Veterans Day - what did you carry?

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Wisco

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Happy Veterans Day to any fellow veterans here at THR!

Keeping this gun related - where did you serve and what weapons did you carry?
 
Answering my own question:

Army - mix of regular army and SOF. Iraq, Afghanistan.

M16A2, M4A1, M9, M11
 
US Army, 4th Armored Div., Co. A 144th Signal, Crypto, 1966-67. M14 and a 1911 when moving equipment to another "jump location".
 
USN/Seabees CBMU 302 Republic of Viet Nam 1971/1972. Carried an M16, and tools, lots and lots of tools. Cheers to all my brothers and sisters who served "back in the day" and to those putting in on the line today.
My wife of 37 years is also a vet, an Army nurse who served during the Viet Nam era, and while she never went "in country" she worked with the victims of the meat grinder as they were medivacted back to the States. :)
 
U.S. Coast Guard, '77-'81, big white ones out of Portsmouth Va. and Skedaddle Wa. Carried/used the M16 and were just phasing in the Beretta 92, still plenty of .45's to be had.
 
US Air Force 01-05. 9th MS Beale AFB.
I was an AGE guy so my weapon was also a wrench lol
 
My best friend and I (Bill Perkins) enlisted in the U.S.N in Dec. 1951 after graduating from HS in 1950; as soon as we enlisted, they sent Bill to the U.S.S. Philippine Sea, (a small aircraft carrier) which was operating so close to the Korean coast that they were hit by shore batteries from the "gooks"; in the meantime, because they found out I already knew how to weld, I ended up on the U.S.S. Fulton, AS-11, a submarine tender that spent most of it's time tied up to the State Pier at New London, Ct. right across the Thames River from where they were busy building the U.S.S. Nautilus, (the world's first nuclear powered vessel).

I ended up spending my whole first 4 years of active duty repairing the Navy's submarines, (which "break" a lot! ) While several of my class mates came home from Korea in "caskets", the Navy sent my ship to such "thrilling places" as Argentia, Newfoundland, Greenland, (which definitely is NOT "green" at all ), Iceland, and all over the Carribean, always straightening out those pesky submarines that always seemed to keep on getting "dented up"!

There are not a lot of guns on submarine tenders; other than 4 big 5 in "38"s, (don't ask me what the "38" meant ), we did have about 2 dozen WW 2 Colt 1911 .45s that we had to carry when we were standing sentry-watch in ports outside of the U.S. (I think I got to fire the things about a dozen times in 4 years. )

The most "exciting" thing in 4 years of active duty? either being assigned to install the U.S. Navy's "first ever" syrup coke machine in the control room of the Nautilus while she was in the floating dry dock at the New London Sub Base, after just returning from her historic, "first ever" voyage under the polar ice cap; most days while Nautilus was in dry dock, Admiral Hymen Rickover could be found aboard her, (usually looking over the shoulder of the poor ME2 trying to get the specially designed, worlds first syrup coke machine "installed" and in operation; ) Running a close second to that, was being handed a plaster-of-paris, gold painted table "centerpiece" from the huge reception at Morton Hall at the Sub Base, by the First Lady, Mrs. Mamie Eisenhower, (while helping 2 dozen more "white hats" clean-up all of the empty liquor bottles from the big celebration after the Nautilus launching at Electric Boat, 2 miles down the Thames River. ) BTW.....I still have the centerpiece, but unfortunately, I was too dumb, (or too scared) to ask Mrs. Eisenhower to sign it for me. I never did get to see "Ike", as for some reason he was the only V.I.P. in the whole country that didn't attend the Nautilus launching, and sent the First Lady instead.

If you ever saw a news-reel video of the famous scene of Mrs. Eisenhower attempting three times to break the traditional champaign bottle on Nautilus' prow, then being "assisted" by a Navy Commander (which got both of them "soaked" ), I had the extreme pleasure of witnessing that historic event from the "Color Guard" I was part of, less than 50 feet away! (To say that the Navy was very excited to have the world's first nuke would be the under-statement of that decade! )
 
Active Army in the pre-9/11 and early post-9/11 era. Carried M9, M16A2 and M4 (sans optics).
I just missed out on the Grease Guns by about 6 months (replaced by the M4s).
 
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I should add, as many have mentioned the 1911, that in addition to the M9 and M11, there were numerous 1911s (and G19s) in our unit's arms-room that a soldier could sign out instead of an M9.

The Colt frames of our 1911s dated to the WWII-era, but had refurbished uppers that were really quite nice for Army guns. Those 1911s theoretically could've seen combat anywhere from WWII to Iraq/Afghanistan and all the great places in between.
 
RVN 70-71 25th infantry division

M16 probably A2 since it was a closed flash suppressor and was full auto, no burst mode.

We got lost a couple of times and accidentally ventured into Cambodia after there were offically no US troops there. Easy to get lost in the bush.

They would not issue us bayonets so I had a civilian sheath knife on me at all times just in case.
 
USN from 72-77. USCG-R, 78-84
As a Diver on a sub tender on Guam I usually carried a Kabar. Later,on an ASR, mostly a wrench down in the engine room.
When I was in the USCG-R we qualified with the 1911, M16 and riot guns due to the increase in drug interdiction as our mission so life boat crews started being armed.
 
US Coast Guard 1966-1972, Viet Nam 1911,M-2,M1A1 Thompson, Ithaca 37(my favorite) M2HB/81mm o/u and M16.
Went back in 1978, retired in 1999, Grenada and Panama 1911,M16,Remington 870,M9,5"38 (the barrel is 38 times the bore or 190") 76MM and M2HB.
 
Army...M14 and M16.

A year training at Fort Dix, Fort Holabird, and Fort McNair, a year with the 1st Military Intelligence Bn in Vietnam, and a year ar Fort Monmouth.

I was very glad to get out, but have never regretted a day that I served.

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Tinpig
 
I apologize if this is not appropriate on this thread, but I wanted to say thank you. Your service and that of your families is appreciated.
 
Marine Corps 1986 - 2006

As a young Marine I carried a 60 on forced marches

Gulf War K-Bar, M-16, Shotgun, Sometimes behind a truck mounted deuce.

Iraq war
first trip, Vietnam era K-bar(gift from a friend), M9, Shotgun.
Sequential trips, Vietnam era K-bar, M9.
 
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