BanterMeister (Amost Everything else :o) > Banter

Guns--have several.

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ElkRiverHarmonicas:
I was somewhere around four or five years old when I started shooting.

John Broecker:
Hello, firearm afficionados.

First, I'm not a gun owner.

Here's a gun-related story.

While in the US Army basic training, we were taught to fire the 45 automatic pistol, M-16 and M-14 rifles. I really enjoyed going to the firing range, and squeezing off a few rounds.

Toward the end of our basic training, we were sent to the firing range to "qualify" on the weapons. That meant receiving a rating for our target accuracies on the handgun and rifles.

I was rated as a "Marksman" on the 45 and M-16, and when it came time to qualify on the M-14, a sergeant came by and asked for 4 volunteers. He picked the volunteers, we didn't volunteer.

The four of us were taken to a large garage, where we sawed  wood for about a half an hour, then we were returned to the shooting range.

I was rated an "Expert" on the M-14, with a score of 96/100ths, but I never used the M-14 that day.

Here are a few harmonicas that look like guns, all antiques. I wish that I could include pictures:

Seydel Glee Club Harp, 1923: It looked like a gun, complete with handle and trigger, and the barrel was a tremolo or octave harp. The trigger was a finger rest, not a real trigger.

The next examples are in the National Museum of American History.

Texas hero Sam Houston had a Harmonica Rifle. It was a real rifle, and a real harmonica.

A harmonica pistol (brand unknown) with no barrel, just chambers that looked like a pan-pipe, a handle and a trigger.

A harmonica pistol with a barrel, handle and trigger, and a sliding mouthpiece harmonica.

Wouldn't that be dangerous, putting a real gun up to your mouth, and squeezing the trigger?

(Source: The Trumpet Call, newsletter of the Harmonica Collectors International (HCI), October, 2008 issue.)

John Broecker

Renault:
Training Company B-5-1, Ft. Ord, 1969. We were the last cycle at Ft. Ord to train on the M-14. The things were so old and worn out we used to clean them by taking them into the shower with us. The last week of training we had to go back to the range and qualify on the M-16.

After that I was in Radio school. We had to learn Morse code. A small percentage of the students got diverted into Teletype school every week. In typical Army fashion, they took the people who had scored highest on Morse code and sent them to Teletype school, where it was guaranteed that they would never use Morse code again. For some reason no one wanted to go to Teletype school (I never did figure out why). One week it was announced that Private Brown had done very well on the Morse code test and was being sent to Teletype school. Private Brown was able to prove that at the time that he was suppose to have passed the Morse code test he was AWOL in Monterey and had the Article 15 to prove it. The Sgt. just looked at him and said "It's a miracle - you were in two places at one time!" and sent him on to Teletype school.

Chuck F:
I have a Browning Buckmark 22 cal with the trigger set to 3 lbs.  I belong to a sportman's club and we have our own pistol range.  Due to the cost of ammunition, I stick with rim fire.

John Broecker:
Hello, Renault.

This is off topic, not gun-related.

I was also at Fort Ord about the same time as you. I was there approximately from October through December of '69, then went to Fort Bliss, Texas for the second part of basic training. I caught pneumonia at Fort Ord, and was held back a week or two, to pass the physical tests.

At Monterey (fort Ord), all I remember was that it was cloudy and/or misty most of the time. Whenever I got bored on weekends, I'd go to the PX, and play ping-pong, read a book or something.

I saw that free guitar lessons were offered, so I went for the lessons. My fingers were always being caught between the strings, so I didn't continue the lessons after about 2-3 lessons.

When transferred to Fort Bliss, I was trained to fire nuclear missiles. Nixon closed the Nike-Hercules missile sites after I returned home, and I transferred to a Wisconsin Army National Guard base within walking distance (5 blocks) from my home, where I spent the rest of my enlistment.

John Broecker

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