Gary Reeder
working at the radio station across the road from Ft.
Saturday, July 21, 2018, 10:10

Campbell, I was friends with a lot of the guys on post. Several had been on at least one tour of Viet Nam. One of my friends who was a 2nd Louie, would often call over at the station and ask what time I got off the air, and when I could to come in the back gate at Ft. Campbell and he would be waiting for me. We would check out some guns and a bunch of ammo and shoot all afternoon. One time he showed me a 4" S&W Model 10 with a 5 or 6" suppressor on it. He said it designed for tunnel rats. I asked him about the sound coming out of the barrel/cylinder gap. He said there wasn't any.I looked at the gun and there was no visible gap at all, maybe half of one thou. He said the gun was really quiet, but was good for 6 shots only before the unburned powder gummed up the small space between the barrel and cylinder. He said the tunnel rats would carry a small toothbrush looking thing and after 6 rounds they would have to brush the gap clean and it would be good for another 6 rounds. He said they would load 3 rounds of standard 38 Spl and 3 rounds of a shot shell. He gave me some of the ammo they used. It was a short shot shell with a whole lot of #9 shot. He said most of the problems they had in the tunnels were from snakes that the VC would put in the tunnels, mostly cobras. The first 3 rounds were the regular 38 and the next 3 were the shotshells.

There were a lot of neat things designed for Viet Nam use. Some were used and some were shitcanned after the shit for brains President Johnson banned a lot of it saying it was too much of a chance of collateral damage. But I got to play with all kinds of neat gear.