Larrydaley

I noticed a "golden gun" (an automatic pistol) since Interarma's Samuel Cummings, whose favorite gift was a golden gun, is long dead. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...756C0A96E958260 Does anybody want to speculate as to where that pistol \ comes from? take care and be well Larry Daley

Apparently the anti-aircraft machine gun which shot down three planes at Gibara, Cuba in August 1932. It is reported made by Colt thus presumable using the Browning design. Here (below) is a report from the New York Times, carefully corrected and annoted by me. Please advise of any errors of fact or interpretation. Larry New York Times Staff 1932. Cuban Rebel Arms Here For Evidence. Munitions Seized After Battle In October To Be Used In Federal Inquiry. Sent From Washington. Government Received Exhibits From Havana Following Arrests Last Fall. New York Times, January 20, 1932. “Twelve cases containing rifles, machine gun, pistols and ammunition seized from insurgents in the battle of Gibari (Gibara L.D.) in Cuba last October, arrived yesterday at the Federal Building, where George Medalie (the man said responsible for promoting Dewey’s career in politics L.D), United States Attorney, is investigating an alleged attempt by revolutionists to ship arms to Cuba. The arms and munitions had been expressed from Washington, D.C, where they had been received following a request made by Federal authorities that they be sent here from Cuba for tracing. Although Mr. Medalie withheld all details of the shipment, and Thomas J. Todarelli, his assistant, in whose office some of the machine guns were wounted, also refused to discuss the matter, it is known that a Federal grand jury has been investigating alleged gun-smuggling by Cubans in New York. Five Cubans Arrested to Date. The investigation has resulted in the arrest of five Cubans, three of whom, Rosendo Collazo, former Senator (Camaguey and former independence fighter and who captured the leader from the putative pro-German Liberal revolt in 1917 L.D), Aurelia (should be Aurelio) A. Alvárez (accented on incorrect syllable), former President of the Cuban Senate, and Emilio N. Robaino (should be Robaina), Cuban newspaper correspondent, were held in bail ranging from $5,000 to $10,000, (this left Emilio Laurent a left winger in charge of expedition, he would refuse to cede his command to senior rebel Manuel Balan on landing, and undertake rather unadvised military tactics which lead to the defeat of the well supplied guerrilla movement. This resulted in the defeat of the traditional patriots and allowed the 1933 revolution to fall into far more left wing hands. L.D.). Robaino(sic), according to United States Commissioner Cotter, purchased an anti-aircraft gun from the Colt Arms Company (a .50 caliber weapon of apparent Browning design L.D.). The defendants, Mr. Todarelli charged, planned to transport 100 men from New York to Atlantic City, which was to have been a base for the shipment of arms to revolutionists. Prior to their arraignment Federal Agents operating in Atlantic City had arrested a group of Cubans after they had returned from what they described as a fishing trip in a heavy sea that had made most of them ill. Reported Alleged Gun-Runner. Las August, John Topping, member of the crew of the steamship Isle (Ise) Vormauer, escaped from his vessel off Nassau and reported to officials that the ship was a gunrunner which lay off Atlantic City from July 17th to Aug. 11 to make contact with Cuban expeditions. The name E. A. Prieto appeared on the crates shipped to Washington and addressed “Judge Z, Medalie, Federal Building, New York.†Captain Enrique A. Prieto is the Cuban military attaché (for Dictator Gerardo Machado) in Washington. When he (Prieto) was questioned in that city about the shipment he said he had no idea how it had arrived in New York(;>). The Cuban Embassy also denied any knowledge of the shipment. It was pointed out at the Federal Building that the shipment could have been sent from the Department of State, having been first received by the Cuban Embassy.

