just applique panels or ERA is unknown to me.

The Sabertooth does have some pretty sharp teeth, an 80mm rifled main gun, a .50 cal MG for the commanders hatch, and a 20mm Gatling gun mounted co-axially. That last one is a bit of an odd choice. Now, there have been a few semi-modern tanks that mounted an auto-cannon co-axially in the turret, notably the French AMX-30. But nothing to my knowledge ever mounted any caliber of Gatling gun in the turret. The main issues with this concept is space inside the turret. Its already at a premium with the main gun, armor, crew and ammunition in there; adding a bulky Gatling gun instead a normal auto-cannon is redundant since its fire-rate is probably going to be limited to below 1000 rpm so it doesn't chew through all its ammo in 6 1/2 seconds. And if that's the case, you're better off space wise going with a normal auto-cannon.

I'm not seeing very many viewports on this, or maybe they're just really small. We do atleast get a spotlight.

Driver's hatch in the hull and the commander+gunner's hatches in the turret lead me to believe it has a crew complement of 3-4.

And we have a fair array of stowage, maintenance hatches, panels, headlights and tow hooks.

FINAL SCORES

Credibility: 6/10 - r/NonCredibleDefence Approved

Coolness: 6/10 - Forest MultiCam

BONUS

Some nice AMX-30 Footage

[tomthefanboy]

Ghost Fog of Guam

I recounted this on discord today and decided I should really write this down for posterity. I've emailed a copy to @spiritspodcast but I want to make sure I have a copy online for my own memory.

My friend's dad, J, was an MP in the Marines and then a cop in Guam for a few years before he came back to the US. Like most dads who served overseas, he had some GREAT STORIES. Notably, he claimed that Guam was the most haunted island in the Pacific. The few US Navy people I've asked about it over the years have confirmed that they also hear more ghost stories from people stationed at/living on Guam than any other port. In college I even looked at some books in the library for Pacific Island ghost stories and Guam always had disproportionate representation.

(If there's anyone native to Guam or with family there, I'd love to know if this is strictly a colonial representation or if it's always been like this)

J said that the most dangerous thing on the island by day was the wild pigs and the most dangerous thing on the island by night was the ghosts. He had stories about people hearing a boar chasing them for blocks even though they were under street lights and there was nothing there to see. Another about how the towns in Guam don't have land for graveyards so they build sets of big concrete mausoleums, and the spaces between these mausoleums was always cold, and that meant fog would form and spread out from between them, and you never went into the fog if you knew what was good for you. I can't recall most of his other stories at this point (it's been thirty years) but the one I do remember has to do with the fog.

The story starts with a pair of soldiers guarding the checkpoint at one end of a compound over night. They had the little red bar for a road block, a little shack with an M60 (big heavy machine gun on a tripod) nest on top, and the compound's cyclone fence on each side. In front of the fence is a little road going off through the jungle. Behind the fence is a parking lot and a big cement wall. The wall was the side of a building with no windows, just 100 feet by 15 feet of painted cement cinder blocks.

One night the fog rolls in and they can only see about 10 feet out from the light on the shack. Not much further with their flashlights. It's after midnight when they start hearing something approaching on the side of the road, heavy footsteps like a big man. They call out for ID and the footsteps pause and start to move of to the side through the brush, staying just outside of the light. The guard on the ground steps out of the shack and shines his flashlight. The heavy steps stop, move a little further away, then head towards the fence. The guard on the ground doesn't want to lose sight of the gunner so he stops and yells an order for whoever it is to come forward and identify themselves or he'll be forced to open fire.

That's when the footsteps move up to the fence.

The fence started shaking all the way to where it's attached to the shack and they can hear it being moved around and bent like something is going over or through it a few dozen feet away. The guard raises his rifle and fires off a warning shot into the ground and when the fence keeps moving he lines his rifle up with the chain link and fires a shot at chest height and shot at head height.

Whatever is moving the fence doesn't seem to notice.

