Ron, when I started flying in late '68, I could not get a sidearm no-how. Nuthin'. Matter of fact, they were busy "Vietnamizing" the war, and I couldn't get an M-16. Propped an M-14 in the ship for a month or so.

Finally Bob Paine, who was the Supply Officer at the time, got me an ancient AR-15, which turned out to be a REALLY good one, and a couple of weeks later he scrounged me up a .38 revolver that you had to turn the cylinder by hand on, for the last 1/4 inch, to get the round under the hammer.

I stole some NVA weapons out of a pile on the ship and he got me a Spanish Star 9mm pistol that I carried under my shirt for a little while, then he traded that and some other stuff that I stole for the .45 I carried until I left. You know what? Nothing wrong with that. Armies, within limits, live by their wits. If it comes easy, it goes easy.

I wrote my Dad for a knife and he went out the day he got the letter and bought me a Buck knife, sent it same day. What'd he buy? Buck Model 119. I opened about a zillion cans of Falstaff with that knife... but I also ALWAYS had it on me in the ship, and used it a couple times on WIAs, dammit.

Dirtbag at Watkins Glen NY stole the knife a few years later. Too bad, but that's life.

Bob