Newsgroups: sci.military Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!cbnews!military From: fmrco!curt@uunet.UU.NET (Curt Fennell) Subject: Re: Side arms for Fly boys. Organization: Fidelity Investment, Boston, MA 02109 Date: Fri, 19 Oct 90 03:29:53 GMT Approved: military@att.att.com Message-ID: <1990Oct19.032953.13630@cbnews.att.com> References: <1990Oct15.033827.12908@cbnews.att.com> <1990Oct16.011101.11588@cbnews.att.com> Sender: military-request@att.att.com Lines: 36 From: fmrco!curt@uunet.UU.NET (Curt Fennell) In article <1990Oct16.011101.11588@cbnews.att.com> ab3o+@andrew.cmu.edu (Allan Bourdius) writes: > >From: Allan Bourdius >Pilots carry sidearms for self-defense after being shot down. When the >competition for the weapon to replace the M1911 .45 ACP began, the >services differed greatly on what kind of weapon they wanted. The Army >wanted a 9mm, because that was an up and coming NATO round. The Marines >wanted an improved .45, because they didn't see any real problem with >the exisitng pistol, except its age. The Navy didn't really care, they >wanted something that would shoot, I guess. And the Air Force wanted >something that amounted to a light-machine gun to give their pilots for >when they were shot down over commieland. > >>From what I've read/seen/heard, most pilots/aircrew prefer to carry >revolvers instead of autoloaders because they tend to be lighter. > When I was on active duty in the Marine Corps, the ground guys carried the .45 as a sidearm, but the flyboys carried the Smith and Wesson .38 revolver. The .38 was the standard issue sidearm for aircrews, although in real combat, crews carried whatever they felt like. Marine officers were required to qualify once a year with the pistol, whether it was the .45 for the ground officers or the .38 for the aircrews. The official reason for carrying the weapons in the aircraft was 'survival' when shot down - whatever that could mean. Clearly, a downed pilot wasn't about to fight off a lot of enemy troops with his .38, but it could come in handy. -- ================================================================= Curt Fennell |Fidelity Investments | fmrco!curt@uunet.uu.net |82 Devonshire St. (I40C) | (617) 570-2614 |Boston, MA 02109 |