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Message no. 1
From: Tzeentch tzeentch666@*********.net
Subject: M60 (was Re: State of the Game (mildly long))
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 14:18:32 -0700
From: "Alfredo B Alves" <dghost@****.com>
> On Wed, 12 Apr 2000 20:25:45 +0200 "Gurth" <gurth@******.nl> writes:
> <SNIP>
> > I don't see the problem with that. A Mk. III need not be
> > automatically
> > better than a Mk. II, I'd say -- there are plenty of ways in which a
> > newer
> > version can actually be worse than the thing it's supposedly an
> > improvement on. (Anyone here know what an M60A2 Starship is? :)
>
> Isn't M60A2 the designation of a machine gun? (Sometimes known as, I
> think, "the hog" or "the pig") I'd guess that
"starship" was a reference
> to an attempt to fix the M60's ammo feed problem that resulted in
> misfires.

Well, that too. But he was referring to the overly complex tank with that
designation. ;)

Strangely enough, there are a assload of M-60s still in service. We used
them in a FEX (Field Exercise) when I was in Ft. Huachuca. One our Sgts.
(Sgt. Kill was is name -no shit), at the end of the exercise, picked up two
of them (now, this guy was short but STRONG) and starting firing away. It
was VERY cool ;) and since it was at night it was like a live-action Rambo
movie.

I never fired it (though I had to help clean them!) since I was the squad
commo guy.

It's heavy, I'll give it that...

Ken
---------------------------
There's a war out there, old friend, a world war. And it's not about who's
got the most bullets, it's about who controls the information. What we see
and hear, how we work, what we think, it's all about the information!
Cosmo, 'Sneakers'
Message no. 2
From: David Hinkley dhinkley@***.org
Subject: M60 (was Re: State of the Game (mildly long))
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 02:52:39 -0700
From: "Tzeentch" <tzeentch666@*********.net>
To: <shadowrn@*********.com>
Subject: M60 (was Re: State of the Game (mildly long))
Date sent: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 14:18:32 -0700
Send reply to: shadowrn@*********.com

> From: "Alfredo B Alves" <dghost@****.com>
> > On Wed, 12 Apr 2000 20:25:45 +0200 "Gurth" <gurth@******.nl>
writes:
> > <SNIP>
<SNIP>

> Well, that too. But he was referring to the overly complex tank with that
> designation. ;)

>
> Strangely enough, there are a assload of M-60s still in service.

What is strange about that. It is a reasonably good medium/light machine
gun. 1100 meter range, 7.62mm bullet respectable ROF

>We used
> them in a FEX (Field Exercise) when I was in Ft. Huachuca. One our Sgts.
> (Sgt. Kill was is name -no shit), at the end of the exercise, picked up two
> of them (now, this guy was short but STRONG) and starting firing away. It
> was VERY cool ;) and since it was at night it was like a live-action Rambo
> movie.

I hope it was with blank ammo. That kind of stunt can be hazardous to the
health of bystanders when done with ball. Plus then there is the recoil. I got
the opportunty to fire one from the shoulder with ball ammo. In a four round
burst (I only could do 2 or 4) the last round was in the air, but if I aimed a bit
low I could get the other 3 in a E type at 25 meters.

>
> I never fired it (though I had to help clean them!) since I was the squad
> commo guy.

Cleaning them was always fun. But the gun they wouldn't let me clean was
more fun (at least looking back). I was supposed to run an orentation range
for some staff types from the Brigade HQ. For safety reasons we broke the
belts into 25 round lengths. Then they canceled the range session. Because
ammo from open cases had to be inspected head stamp by head stamp (to
prove that two lots had not been mixed) The safety NCO and I shot off the
1500 rounds using two guns. Then we went to turn the guns in to the unit we
had borrowed them from. They would not let us clean them because they
wanted to close the arms room. When we returned to the Reserve cente we
cleaned our weapons then asked that unit for the two machine guns to clean.
Again they turned us down and said they would do it. Two years later, during
a IG (detailed formal inspection of a unit done by a special team of
inspectors which is reported up the chain of command) an inspector found it
still uncleaned,( first weapon in a random inspection) then he picked another
gun. Yep you guesed it the other fire M60 also not cleaned for two years.
Needless to say they failed that segment of the inspection big time and that
the unit got a new armorer.


>
> It's heavy, I'll give it that...
>
The gun itsself is not bad but add the ammo, tipod and spare barrel bag and
it can be a bear. I was lucky I never had to hump it very far the short time
was the designated gunner. And the looks I got, luging it around, were
interesting to say the least. Nobody had ever seen a commissioned (Captain)
Machine gunner. Little did they know, my assistant was a Major. The unit was
a MP headquarters detachment (10 officiers and 10 enlisted) All the officers
and the Sargent Major had pistols the rest M-16s and the unit had one M60.
To crew it with enlisted would take 2 rifles off the defence line, and as the unit
was suppose to be so far behind the lines that if we had to fight we had a
major problem, so an all officer crew made sense with the Battalion
Commander. Of course when we got a new CO, he changed it.

Well that is enough OT war stories for one night.






David Hinkley
dhinkley@***.org

===================================================Those who are too intelligent to engage
in politics
are punished by being governed by those who are not
--Plato

Further Reading

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