The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps placed their first order for .45 Reising Submachine Guns in January 1942,just one month after America's entry into World War II. Produced throughout the war, Reisings saw service in both the Pacific and European theaters, with security personnel domestically, and with law enforcement and correctional agencies after the war
April 9, 1968, in the evening, Sergeant Doug Parkinson’s six-man long-range reconnaissance patrol (LRRP, or “Lurps”) team scrambled aboard a UH-1 Huey. They had just climbed Dong Tri Mountain outside the Marine combat base at Khe Sanh in search of the enemy. Although they never saw the enemy, a stray artillery shell nearly killed them all, and a Bengal tiger stalked them for several nights. Then, with B-52s set to bomb their position in preparation for a Marine sweep of the mountain, they almost fell 1,000 feet to their deaths as helicopters extracted them on long emergency ropes known as McGuire rigs. As Parkinson’s helicopter started up and its rotors began to spin, he glanced through the dust at dozens of other helicopters lifting off and said, “So much for Khe Sanh, lads. . . . I’d say we got off easy!”
Few countries trust their citizens with firearms as does the United States, safeguarded by our Second Amendment right. As a result, vast quantities of surplus military small arms are imported annually. Of these most will make excellent shooters, however, in terms of financial investment how can a collector separate the wheat from the chaff?
America's current thinking on how to defeat radical Islamists is split along two very different schools of thought. Republicans, following what is known as the Bush Doctrine, advocate the military model of taking the fight to the enemy and seeking to democratize the Middle East. Democrats, by contrast, propose the law enforcement model of better cooperation with nations and more security at home.
At dawn, Friday, August 30, 1968, I woke inside my cockroach-infested hooch at LZ Betty, sixteen miles south of the Demilitarized Zone, to go on my twenty-second and last patrol. I was the sergeant and team leader of a five-man long-range reconnaissance patrol assigned to the First Cavalry Division’s First Brigade, whose area of operation was from Quang Tri City, near the coast of South Vietnam, to the heavily forested mountains out west, halfway to Laos.
Conventional wisdom in America has long held that the Vietnam War was a “bad war,” unlike the “good” Second World War. But an argument can be made that the Vietnam War not only was a good war but was more vital to America’s interests than World War II. To pursue this argument, consider several factors: America’s stance at the beginning of World War II, the Cold War and the Communist threat, and the foundation on which the “bad war” myth rests.
As evening approached on April 9, 1968, Sergeant Doug Parkinson’s six-man long-range reconnaissance patrol (LRRP, pronounced “Lurp”) team scrambled aboard a UH-1 Huey. They had just climbed Dong Tri Mountain outside the Marine combat base at Khe Sanh in search of the enemy. Although they never saw the enemy, a stray artillery shell nearly killed them all, and a Bengal tiger stalked them for several nights. Then, with B-52s set to bomb their position in preparation for a Marine sweep of the mountain, they almost fell 1,000 feet to their deaths as helicopters hurriedly extracted them on long emergency ropes known as McGuire rigs.As Parkinson glanced through the dust at the dozens of helicopters lifting off, he said, “So much for Khe Sanh, lads....I’d say we got off easy!”
