"Blooper gunner for my Marine squad" Topic

Here is the Blooper gunner for my US Marines for Vietnam. He is armed with a M79 grenade launcher.

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I had no idea the blooper fired such a variety of ordinance.

Great work as previously. Funny how they all smoked Marlboro'. Mine certainly do as so distinctive. Lucky Strike not so easy to show. I even tried researching old US cigarette packaging, but nothing looked as good….

Sieht fantastisch aus!

Anmerkung(en):

Helm: The helmet cover colors look a little bright?
Base: Just the rim, actually. Make it neater!

Everyone has recently agreed the helmet cover is a huge challenge.

It is the scale effect challenge and that the original faded so much that the camou finish was usually completely lost. But we want our model helmets to look still like Vietnam War issue with the green-brown splodges still visible. I know I have not got it right yet…would you risk a brownish/earth wash to tone it down maybe? But keep it off the fags!

"BLOOP!"

Yes the replacement for the M79, the M203 had a variety of ammo. E.g. HEDP, Smoke, Illum, and even a 40mm "shot gun" round ! I forget what that was called …

When I painted Vietnam figs; I found Marlboro, Lucky Strikes, and Look cig packs were easy to represent when painting. My greens, even lighter helmet greens were more subdued.

There was a way to mark the M-79 sling to use it for indirect fire like a mortar out to 400 yards.

Towards the bottom of this link:
link

Wolfhag

Menthol cigarettes, Salems and Kools, were very popular with the Vietnamese and "soul brothers". We got cigarettes in cases of "Sundrys". There would be 10 cartons of cigarettes along with gum, writing supplies etc. I think the breakdown was 5 Marlboro, 2 Kools, 2 Lucky Strike and 1 Salem.
After nightly perimeter guard duty, we would sometimes have a "mad minute' where we would shoot up the bush. I would love firing grenade rounds. We called them "bloopers" 'cause they kind of went "bloop" when you fired them.
One morning I had a flechette round left over so I fired it. Ouch! Kicked like a mule! Never fired one again…

Robert Stone, in _Dog Soldiers_, describes the sound as like "a cork popping our of a fifty gallon drum." That's a really good-looking mini!

Well now we know what cigs to put in their headband.

UK/Irish saying, not sure if it will cross the Pond but "This is straight from the horse's mouth". Great to hear from someone who knows, speaking as one who was lucky enough to miss out…… through an accident of geography and our Prime Minister Harold Wilson (who was a bit of a leftie).

flechette

Yes, now I remember what the M203 "shot gun" round was called. It really didn't have metal balls like a shot gun shell, but Flechettes. Which was more like a little nail/dart with fins, for accuracy. I forget how many were in each round, but it was a large number. Like the shot in a shot gun shell.

Thanks d88mm !

I always get a chuckle seeing the c ration cigarette packs worn on helmets. Folks, they don't smoke too well when wet or damp. We used to have these two piece plastic cigarette boxes that were pretty much waterproof. They fit a regular pack and even had space for a book of matches. Usually carried in a pocket or stateside we put them in our socks over the top of our bloused boots. Maybe this was just a Marine Corps thing.
This was back in the late 60s.

I seem to remember reading – the various flechette and 'bee hive' anti-personnel rounds were outlawed under the Geneva convention…so they were not always discussed in official documents. Trying to wound rather than kill an enemy being somehow not 'cricket'.

So what did they carry in the helmet strap then? I will have to rethink the whole idea. Let us ask the expert.

Lubricating oil seems correct for M60.

I have seen a few rounds of ammo. The rest I cannot identify.

The outlawing of sub lethal ammo of any sort has always seemed a contradiction. The idea of course is that a wounded man exposed encourages others to try a rescue. Once out he must be evacuated, requires a number of soldiers out of the line. He is then a major drain on resources for specialist treatment. Weapons especially designed to inflict wounds that were hard to treat certainly seem "unethical"…eg non X ray detectable FBs, fragmentation ammo, poisons and toxins etc

My 5th grade teacher used to tell us that circa 1987, better to wound than kill. I still can't figure out why my teacher was telling us that. Don't think he was a vet.

