Laws Rocket

[39mto39g]

While around An Kay I fired one of these at an occupied bunker, I never seen if I hit it or not, there was to much fire in the air to look and we moved shorty after I fired it. We used a lot of these to blow up tunels around Chu Li, Tie two togeather and attach a clayore, lower the mess down the hole and get back what ever lenght the electrical cord was and squese the generator.
I also shoot a 4 or 5 foot in dia rock with one around Duc Pho just to see what it would do. Made little rocks.
There fireing sequence was a little lengthly when you were in a real hurry. Pull two pins make sure caps are removed, aim and guess, They didn't fly straight. Oh yea, Look behind you before you fire, (tell your buddy to move)
Ron

[DMZ-LT]

After the NVA kicked ARVN out of Laos they came after them with tanks. We could hear their tanks moving at night. They dropped us a bunch of LAWS. I was more worried about the infantry that I knew would be with them. The RPG was a much better weapon and I still can't understand why we don't copy it ?

[Packo]

Damn things didn't work to well in the rain either. More junk.

Pack

[39mto39g]

LT
We don't copy the RPG for the same reason the Russians didn't copy the M-79 for 20 years. Eggo. We made this huge shoulder fire weapon that cost a million every time you shoot it, where the RPG cost $2.00, seems right to me.

Pac
We neve used them enough to know if they were good in the rain or not. Not a very good weapon system as far as I could tell but then we didn't use them as they were intended.

Ron

[colmurph]

We had a kid put his hand around the back to extend the tube, (A big NO-NO) and it went off. It took off his right hand at the wrist and damn near killed some other troops because he didn't have it pointed at the bunker at the time it went off. Had another "Hot Dog" who kept the trigger guard of his M-79 folded over for "Quick Draw" and while he had a shotgun round in the tube he snagged the trigger on a vine while it was slung muzzle down over his shoulder. The plastic sabot hit him in the right calf and scooped a chunk of meat out of his leg as neat as an icecream scoop.
Multiply these two incidents by all the units in country and I'll bet the KIA and WIA figures would prove to be about 50% accidental, caused by carelessness and stupidity and not following established safety procedures.
I witnessed an accident on QL-1 where a Dodge Truck loaded with a bunch of drunken marines and driven by another drunk, hit a culvert abutment and flipped upside down. I stopped my vehicle to assist and found the driver with his neck pinned by the door of the truck, his body outside and his head inside. We called for a dustoff and jacked the truck up enough to pull him out but he was dead from a broken neck. The injured as well as the dead driver all reeked of alcohol. I later found out that the USMC had written the incident off as a "Land Mine" instead of a tragic, preventable road accident.

[39mto39g]

Col
Why would anyone take the safety off a M-79 when loaded?
Although when firing a lot of rounds I found it to be a nuisance that you couldn't fire it without taking the safety off each time you close the gun.
On the Law accident , that happened a lot , when we would break for lunch or whatever the equipment all got taken off and lied everywhere, sometimes the little black plunger thing would get stuck down when something got laid on it.
Accidents in Vietnam were a lot more common than people thing. The truck incident should have been reported as a land mine, no reason to increase the family's grief. We had a guy get shot in the back because the guy behind him tripped, (snipper).

Ron

[Robert Ryan]

New guys that kept the expended tube to carry things around in. Don't know why they just did.