Found a list of rebel machine guns and rifles (some caution since this is a Cuban government source with quite some propaganda): de la Peña Rubio, Nicolás 2004 Gibara: Combates bajo el sol de agosto. Ediciones Holguín, Holguin, Cuba pp. 133-134. Rebel weaponry included 20 Vickers, one .50 antiaicraft machine gun, a photograph suggests it was a Browning, 25 Lewis guns with drums, 24 .45 caliber Pistols, also probable Brownings, and 1000 rifles, at least half Springfield model 1903 or similar model. Ammunition was in excess of 1,000,000 rounds (confusing entry under 750,000 under “municiones†and 1,000,0000 under tiros) plus 200 machine gun belts. Apparently this weaponry was supposed to be distributed to Conservador Party rebels already in the field, but instead it was hogged by left winger Emilio Laurent who kept almost of it, and thus a good number of veteran conservador rebels were denied these supplies. As a result almost all of the weaponry were eventually captured by Dictator Machado's troops

Additional information on the machine guns of the government planes was provided official sources, will identify sources when permission is given. This information in part is: "The P-6E was a frontline pursuit fighter, it carried a crew of one and both weapons were synchronized, fixed, and forward facing. The Vought O2U was a two-pace observation aircraft w/ one forward facing fixed in place machine gun and two rear facing swivel machine guns." and "These aircraft were not armed with World War I era Lewis machine guns, but rather .30 and .50cal Browning machine guns of the same general construction and design as can be found in US Army Air Forces aircraft of the Second World War.: The P-6S was an export version of the airframe; as such we cannot confirm the specifics of its armament configuration. The P-6E, the most likely Army Air Corps equivalent, carried the following weapons configurations: two .30cal, or one .30cal and one .50cal, Browning machine guns. Under usual circumstances the aircraft was not reloaded in flight. The airframe carried the following ammunition loads: 1,200rds .30cal (600rds/gun); 200rds .50cal. The ammunition was boxed and was loaded under and inboard the guns. The boxes could be removed without special tools. The Vought O2U was procured by the U.S. Navy, rather than U.S. Army Air Corps (later USAF). Secondary source information indicates that it was armed with three .30cal Browning machine guns (one forward mounted, two rear). ... " It still do not understand how these rear facing machine guns did not shoot off the rear assembly of the planes. This gives a different aspect to a reconstruction of events, since I know from other sources that the invading rebels had only one .50 anti-aircraft machine gun, plus the supporting 40 or so Lewis machine guns. There is mention of an undefined number of Vickers which were they used professionally in an anti-aircraft role may well have had a not inconsiderable effect. Take care and be well Larry

Bob: Your remarks turned out to be most useful. I started my reading with: Duffy, Michael 2000-2007 (accessed 2-27-08) Lewis Gun Updated - Saturday, 3 May, 2003 First World War.com http://www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/mgun_lewis.htm Tell me if you think that is an appropriate source. That ambush in the Palm grove outside Holguin must have been something else the Gibara rebels had at least 40 Lewis guns, and some vickers and yet the regular Cuban army drove them back to the railroad tunnel. Right now images of this action are beginning to form in my mind, drawing from my memories of action in Cuba, knowledge of the terrain, and Cuban history. Such combat encounters although small scale had significant effect on the later history of the Island and eventually to such matters of US interest such as the Bay of Pigs and Missile Crisis. It is difficult to get images from Cuban sources, however I did obtain through interlibrary loan: de la Peña Rubio, Nicolás 2004 Gibara: Combates bajo el sol de agosto. Ediciones Holguín, Holguin, Cuba. These are the ones I refer to here. While I am still trying to filter out the propaganda from the information in this book the photographs although blurry offer interesting leads. Take care and be well Larry Daley

Just wanted to say thank you Very interesting and I as usual at this site learned a lot some places put such pieces in a museum and collect for display, brings in tourist dollars .... take care and be well Larry

For my manuscript in progress (Narrations of War in Cuba) I am researching the landing at Gibara (Taino the place of the wild woman) in August 1931. The reason for my search is that historians often consider this action be the one that broke the back of the old Mambi independence fighters as a military forces in Cuba, and in addition one of my relatives, a US veteran of WWI, Henry Whitmarsh, may have been there. For complex reasons it was the usual SNAFU, except in this case there is reason to believe that communist activists who nominally were against the dictator Machado too, appear to have engaged in constant betrayal of rivals to the same Machado government. Anyway one interpretation of what happened is that what should have been a carefully organized landing, was disrupted by prior arrests ...both in the United States and in Cuba, and somehow Machado's secret police had excellent information. This event that lasted at high intensity only three days, involved strafing and bombing bi-planes, but the invaders had what appears to be a Browning .50 antiarcraft machine gun which shot down at least three of these planes. The rebel intruders had at least fifty other machine guns including more than 40 hand held Lewis guns, with pans of ninety rounds. My question is what is known about hand held Lewis guns, apparently they were standard .303, since I have a book with images of the rounds and there are some rimmed ones almost but not quite as long as 30.06 (there is no mention of Krags). The arrests had decimated the experienced conservative leadership, and the remaining leader (how convenient (;>) was left of center Lt. Emilio Laurent, who defied advice and took the railroad track to the city of Holguin, AFTER making a phone call to the head of the garrison there negotiating surrender. Of course the colonel in Holguin agreed, then called headquarters and set up an ambush for the invading rebels. The decisive action was that ambush of the rebels lead by Laurent, who had hogged all the supplies taking them with him while riding a woodburning narrow gage steam engine, pulling three flat cars one of them carrying the .50 anti-aircraft machine gun..... Of course the actions were more complicate than above, but this is just an outline. Sad story ... Would very much appreciate any input on weaponry or any other matter Larry

