Student Of the Gun’s ‘Saigon Report’ Video Tops 3 Million Views

1. I used to be able to tell if the burst came from an AK or an m16 just from the sound. Probably still could. Only been 50 years. That ain’t much, is it?

   • “That ain’t much, is it?”

     Oh, it could very well be enough to save yours or the lives of others, one day still… 🙁

     • In Vietnam, the AKs were the Commies, and the M16’s the Americans. Who knows what it will be next time around? Both the bad guys and the good guys might be shooting ARs with some AKs mixed in.

       • Art out West,

         I had/have the same thought.

   • It probably had your full attention.

   • “This is the AK-47 assault rifle, the preferred weapon of our enemy. It makes a distinctive sound when fired.” – Gunnery Sargeant Thomas Highway

   • God bless and thank you for your service
     they had distinct snap or crack when going by or overhead. once heard you can not unhear it.

     • All rounds have a distinct crack when passing nearby if they are hypersonic. That’s the bullet breaking the sound barrier. From 600 yards the next sound one hears is the sound of the muzzle blast. At less than 500 yards the time differential between the muzzle blast and the bullet passing by at hypersonic speeds is too close together to differentiate.

2. If you can get past the politics? Student of the gun is one of the best podcasts to get information about firearms for new folks.
   Unfortunately, or perhaps it’s better that people who can’t stand his politics just stop listening to the show.

   That’s OK I’ve been listening for 9 of their 10 years. And they’re not going anywhere. As professor Paul says, you’re an American you have the freedom to not listen to his show.

   You can choose to not get some very important information on safety, training, use of guns, american history, and his 30 years of experience in the firearms business.

3. I’ve studied gunms a bit but still haven’t figured out why they go out and kill humans?
   It’s not like they get hungry or are jealous of what someone has, they dont do drugs or need money, I’m beginning to think gunms just like killing humans.
   Perhaps counseling would help?
   We do not know what deep seated reasons a gunm has for killing humans. Someone needs to find out.

   • Really? Have you met humans? Who wouldn’t want to kill and eat them?

     • {Humans}

       “Who wouldn’t want to kill and eat them?”

       Damn straight, I’ve found the female Chinese variety absolutely delightful to nibble on. They make the cutest noises when they are really, Really, *REALLY* happy… 🙂

       “They only come up to your knees, yet they’re always friendly, and they’re ready to please…”

       *Wink* 🙂

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DqvweTYTI0

   • Unfortunately, the human-e solution to this situation is to lock them up so they can do no harm. Either that or drop them into a pit of boiling lava if you can tolerate their dying screams.

     • “Unfortunately, the human-e solution to this situation is to lock them up so they can do no harm.”

       I’ve been arguing that position recently. It’s fun to point out to the Leftist Scum ™ that it was *THEY* who cheered the loudest when they were released from their prisons in the 1960s, and I thank them for all the years they have been INSISTING the insane were no more dangerous than anyone else, and how it was criminal to stigmatize them in any way.

       Lay the blame where it rightfully belongs, at their feet, and re-open the insane asylums, and lock the dangerous away, after thorough legal due process.

       (I’m still working on the delivery, if anyone has some bits to add, please post them. I consider this a ‘Crowd Source’ effort for all to use as they see fit in our fight against the actual Fascists, the *evil* Leftist Scum ™ )…

       *snicker* 🙂

       • If only N. Cruz was locked up before he committed mass slaughter at his high school.

         Some 60-odd calls to the house weren’t enough to wake someone the fuck up that there was a serious mental problem?

       • “The Mental Health Matters Act passed 220 to 205 on a largely party line vote, with all 205 “no” votes coming from Republicans. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pennsylvania) cast the sole Republican “yes” vote.

         The bill, introduced by Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-California) and supported by the White House, would provide grants for schools to hire more mental health experts and grow their mental health services, especially schools in areas with high need. It would also provide mental health protections to adults with private health insurance and children and staff in Head Start programs, which are aimed at serving low-income children from birth to age 5.“

         https://truthout.org/articles/205-republicans-vote-against-bill-to-expand-school-mental-health-services/

       • Wonder what could be accomplished with the money and efforts wasted on trying to get kids to transgender? Those resources could be put to better uses sorting out mental health issues amongst the truly troubled.

   • Guns hate people of low caliber.