Before the guard can fire again, the fence stops shaking and now they can hear the footsteps on the asphalt of the parking lot. Training kicks in and the guy on the ground calls up that there's a breach (I can't remember the official term for hostile on base) and the gunner calls back confirmation. The guard gets into the shack to radio it in and the gunner swivels his M60 around and begins opening up with full auto bursts.

The guard in the shack is on the radio and the Commanding Officer is asking why he can hear gunfire and the guard can't find the right words to explain. The gunner is firing into the fog, pausing to listen, and then firing again as he hears the footsteps plodding slowly across the parking lot.

The CO tells the guard that the rest of the squads are on maneuvers and they can't reinforce until dawn. The guards at the other end of the compound will be on alert and holding their position. The gunner unloads an entire box of ammunition, spending the last of it sweeping the parking lot from end to end to try and catch whatever it is.

The gunner cracks open a new box of ammo while the guard in the shack listens for any signs of it. The guard radios the checkpoint at the other end of the compound and they have nothing to report. Nothing unusual but the fog. There's no sound but the jungle for the rest of the night.

By morning the CO and a a truck full of troops arrives asking for a sitrep (J said he was in the squad on the truck so from here on I was hearing a first hand account). The guard gives his report and the gunner backs him up. It's getting light out but the fog is still thick, so the the squad forms up and slowly fans out into the parking lot as the sun is coming up.

They get all the way across the lot and find nothing. No tracks, no blood, no body. The sun rises and the fog clears and there's no clues at all. The fence is COMPLETELY intact, not even bent. No tracks in the mud and grass between it and the jungle.

Strangest of all, the parking lot itself and the 100 foot long concrete wall have NO BULLET HOLES. They check the spent shells from the M60 and the ammo box they were in. It was live ammo, not blanks.

The whole box of bullets hit the fog and left with it.

[walkingthroughthisworld]

Joe Tyson Bravo 31 TC , you'll notice a 30 cal.light mg mounted on top of TC cupola on a tripod wired down with com wire. It gave a quicker reaction time than manually traversing the TC cupola to use the 50 cal., also gave you another quick direction of fire if the 30 cal. coax. or main gun was in use by the gunner.

With a Marine fire team from Bravo 1/9 mounted and South China Sea in background ( we were waiting for radio word to kick off an operation) you'll notice 30 cal. Was replaced with an m60 machine gun. Gun was mounted same way on tripod tied down with com. wire , the 30 cal. was given to another tank for coax. mount. Ammo for the m60 was never a problem acquiring ,being with the line infantry almost all the time.

Two tanks with mounted infantry . First tank you can see a 30 cal. mg. pointed skyward on top of cupola, 2nd tank has no mount on top. Both tanks from B Co. 3rd tanks. infantry from B Co 1/9

[vapemum]

During the Battle of Dong Ha, U.S. Marine (ret.) Harry Blalock was wounded in action. An M60 machine gunner, Harry was trained at Camp Lejeune. He, too, drank and bathed in the poisonous  water. Harry will be hosting town hall meetings across the country to discuss Camp Lejeune, the poisonous water that injured marines and their families, and the claims process. If you, your loved ones, or a deceased family member were stationed at Camp Lejeune, you may be eligible to file a claim. 

[sgtgrunt0331-3]

From an elevated position and behind a shattered wall on the periphery of the ancient imperial city, Staff Sgt. Robert "Cajun Bob" Thoms and a Marine M60 gunner, from Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, scan for NVA soldiers during the battle of Hue City on February 16, 1968.

(Photo by John Olson)

[waffle-motel]

During the Battle of Dong Ha, U.S. Marine (ret.) Harry Blalock was wounded in action. An M60 machine gunner, Harry was trained at Camp Lejeune. He, too, drank and bathed in the poisonous  water. Harry will be hosting town hall meetings across the country to discuss Camp Lejeune, the poisonous water that injured marines and their families, and the claims process. If you, your loved ones, or a deceased family member were stationed at Camp Lejeune, you may be eligible to file a claim.