Colt Pythons in Nam ?

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Can't tell if one of them was a Python, but (then) Capt. Roger Donlon, in his autobiography Outpost of Freedom, mentioned that a couple of the men in his A Team carried the .357 as their sidearm. One of the two, who had a S&W .357, said he preferred it because "it could knock down a horse or an elephant at a thousand yards." :cool:

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There are also anecedotes concerning use of .30 Carbine Blackhawks as sidearms by US advisors who supported indigenous units armed with M2 Carbines. This all occured before my time, so it's just interesting stories to me.
 
Hal said:
I worked with a guy at one time that was a tunnel rat.
(interesting guy - he was 5 foot nothing & weighed a hundred nothing when he served. When I worked with him, he was still 5 foot nothing, but, he was pushing 300 pounds. In his words, he did that so they could never put him back in a tunnel)

Anyhow - one day I asked him what they carried.
He told me that My Lai had been a game changer in what they were and weren't allow to have.
That's all he would say on the subject.
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I had a sergeant who was allegedly a Tunnel Rat in Vietnam, he also was smaller, about 5’3” thin and rarely talked. In fact I think he said about ten words to be in all the years we worked for the same department.

One of the senior guys who apparently pried some info from him said the sergeant went into the tunnels armed with a knife sheathed on his belt, a flashlight and a 1911.

I do recall the sergeant had a crudely done forearm tattoo of the ace and jack of spades. Someone once said it was a unit insignia from whatever unit he was in, others said a few times to me the ace was a “death card” and the jack meant he handed out 11 cards... I have no idea. I just recall the quiet confidence and no-nonsense aura the guy had.

He retired many years ago, I believe he moved to Iowa and just lives a quiet retirement life. I’d love to have heard his stories but I doubt he ever would tell anyone very much.

Here is an article about Vietnam era Army pilot weaponry.
https://www.gunsamerica.com/digest/...rsonal-defense-weapons-slicks-snakes-loaches/

Stay safe.
 
Early in the conflict you could take a personal weapon with you. A lot of those got traded or sold and remained in-country, rotating from one owner to the next when guys shipped home.

When I went there in '69 I was specifically and pointedly told I could not take a personal weapon. And if your family tried to ship you one after you were in country, and it was discovered, you could be in deep (expletive deleted).

I was in MI and we worked with Special Forces. Those folks had a lot of unique weapons and sold and traded them at will. I was offered a Chinese Tokarev and a S&W 39. I even saw a Air America guy (chuckle, chuckle) who had one of the legendary Browning HPs with no serial number. He did not offer to sell or trade that one. LOL

Dave

PS: I never saw a Python despite remaining in-country for 19 months.
 
I have read a lot of Vietnam memoirs. I recall some of the writers and/or their friends having various handguns they purchased or otherwise provided for themselves. Apparently if you were near a city you could buy anything you wanted from the black market.

I recall one author writing that no one seemed to care what the men in his unit carried, but they weren't allowed to take their miscellaneous handguns home with them. Thus they would often sell them to a "new guy" when they rotated back home. (I assumed this was a very specific circumstance.)

IIRC, several authors obtained and carried small handguns because they had no intention of being captured alive.
 
ThomasT said:
I wouldn't doubt it at all. Back then the Python hadn't reached Deity status yet and was at that time just a very good revolver. One writer in the Backwoodsman magazine said he carried a S&W model 15 that the guys were always trying to swap him out of for the 1911s they owned.

And best of all was in one of the Guns and Ammo annuals there was a soldier that had a 444 Marlin lever action he called his "Bunker Buster". Apparently he went missing in the jungle and was never seen again.
Click to expand...


Jerry "Mad Dog" Shriver. He is the archetype of the "gone native, half crazy green beret" trope.

https://ultimatesniper.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/The-Untold-True-Story-of-Mad-Dog-Shriver.pdf
 
My late FIL who was an Army pilot in VN on two different tours carried a 1911 and a Thompson, both of which he had chrome plated in country. He brought the 1911 home but had to leave the Thompson, just sold it to another new guy coming in. He flew fixed wing aircraft, Beavers, Otters, Caribou. His first tour was in '65-'66, then back in '68-'69. His "diaries" are interesting! Sometime before I knew him the 1911 disappeared.
 