4. Most people are very familiar with the sorry history of the M16 in Vietnam but in spite of its half baked improvements it still is an unreliable weapon. Even decades later in the Middle East War in the infamous Jessica Lynch case every damn M16 rifle in the squad was jammed up when they were attacked by the Arabs who are known for almost never cleaning their AK 47’s which all worked as they should that day. In other words no jams.

   Its interesting to note that the later invented Stoner AR18 was actually the better weapon and was also used in Nam in a variety of configurations. Its one of those military rifles that should have made it into the inventory of the worlds arsenals but never did. I regret now not getting one when you could get a full auto in the 60’s for less than $400 bucks. By the way a buddy of mine bought an M16 back then for only $450. That did not include the tax stamp of $200. Even the various makes of the semi-auto civilian version now go for big bucks.

   A variety of weapons were used in Vietnam many people are not even aware of. Back about 30 years ago I was at the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum and they had on loan and display a nickel plated High Power 9mm that an air force pilot was carrying when he was shot down over North Vietnam. He was fortunately close to the border and shot his way out of there with the gun.

   The Thompson machine gun was popular in Vietnam and often on patrols the squad would carry an M14 to make the enemy think they had an M60. The rest of the squad had M16’s. Many grunts threw away their M16’s and picked up an AK in the field to use instead. At least they worked. I might add U.S. rifle training was so poor that it was estimated for every enemy soldier killed it took 1 million dollars worth of ammo to do it with.

   One friend of mine told me during an attack he hit a Viet Cong over the head with his empty M16 and the junk plasticky stock just disintegrated. The enemy whose AK was also empty hit him over the head with his wood stocked AK47 and knocked him out cold.

   Of course there were other dangers in Nam not related to combat. A buddy of mine had a critter crawl up his penis when he was sleeping and he then could not urinate. He damned near died before they got him back to a doctor.

   I recently re-watched the movie “Full Metal Jacket” after not having seen it since it first came out in the 80’s. Although the movie was graphic it came nowhere near close to what actually went on there which of course was far worse with the military policy of torturing and murdering civilians. The sadistic depraved drill sergeant played by Lee Ermey who basically ended up playing himself and recently passed away was actually far worse in real life than he was in the movie (which may sound unbelievable) and this came right from the people who knew him personally and made comments after he died not too long ago. Not too many people shed a tear when this depraved nut case passed away.

   For further reading I suggest reading the book “Kill Anything That Moves” by Nick Turse who interviewed people on both sides of the battle line. The book explores the depravity of the war and the atrocities committed by the U.S. Military in Vietnam. General Julian Ewell known as “The Butcher of the Delta” was as bad as any Nazi killer in WWII.

   I would like to mention one real hero of the Vietnam war, Hugh Thompson who saved the lives of a group of helpless Vietnamese civilians during the My Lai Massacre and who were about to be murdered by some depraved U.S. soldiers. He turned his helicopter M60 Machine guns on the nut cases and told them he was taking the civilians out of there and if they harmed them or tried to stop him he was going to machine gun every damn one of them. He would have done it too and too bad he did not. He should have shot them all. As one can see Lt. Caley’s excuse that “I was just following orders” held no weight when Hughes ignored the same depraved orders to murder civilians.

   An macabre side note. The Gerber MKII dagger became very popular with U.S. troops but the U.S. Military took heavy criticism for letting their solders buy a 7 inch dagger so they told Gerber to put serrations on both sides of the blade so they could claim it was useful as a survival knife which was a laugh because the troops were using it to cut peoples ears off and make macabre necklaces out of them. Original Vietnam Gerber MKII knives bring very big bucks on the collector market when they rarely come up for sale as not too many survived the war.

   The U.S. murdered so many civilians it backfired on them and it drove many ordinary Vietnamese to go over to the side of the Viet Cong. One of my buddies (later killed there) told me before he died that he played cards with a Vietnamese man who worked on the base and this man was later killed one night trying to rig up a booby trap to kill U.S. personnel. In other words you never knew who the enemy really was.

   Anther work friend of mine told me that he was in a Vietnamese Bar one day when a passerby rolled a grenade into the bar and blew him off his bar stool. He jokingly said he did not know what hurt more, being wounded or not being able to finish his drink that day.

