Listened to this ”waste ammo” business since gunpowder was invented. Guess one of my former employers decided that maybe wasting ammo wasn’t so bad when they switched that veritable M-16 variant back from 3 round burst fire to full automatic.
But in the end, wondering how good ole George Armstrong Custer felt about how much ammunition his men were
wasting with the long range single shot rifles his men were equipped with. At that moment when he and his little command were engaged in a close quarters, man to man fight with a vastly superior enemy, many equipped with rapid fire weapons, both bow and repeating rifle. But then to quote a certain film about a Vietnam era battle, “Custer was an idiot!”
My opinion, yours may vary.
So, to carry on this thought. Was ammo wasted in Vietnam? During World War II it was estimated to take 45,000 rounds per dead soldier, Vietnam, 50,000. I suppose we on LZ Chippewa contributed to this number. During the evening, our only recreation was target shooting. Unlimited ammo, nice rifles, plenty of targets (Large bouders, small boulders, rocks, etch) and of course a 1000 meter free fire zone. So, what was a fellow to do?
Of course, our many critics freely criticized free fire zones. Shoot whatever you want as often and whenever you like, as long as friendlies were not moving onto of off of the hill proper. No one lived in that area, never had, there was no agriculture to speak off, the rice farms were in the flatlands and coastal areas; we were in the mountains. Nice to know, if the bad guys were about, we were free to defend ourselves. But NO! That was racist, MYSOGENIST, xenophonbic, because we were being evil by killing poor, innocent little men in black pajamas, carrying aK-47’s and humping 122mm rockets used to shoot at the hospital at Chu Lai. (Were our Sharon Lane was killed while tending to her patients in the middle of a rocket attack).
So what it it takes a million rounds to kill a solider. The point is to kill the enemy before he kills us. Target practice made us better soldiers. Maybe if George, had a good supply of Winchesters, plenty of ammo, those Gatling Guns and did some real advanced scouting and used his head and took a good defensible position, he might not have won, but he might well have lived with his men to fight another day. (Talk about a run-on sentence)
First Picture, LZ Chippewa
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Lt. Sharron Lane, Nurse at 312 Evac Hospital in Chu Lai
The only American women serving who was killed by hostile fire
Her ward, housed wounded Vietnamese. Among others dying in the attack was a Vietnamese child.
She was one of ours, lest we never forget.
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