Trying to contribute something instead of just lurking, in appreciation of the kind help I have received here. Thus when I found the following while writing the topic of Rolando Masferrer a thoroughly nasty killer for my manuscript "Narrations of War in Cuba," it seemed appropriate to mention it: U.P. 1952 Cuban Congressmen Kills Two Gunmen Wisconsin State Journal. Friday. February 22, 1952 Page 8, Section 4 HAVANA, Cuba —(U.P.)—Two gunmen were killed and a patrolman was wounded Thursday when a Cuban congressman armed with a sub-machinegun foiled an attempt to assassinate him. The resulting gun battle in the downtown section during the noon rush hour paralyzed Havana’s commercial life for several hours. The dead were identified as Emilio Grillo, 20, alias Pistolita (little Pistol) and Francisco Madariaga, 24, both member of the Guiteras revolutionary action group. Police said both were killed in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Rep. Rolando Masferrer, leader of the rival SWocialst revolutionary movement. Hundreds of pedestrians jamming the avenue fled wildly as bullets sprayed along both sides of a three-block stretch. From the venue and date of the action that it is most probable that this was a Thompson. Rolando Masferrer started out as a communist in Cuba, fought in the Spanish Civil war where he was wounded twice. One of the wound was in the heel. And from hence on he was known as El Cojo the lame one. I have heard said that when he was following a victim he was about to kill, the last thing the victim heard was clump dragggggg clumppp draggggggggg of his footsteps. Any way he broke with the communists and in the process began a life long feud with Fidel Castro (they were both gun men at the time). Castro tried to kill him at least once himself, and finally when Masferrer was blown up in Miami in 1975 it is believed that Castro got him. For details on this see: de la Cova, Antonio Rafael 2007 The Moncada Attack: Birth of the Cuban Revolution. University of South Carolina Press ISBN-10: 1570036721ISBN-13 978-1570036729 Page 287-288 Masferrer has become part of fiction for instance as Inspector Fumero in Ruiz Zafon, Carlos (Lucia Graves translator) 2005 The Shadow of the Wind (La Sombra del Viento). Phoenix (Orion Publishing Group Ltd, Penguin Group) ISBN-10 0753820250 ISBN-13 978-075382025 take care and be well all p.s. I never met him, thank G-d Larry

Please tell me more I would guess the beach might be long beach on the Island of Anglesey near Valley (see Valley "aerodrome") and Rhosneigr, my Dad used to be stationed there in WWII he was in Royal Engineers, and had something to do with the Free French. If anybody knows more please write to me at daleyl@peak.org take care and be well Larry

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Seasons Greetings all! Larry the lurker

In Flanders Field In Flanders Fields the poppies blow Between the crosses row on row That ark our place, and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the dead, short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow Loved, and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders Fields Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high, If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders Fields Lieutenant Colonel John Mccrae, April 1915. taken from http://www.aomda.org/htm/history.htm

Dan: Very interesting, could you throw in a Krag (Spanish American War) is it possible that when fighting up hill the higher trajectory of the Krag, might reach into firing trenches of the Spanish firing Mausers down hill.... Ah yes and the grease gun take care and be well Larry

