Something that always struck me odd,....

[dragoon500ly]

The ammo dump at Fort Know was a real treasure trove of stuff...when I was still AIing a M-60A1, got the chance to take a detail there to load up a stake bed...those hives had everything under the sun!!! 76mm (on hold for Denmark for their M-41s), 90mm and 105mm and even 152mm, long after the damn things were taken out of service (stocks for the 82nd I guess)!

[Sanjuro]

every British transport helicopter I have been in has had the crew with rifles as well as their pistols

AFAIK this goes back to the 1980s in NI, when the PIRA managed to shoot down their first helo. The crew made a successful forced landing, and were climbing out the wreckage when the PIRA team came over the hill towards them, carrying some combination of AKs, M16s and an M60. The crew looked at their issued weapons (Browning 9mm or Walther PPK, I don't know which) and decided not to hang around for the rescue/recovery helo...

[perardua]

Originally Posted by Sanjuro

AFAIK this goes back to the 1980s in NI, when the PIRA managed to shoot down their first helo. The crew made a successful forced landing, and were climbing out the wreckage when the PIRA team came over the hill towards them, carrying some combination of AKs, M16s and an M60. The crew looked at their issued weapons (Browning 9mm or Walther PPK, I don't know which) and decided not to hang around for the rescue/recovery helo...

Sounds about right. And with helos, it makes sense to carry a proper rifle. You've got the space, and if you end up on the ground you'll want something other a 9mm. I also understand that Apache crews load their rifle magazines wholly with tracer, the idea being that their wingmen will still be in the air and thus the downed crews can use the tracer to indicate targets if the enemy are taking too much of an interest in them.

[WallShadow]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

The ammo dump at Fort Know was a real treasure trove of stuff...when I was still AIing a M-60A1, got the chance to take a detail there to load up a stake bed...those hives had everything under the sun!!! 76mm (on hold for Denmark for their M-41s), 90mm and 105mm and even 152mm, long after the damn things were taken out of service (stocks for the 82nd I guess)!

From a brief mention in the local paper at the time--Letterkenny Army Depot in southcentral PA was storing in some of its igloos captured weapons from our excursion in Grenada--AK's and lots of ammo. Supposedly it was to be destroyed. My thought was that in the Twilight universe it would be really handy if this relatively insignificant clump of munitions was forgotten in the hurly-burly of the onset of hostilities.
The locals might have gotten curious/desperate to arm themselves, and what should they come upon but an arsenal courtesy of the Soviet Union and Uncle Sam.

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by WallShadow

From a brief mention in the local paper at the time--Letterkenny Army Depot in southcentral PA was storing in some of its igloos captured weapons from our excursion in Grenada--AK's and lots of ammo. Supposedly it was to be destroyed. My thought was that in the Twilight universe it would be really handy if this relatively insignificant clump of munitions was forgotten in the hurly-burly of the onset of hostilities.
The locals might have gotten curious/desperate to arm themselves, and what should they come upon but an arsenal courtesy of the Soviet Union and Uncle Sam.

There was quite a bit of AKs and other assorted hardware captured on Grenada, a lot of it was issued to the various OPFOR units on the major bases for training. We always had AK, AKMS for range time, even had the chance to fire RPDs, RPKs, PKs and DShKs. OPFOR-Ft Knox had RPG7s with training rockets that they pulled out for some of the officer training courses.

Soooooo, there would be a fair chance to get hold of Soviet smalls arms and ammo on just about any Army base.

[Abbott Shaull]

LOL Yeah.