A friend of mine, since passed away, was a OH-6 “Loach” pilot. He carried a CAR-15, an issue .38 special, and his own BHP. He was shot down 5 times. During one of those episodes he was captured by 3 NVA and had his CAR and .38 taken away, but they overlooked the BHP. While they were marching him to captivity all three got distracted at the same time, and he managed to get all three with the Hi Power. He then made his way back to US lines.

He switched from USA to USN shortly afterwards. Did a tour in the Blue Angels, and eventually got command of a fighter squadron and retired as an O-5. Great guy.

RIP: Randall "Pogo" Clark
Pogo.jpg
 
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tlf65 said:
An old friend of mine served there when they were having M16 jamming problems he told his father about their problems and his father sent him a Python.
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You were allowed personal firearms in VN. Handguns were not typically issued to the lower ranks so many brought them from home or had them sent to them along with proper ammo to feed them. I had a few vets working under me including a tunnel rat, and a South VN former officer. Like indicated in a prior post D. Benson the tunnel rat was a small guy but had no shortage of courage. He also used the 1911. I also had a couple personal friends that served there . I was preparing to go there as well but didn't pass the physical. They 1-Y'd me and after a bit changed me to 4-F. I found my fight elsewhere.
 
I was in RVN 69-70 as TC in the Central Highlands. Never saw a Python, but have no doubt there were probably some there. I do remember our company 1st. Sgt. had a .38 Spcl. Colt Trooper. A guy in another unit had a nice Hi Power. I asked where he got ammo for it. He said he got ammo from the Australians. A friend who was there before me, said he acquired a Thompson somewhere, but left it there when it was time to come home. We were issued 1911A1s, and had access to virtually unlimited amounts of ammo for all our guns, i.e. .45 ACP, 7.62. .50, 90MM,etc. I was content with that and didn't look to get anything more interesting.

Once in a Montagnard village, I handled one of the like new appearing Thompsons that had been issued to the local village defense force. Almost surrealistic scene; villagers in loin cloths carrying like new Thompsons. We only had a couple old M3A1s;)
 
I only remember seeing one Python other than the reptilian kind and that was carried
by one of our Warrant Officer pilots. Most of them carried the issued .45 or .38 M&P.
Several had Derringers, believe it or not, including yours truly to go with my issue 1911.
Shortly after I came back from Nam, my uncle was kidnapped and used as a hostage
in a prison break. They hurt him. He wouldn't talk about it but he asked me if I still
had that derringer and I gave it to him with the stipulation that I got it back when he
was done with it. When he died years later, I asked my Aunt for it and she couldn't
find it. None of his family would own up to having it so I reckon he took it to the grave
with him;)
Dano
 
One veteran said he carried a S&W M39 to Viet Nam in the expectation of scrounging 9mm ammo from Australians. But he never got assigned anywhere near an Australian outfit and finished out his tour with two magazines worth of ammo left out of his original box.
 
Paul7 said:
You hear of some US troops carrying AK-47s, was that allowed?
Click to expand...

Wayyyyyyyyy back -- when I was a military dependent, stationed with my parents in Japan (and the Vietnam War was raging), I remember reading an article in Stars & Stripes about a Filipino-American (I think that was his ethnicity) G.I. who would don black pajamas and a coolie hat, grab an AK-47, and go on solo patrols outside of his unit perimeter. He only knew rudimentary Vietnamese words, like "hello," "good-bye," etc.

In one instance, he happened to literally walk in on a Viet Cong team which was camped out in a small clearing, having dinner. They looked up at him, saw a combatant like themselves, and went back to eating. They never finished their meals. o_O

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Ive talked with multiple Vietnam vets who said that personal sidearms were somewhat common over there.
 
NIGHTLORD40K said:
Ive read that a big problem with GIs using AKs was that you were likely to draw friendly fire just from the sound they made firing, which was very distinctly different from the US weapons.
Click to expand...

The stories I've heard about GIs using AKs were from the early days when M16s weren't reliable.
 
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