Castro propaganda claims in 1948 he swam from Cayo Confites to the mainland carrying a Thompson. This seems so improbable that I would like to question if anybody heard of anybody doing anything like that. BTW this came in the mail today: This came in the mail today: MY SHIP THE U.S.A. CONWAY--DDE 507 by Henry Agueros My ship the U.S.S. Conway--DDE 507, went into the Bay of Pigs on the night of the 19th, 1961. We picked up about 20 to 30 Brigadistas that where swimming out to us. Many were wounded. We put a small boat into the water and went in after them. Some of us jumped into the Sea to help pull them out. When we had them on board and could find no more we pulled out of the area and headed to Guantanamo Bay. These were Brave men and every sailor on my small ship did all we could for them. We felt so angry at out Govt. We were right there with a fleet of ships and planes and could have blasted the Commies to hell if only we were given the ok. Armando Triana, Pelayo Garcia, Manuel Vasconcelos, Jose Aguila........these are some of the the names of the brave Cubans who I remember from that night so long ago. I was only 18 yrs. old and from that night on I became a supporter of everything Anti-Castro. The Govt. of the United States betrayed the people of Cuba on April 17th, 1961. The American and Cuban people are still paying for that betrayal. ViVa Cuba Libre!! Abajo el Castro-comunismo asqueroso! Henry Agueros

Brian: Do you remember the Gatling gun (illustrated at that site) scene in "The Outlaw Josie Wales" It seem it was mounted on a wagon, and used in away reminescent of the nazi machine guns used to kill US prisoners in (I think Battle of the Bulge movie) thank you for the address of that very finely illustrated site/ Larryy

To all: the new academic history book by Professor de la Cova, will incorporate the correction of : from "Browning submachine gun" to Thompson: de La Cova, Antonio Rafael. The Moncada Attack: Birth of the Cuban Revolution. 2007 . University of South Carolina Press ISBN-10: 1570036721 ISBN-13: 978-1570036729 Discussion of a possible article in Small Arms Review running title "Thompsons in Cuba" continues here Many thanks Larry

These are citations from Bohemia (the copyright is held in Miami) Some of the issues may still be available, will see what I can do to get permission to post. (correction apparently copyright permission is not required) Photographs of Thompsons in Cuba Photographs of Thompsons found in 1959 Bohemia 51(2, Enero 11) del Cueto, Mario G. 1959 El aporte del Directorio Revolucionario en la lucha contra la tiranía. Bohemia 21(2, Enero 11) 56-59. Upper right of p. 57 shows “La Niña†with a Thompson. Below Tony Santiago with ditto Faure Chaumón is driving. Villarronda, Guillermo 1959 La caza del implacable Jacinto Menocal. El Pueblo y los milicianos lo cercaron y herido de muerte se suicida. Bohemia 21(2, Enero 11) 84-85. Upper left p. 84 Miralles-Zayas, (no first name given) 1959 Mas Graphicas de la Capital (photographic essay). Bohemia 21(2, Enero 11) 164-167 Photo on p. 166 middle right Photographs of Thompsons found in 1959 Bohemia 51(segunda parte issue 3, Enero 18-25) Bohemia Staff 1959 Oriente. Bohemia 21(3, Enero 18-25) 4-8, 142-146, 158-164, 172-175. Photo is on lower left of page 6 “El Indio Naborí†1959 Marcha Triunfal de Ejército Rebelde. Bohemia 51(3, Enero 18-25) pp. 10-11. Photos are on the right of page 11. Photographs of Thompsons found in 1959 Bohemia 51(tercera parte issue 5, February 1) Casal, Raul G. with photos by Bautista Corrrales 1959 “El hombre del al manito†Heroe del Escambray (Regino Camacho) pp. 8-10, 173-175. Bohemia 51 (tercera parte issue 5, February 1) Photo is on page 9 upper right. Take care and be well Larry

TSMG28, toolman, and PhilOhio: Thank you for the information, especially the link to Roadking (I sent him an e-mail) and the info on Morgan...... take care and be well Larry

To all: Professor Antonio Rafael de la Cova writes: "Larry, The Moncada rebels had only one .45-caliber Browning submachine gun, that Renato Guitart obtained from Acción Libertadora. According to rebel Manuel Suardíaz, the weapon was inoperable due to jammed recoil springs. Pepe Suarez carried the weapon more for show than anything else. This is all mentioned in my book." Tony" This is in his new 2007 book "The Moncada Attack: Birth of the Cuban Revolution" North Carolina University Press. I am buying my copy from Amazon.com ... take care and be well Larry

