HayesGreener
SAINT
GEn Curtis LeMay was a shooter who favored 1911's and S&W target revolvers.
The Air Force gunsmiths at Lackland built him a custom 1911, Officer Model size, chopped for concealment. It had four stars inlaid in rosewood grips and was a thing of beauty. I have been searching for a photo of the original pistol without much luck.
I was an OSI agent in the 70's. Agents wear plain clothes and we carried a S&W Model 36, 3". The Model 36 had a limited service life due to lots of full power service loads used in training. We needed a replacement. Leadership surveyed agents for a preference and many of us wanted the S&W Model 39,but the bean counters said no, you have thousands of 1911's stacked in storage. So the gunsmiths set about chopping 1911's modeled after the one they made for Gen LeMay. I think they built several thousand of them. Here's an example pictured below.
The 1911 OSI pistol/Gen LeMay pistol inspired Randall to make the LeMay pistol commercially. I believe it also inspired the Detonics, and most recently the Colt New Agent. The trench sight takes some getting used to but who needs sights in a belly gun.
The OSI 1911 was in service a fairly short time until the Beretta M9 came along. The M9 was also too big for concealment and was soom replaced by the M11/P228 SIG
The Air Force gunsmiths at Lackland built him a custom 1911, Officer Model size, chopped for concealment. It had four stars inlaid in rosewood grips and was a thing of beauty. I have been searching for a photo of the original pistol without much luck.
I was an OSI agent in the 70's. Agents wear plain clothes and we carried a S&W Model 36, 3". The Model 36 had a limited service life due to lots of full power service loads used in training. We needed a replacement. Leadership surveyed agents for a preference and many of us wanted the S&W Model 39,but the bean counters said no, you have thousands of 1911's stacked in storage. So the gunsmiths set about chopping 1911's modeled after the one they made for Gen LeMay. I think they built several thousand of them. Here's an example pictured below.
The 1911 OSI pistol/Gen LeMay pistol inspired Randall to make the LeMay pistol commercially. I believe it also inspired the Detonics, and most recently the Colt New Agent. The trench sight takes some getting used to but who needs sights in a belly gun.
The OSI 1911 was in service a fairly short time until the Beretta M9 came along. The M9 was also too big for concealment and was soom replaced by the M11/P228 SIG
