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The BAR in Korea

We actually fired these in advanced infantry training at Camp Pendleton in 1963.We each carried two at sling arms , and double timed to the range.About a mile or so away.A 20 pound BAR bouncing up and down on your shoulder left some nasty bruises.Was an awesome weapon.Especially at night with 1 in 5 tracers.
 
I wish my father lived long enough to read this. He was a BAR man in Korea, First Marine Division. He rarely would talk about the war, and only to me.
Once, and only once, he told me he was assigned to protect a lieutenant (he didn't give context). The Chinese ambushed them, and the damn thing jammed. The poor officer was hit, and just before he died, he said to my dad "where were you?" or words to that effect.
I know he carried that with him until he died in 2003.
I just wonder if the part about improper storage and poor refitting would have given him some comfort, however small.
I became a professional historian in part because of these stories, and this short essay was well done.
 
We had a BAR in our SWAT locker that our then Sheriff had liberated from somewhere. Back in the day, we had Thompsons (stick and drum mags), Winchester lever guns, and even some Reising sub guns. That was the department "heavy" armament at the time. We even had a jeep with a Ma Deuce mounted on it. I used to shoot the BAR and Thompsons on range training days. Prone out with the bipod, and it was devasting.
 
MRJ said:
I wish my father lived long enough to read this. He was a BAR man in Korea, First Marine Division. He rarely would talk about the war, and only to me.
Once, and only once, he told me he was assigned to protect a lieutenant (he didn't give context). The Chinese ambushed them, and the damn thing jammed. The poor officer was hit, and just before he died, he said to my dad "where were you?" or words to that effect.
I know he carried that with him until he died in 2003.
I just wonder if the part about improper storage and poor refitting would have given him some comfort, however small.
I became a professional historian in part because of these stories, and this short essay was well done.
Click to expand...
SLA Marshal wrote a tome on weapons in the Korean War…said problems were because of rehab facilities in Japan. Weapons sent from the USA worked well, refurbished from Japan or Korea didn’t.
 
3L120 said:
SLA Marshal wrote a tome on weapons in the Korean War…said problems were because of rehab facilities in Japan. Weapons sent from the USA worked well, refurbished from Japan or Korea didn’t.
Click to expand...

Next time you visit your father’s grave, tell him SLAM found the problem.
 
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