That is one cool M79 grenadier.

I seem to remember reading – the various flechette and 'bee hive' anti-personnel rounds were outlawed under the Geneva convention…so they were not always discussed in official documents. Trying to wound rather than kill an enemy being somehow not 'cricket'.

Never heard that. But we were told flechette/Bee Hive rounds were limited issue as it caused excessive barrel wear.

They were designed to combat massed Infantry targets/attacks. One of my ROTC Instructors, with the 1ID in Vietnam. Told us about an M48 using a bee hive round. When their fire base was attacked by a large group of VC and/or NVA(?) infantry.

The rounds would cut large swathes out of the attackers. Even some were "tacked" to trees. Or parts of them. The leader in the front was beheaded, he said. Many in that VC/NVA unit died fairly quickly. And the attack was broken off.

If the GCs were to outlaw Bee Hive rounds, they'd probably have to do the same for shot guns. Even when I was in the 101, '80-'83. We were issued Shot Guns for special missions. They were Remington 870s with shorten barrels, and bayonet lug. But our newer M9(?) Bayonets didn't fit them. Disappointing some of my troopers.

We also saw during training a 105 howitzer use a Bee Hive round on the range. To demonstrate how effective it was on massed infantry formations/attacks.

From my perspective flechette/Bee Hive rounds were generally very effective at what they were designed to do.

Shotguns are also outlawed if I remember correctly. Then again – the Geneva Convention didn't seem to be respected [by either side] during the various wars [small 'W'] in South East Asia.

I used to put my 'bug juice' (insect repellent) bottle in the helmet strap. It was kind of a smokey white color with a black cap (I think). Cigs I kept in the plastic box noted by Bismark. Kept MPC (Military Payment Currency-Funny Money) in a plastic baggy.
I had bunker duty next to a Duster position. They loved to brag about their 'mods':
-Filed off the Geneva Convention nob (a chunk of metal designed to keep the barrels from going below +10 degrees).
-Backed the track up on blocks, to get about a minus 10 degrees.
-Set the rounds to go off immediately.
The were Gung-Ho, highly motivated and superbly insane. I always felt secure when they were there.

Also, I do remember seeing cigarette packs in the helmet band, but usually behind lines, off duty or in gun trucks doing convoy duty. Truck drivers too. It was usually dry in Northern I Corps, except during monsoon season.
It was humid, but we usually smoked a pack a day (or more), so the cigs weren't exposed that long to the humidity.

the Geneva Convention didn't seem to be respected [by either side] during the various wars [small 'W'] in South East Asia.

Yes that is pretty well known …

I'm not sure about the GC outlawing shot guns ? But like I said, even in the early '80s we were issued 870s at times … No one said anything about the GCs.

I had bunker duty next to a Duster position. They loved to brag about their 'mods':
-Filed off the Geneva Convention nob (a chunk of metal designed to keep the barrels from going below +10 degrees).
-Backed the track up on blocks, to get about a minus 10 degrees.
-Set the rounds to go off immediately.
The were Gung-Ho, highly motivated and superbly insane. I always felt secure when they were there.

Yes, I heard the same about the M42. Those Twin 40s could do a lot of damage to massed infantry attacks.

I had read/was told the US ARMY had some quad .50s at Khe Sahn
as well. Yes there were some ARMY there too! Again good for stalling massed infantry attacks.

"I seem to remember reading – the various flechette and 'bee hive' anti-personnel rounds were outlawed under the Geneva convention…so they were not always discussed in official documents. Trying to wound rather than kill an enemy being somehow not 'cricket'."

I've never heard that either, and I can tell you I carried 40mm flechette rounds for my M-203 in Afghanistan in late 2001/early 2002. In Iraq I only carried HEDP, but I think it was just down to ammo availability, not it being outlawed or anything.

And, like Legion, we had M-870s my whole time in the Marine Corps ('94 to '04), and I'd bet a month's pay they're still using them (or some new version).

V/R,
Jack

Fair enough – I seem to remember reading it but could have been in a novel or a less than rigorous source.

Just Jack +1