War Stories 46

[ikar]

Some units had acquired was trophies from time to time There were a couple notable ones.

I was sent to the 3rd T.F.S. for a theft report and met the pilot in the squadron bar. While he's filling out his statement I look around the place and behind the bar are two rifles. One is a AK-47 given to them be a Ranger unit. This one had taken a 20mm round between the barrel and the gas tube. They claimed it worked even though both tubes were bent to some degree.

The other was a flintlock built by a tribe they had bailed out. It was hand made by the tribe, presented to the support unit for that village and worked its was to the squadron. I was looking at its dull silver color and ornate engravings when I noticed the butt. It came to a sharp point, making it deadly at both ends.

In our armory we had a AK-47 and a Chicom sub machinegun. The story was put out that they were found by a G.I. in the attic of the bungalow he was living in. I was told that they had been found on the fence after a attempted penetration one night.

The biggest one I saw was a Soviet A.A. gun. It was in good shape but the loading port had been sealed. It eventually was placed across the street from Wing H.Q.

SOmetimes when you drove by you could see that someone had turned the gun toward the Wing Commander's building, the large hanger next to it or to some other place that individual disapproved of. A form of quiet, harmless protest that went on after I left, I'm sure.