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

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?

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.

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.

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????

I occasionally peruse Paul Markle. Perhaps I should subscribe…

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

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.