PhilOhio: Thanks for that info on Morgan, do you have a source I can quote...or is that a Youngstown oral history thing that I can quote as coming from you. P.S. Johnny Gentile was from Youngstown too (or so he said (:>) .... take care and be well Larry

Lancer, PhillOhio and Reconbob: Thank you all very much that does seem to be the general consensus, still being a stubborn person I will keep looking. Frank Iannamico (spelling?) refers to what appears to be a Thompson knock off; however, the brand name does not come readily to mind, his machine gun book should arrive soon.... William Alexander Morgan was in the Central Provinces, and I in Oriente in 1958 during the War Against Batista, so I never had the privilige of meeting him. Although when linked to the anti-Castro resistance in 1959-1961 I did meet one of his friends who was known as Johnny Gentile, a brave and reckless soul. At one time Johnny was wandering around Havana on buses all night dressed as a Castro militia man, without speaking very much Spanish. It is my impression that he was CIA, under the cover of being Mafioso, but then one never really knows these things. Thompsons have been around quite a while in Cuba, at least since 1933 if memory of my reading serves. Perhaps the Thompson with an finger fitting extended hand grip perpendicular to the barrel was called a "Metralleta Browning" in the Cuban vernacular of the time, while in the other configuration with a wooden grip parallel to the barrel was simple called a "Metralleta Thompson." Never having fired either, I guess that such require different firing position techniques. Does anybody know if this is so? From late 1956--the middle of 1958,"Castro was being chased along the ridges of the main Maestra, by a really skilled and brave Batista officer called Mosqueda. Mosqueda's point group carried three BAR in the hands of very large strong soldiers (those mountains are incredible steep). I was in the foot hills most of the time with a group of shotgunners (we had .22 rifles and revolvers as well (:>). However, no one can confuse a BAR with a submachine gun. Drafts of my misadventures are found at: http://narrations-of-war-in-cuba.blogspot.com/ hopefully they will be published soon. By 1958 the Thompson had been replaced (when possible by the M-3 and especially the San Cristobal; Huber Mato's people had Beretta submachine guns brought in from Costa Rica) for rural use..... What seems strange that the US military in Vietnam listed captured "Browning sub-machine guns" as distinct from Thompsons. It is also strange that some even in WWII made this distinction. Next step is to look at photo's in old copies of the Cuban newsmagazine Bohemia and see if any leads are found there. take care and be well Larry Daley (Garcia-I~niguez Enamorado Ramirez......)

