Yes, gun magazine commando syndrome is quite evident from all of this talk. Especially an flyboy general thinking that 6 rounds of .357 at 1400 fps is far superior than 15 rounds of .355 at 1300 fps.
Troops overseas fighting a nasty little Islamic insurrection using a .38 pistol after having their .45 pistols replaced. The .38's didn't knock down the bad guys so the .45's were reintroduced. Iraq? No, the Philipines after the Spanish American war.
I agree. We shouldn't equip our soldiers with outdated low velocity ammo, especially not .38 S&W. Luckily our guys today do not.
It doesn't matter if ya'll give us 9mm or .45 if the only traning we get is shooting 100 rounds at a stationary paper target every 2 years. The training needs an upgrade more so than the pistol.
No, 100 rounds every two years isn't enough to teach you proficiency with any weapon, but it goes farther with a carbine or shotgun. (I assume that the average REMF would not be limited by a shotgun because they probably cannot shoot well enough with a pistol to make hits beyond the range of a shotgun anyway.)
I have seen people take multiple shots of .45 and read many a report of the same. The gun magazine commando myth of 45s enormous stopping power is no more real than Zeus and Apollo. It is just a piece of lead that puts a hole in about 13 inches of flesh. No more, no less. I have seen wounds from 9mm, .45, .38, 380, 44 etc and you really cannot tell the difference. You can tell large handgun fs. rifle, and large handgun vs small, but that is all. FMJ makes pistol rounds relatively ineffective.
Yes, history does repeat itself. Just as the .45 pistol were proven to be inadequate in WWI and WWII, the military should decide to replace all of the sidearms with carbines. Regardless of what the gun magazine wannabes think, I doubt putting .45s in the hands of flyboys (or soldiers and marines) would save a single life. They can't kill what they can't hit and if they could shoot, a 9mm to the CNS or heart/lungs will kill someone as quickly as a .45.
The M9 is not an essential piece of equipment and it does its job adequately. There is nothing out there that is enough of an improvement to be worth spending billions of dollars to replace all the pistols (and parts and magazines), replaces the mountains of 9mm ammo the military stocks, AND retrain everyone on the new gun. Esp in the middle of a war. Get used to the M9.
Phantom, being a real warrior, your opinion doesn't count as much as a gunrag commandos. Be prepared to be told how your experience (or scientific evidence of wounds from ballistic gellatin or actual flesh) don't count.