   I once worked with a rather shy man who admitted he was in Nam. He told me his job was with the intelligence services. When I pressed him for details he refused to discus it and looked away not looking me in the eye. This coupled with the fact he brought home a Vietnamese wife (out of subconscious guilt I think) told me what he probably did to people in Nam. He told me his Vietnamese wife would meet him at the door when he came home from work and then walk on his back to massage his muscle pains and then feed him supper and only eat after he was finished eating. My question is “Why did U.S. service men torture and kill all these wonderful women????

   • Tfl;dr.
     Liar.
     Stfu.

     • Bath salts mixed into the Bud Lite.

   • the NVA and the VC were not exactly known for their gentle treatment of civilians…and I met “the gunny” once at Knob Creek….seemed like a pretty nice guy to me…once saw a guy I used to eat dinner with in college on a Christmas tv special…he was a captain by then…as he passed out treats to Vietnamese kids…takes all kinds to fight a war…..

     • Ask what the VC/NVA did to children. If they were caught in a school the children would have pencils forced into their ears.

       From lil’d’s peace loving l3ftists.

   • dacian the demented dips***,

     You don’t need to keep proving it; we all know you’re an ignoranus. But thanks for ONCE AGAIN showing us your complete ignorance of firearms. The original M16 had it’s teething problems, and in ‘Nam wasn’t a great weapon (although it got better by the end of that debacle). The M4 and the modern AR-15 is a fine weapon, for its purpose – if given even MODERATE care and maintenance, it is as reliable as the crappy AK-47 (particularly the Chinese knock-offs; although American AKs are pretty damn good – GO USA!!!) and WAY more accurate.

     You really should go soak your head in the bathtub for a couple of hours. Make sure it’s all the way under.

     • The AK-47 went through almost 10 years of refinement until it was considered ready. It would be called the AK-56 if the final design year was used.

   • New month and lil d is certainly going for more than his share of Soros’ windbag $.

   • You could have simply said “I don’t have a clue and just make shit up as I go”. It would have been quicker and easier, dacian.

   • If words were fertilizer.
     And why would you want an automatic weapon dacian?

   • You don’t really think anyone believes a word you write, do you? You really need help.

   • Dacian: I rarely comment on the detritus that you post but this post is beyond the pale. You, sir, are an abominable liar. It is too bad that calling one out for lying has gone out of fashion or I would call you out.

5. I occasionally peruse Paul Markle. Perhaps I should subscribe…

6. F you dacian!
   You are just an anti-American troll.

7. I’m old enough that I can remember much of that anti American propaganda. There is some truth such as the man who stopped massacre at My-Lai
   https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_massacre
   The other wrong was bombing of civilians.
   Overall compared to other conflicts and given the tactics of hiding combatants among civilians and the frustration of tunnel pop ups and the ensuing stress, my opinion is that USA scored far above historical average in war ethics behavior. Guys I spoke with told me about their frustration at watching civilians building booby traps for them but not being able to do anything. One guy I will never forget his trembling and sweating of how he was double crossed by an orphan boy he had helped greatly and had become to feel a father of. The boy led him along a path and at the moment he noticed rings in the swamp scum (indicating earlier mortar zero) the boy disappeared. The few seconds of running got him to safety as the mortars hit water and that reduced their kill radius. A basic source for PTSD is betrayal.

   • Collateral Damage is as old as Warfare. There were plenty of massacres involving Non Combatants in previous wars, just as there were incidents of Friendly Fire. Vietnam had the distinction of being covered by On the Spot Nightly News, as well as the fact that the Viet Cong specifically hid amongst Civilian Non Combatants, and performed their share of slaughtering Civilians. For our troops, Vietnam was a new type of Combat, and theye were not prepared for how easily the enemy could blend into the populace.
     I’m not attempting to justify or condone such actions, just pointing out the fact that such atrocities have always been a problem for every army.

     • You should read the court-martial reports from the Korean War. In my down time at the Twelfth Naval District Legal office I used to read the early Court Martial Reports and mostly the early volumes from 1951 dealt with crimes committee by GIs in Korea against non-combatant Koreans who were supposed to be our allies. I know that the same things happened in Japan after the war and in Germany after the war but that was excused on the grounds that they were former enemies. That said, we were rank amateurs when it came to pillaging compared to the troops of the Germans, Japanese and Russians.

       • One official war crime (I mean a crime committed by command, as opposed to a wilding type crime) in Korea was the strafting of a refugee column by F-86. Many civilians were killed. The motive was because “there will be spies among the refugees “. It’s rough that such bastards walk among us.

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