For eleven years I have been writing my memories of Cuba "Narrations of War in Cuba" this work is almost complete now there is need to try to tie down as many loose ends as possible What is known about the Browning SUB-machine gun? The confusion with the BAR makes searches quite difficult My reason for this question is that these weapons which resemble a Thompson appear in books about Cuba. For instance Castro's rather stupid assault on Moncada in 1953 involved one of these weapons, and they crop up in the oddests of places. It is even possible that Castro was the supplier of these weapons in Vietnam... Below are the high points of the little information that I have found up to now As yet no information linking this weapon to John Moses Browning has showed up. thank you again for your time and attention Larry Daley Mention of the Browning Sub-machinegun, in WWII: Pudlow, Jan 2003 (updated 2005, last accessed l3-5-07) Chesterfield Smith: America's Lawyer The Florida Bar Journal November LXXVII number 10) cache of http://www.floridabar.org/DIVCOM/JN/JNJour...4588011d7f46852 56dc90057cb2c?OpenDocument as retrieved on Jan 31, 2007 06:38:47 GMT. ~S~E..The pair split up when Smith was sent to the 94th Infantry Division, and Jones was assigned to the 95th. While Smith~Rs division was in the thick of the war, fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, Jones~R division held a defensive position. Jones and Smith were playing out the war in dramatically different arenas, until their paths crossed in Germany one snowy January morning. Jones had taken over the burgomaster~Rs house and was just getting out of bed when his first sergeant informed him another artillery outfit had come to town. ~SI walked through the snow banks and saw the vehicles in the village. I asked, ~QWho~Rs in charge?~R And someone said, ~QWell, Capt. Smith is around here somewhere.~R ~SIt was Harvey Smith. His outfit was going south. I was getting ready to go north. We visited for 15 minutes, and I didn~Rt see him again. What he did was give me a Browning submachine gun. I carried a pistol and a MI rifle. He gave me a Browning automatic 45-caliber submachine gun. I took it and carried it the rest of the war.~T By the time Smith got out of the service in the fall of 1945, he had been awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, and was later promoted to major. Sandy D~RAlemberte, former president of the ABA and Florida State University, tells of the time he was at a gathering of Smith~Rs oldest friends. Though Smith kept a framed silk map of France, once sewn inside his battle jacket, on his office wall, he never talked much about his war days. But among his old buddies, he shared a few war stories while smoking big cigars and sipping strong drinks.~T Manufacture: Apparently the Browning submachine gun was made in England: Birmingham Small Arms Company G o o g l e's cache of http://cleverpedia.com/Birmingham_Small_Arms_Company as retrieved on Dec 29, 2006 19:31:56 GMT. ~SIn the Second World War BSA possessed 67 factories and was well set up, in order to serve the need from rifles and ammunition to. BSA worked also under license. During the war they produced over 1 million Lee Enfield rifles and one half million Browning submachine guns~T However, details are hard to obtain and the archives of the Birmingham Small Arms Company are not readily accessible (I live in Oregon) Cuba: Mention of the weapon used in the Moncada assault (1953) is found in: Szulc, 1986 p. 264; Bonachea, Ramón L. and Marta San Martín 1974 (second printing 1995) The Cuban insurrection. New Brunswick (USA) and London. ISBN 0878555765 pp. 17-18 Szulc, Tad 1986 Fidel: A Critical Portrait. William Morrow, New York. ISBN 0688046452 p. 264 In the middle provinces in 1958 Vivés, Juan (Translated to Spanish from 1981 Les Maîtres de Cuba. Opera Mundi, Paris by Zoraida Valcarcel) 1982 Los Amos de Cuba. EMCÉ Editores, Buenos Aires. ISBN 9500400758. especially pages 17-30 talks of using weapon Yet there are a number of inconsistencies in Vivés account, especially his description of having fought in places that might have been too distant from each other to have been readily feasible, and his account of taking a Browning submachine gun from Rolando Cubela is subject to serious question, since Cubela used an M-3 a more up to date, less heavy and very distinctly different appearing weapon , and because it is not very logical that Cubela would have allowed him to keep the weapon, even under pressure from Guevara. Vietnam: Leonard, Ron and Patrick McKeand (accessed 2-25-06) "Tropic Lightning" History-Vietnam In the Beginning 1965. 25th Aviation Battallion http://25thaviation.org/history/id534.htm ~S On 18 April 1967, the 1st Brigade terminated its participation in Operation Makalapa, and returned to Cu Chi Base Camp. The 2nd Brigade continued combat assaults by the 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry in the area until 21 April, at which time Operatation Makalapa was concluded. Division totals for the 35 day long operation were: the capture of 13 Chicom carbines, three Browning sug-machine guns, 16 Thompson machine guns, two French rifles, two light machine guns, one Russian sub-machine gun, one Mauser rifle, one Enfield rifle, 13 M-1 rifles, one Russian carbine, eight Chicom rifles, 15 M-3 submachine guns, three ANPRC-10 radios, one French light machine gun, two 81mm mortars, two 57mm recoilless rifles, three 60mm mortars, two 75mm recoilless rifles, one Browning submachine gun, four shotguns, 50 60mm mortar rounds, two M-60 machinegun tripods, seven viet Cong gas masks, 151 pounds of documents, 104 pounds of medical supplies, 1.521 hand grenades, 10,854 rounds of small arms ammunition, 151 claymore mines, eight pounds of Viet cong uniforms, five civilian radios, 100 gallons of gasoline, 50 gallons of diesel fuel, 15 gallons of motor oil, 50 pounds of black powder, 5.5 tons of rice, one outboard motor, and one barber kit.~T An image of the weapon is linked at Resemius, Wayne (last updated 8-14-95, accessed 2-25-07) In: Our Friends Who Died In Vietnam The Faces of the 176th Assault Helicopter Company. As You Were! http://hometown.aol.com/mm27176th/176faces.html the image is at: http://hometown.aol.com/minutman27/lightnin25.jpg