Western Rifle Shooters Association

7/5/2016
Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR
More
Next Blog
Create Blog
Sign In
Western Rifle Shooters Association

Do not give in to Evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it
T UESDA Y , N OV EMBER 1 8 , 2 0 0 8
Daily David
Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR
Obamanation: Preparing
the Battlespace
Obamanation Minus 63:
Pandering to the Looters
Your Tax Dollars At Work
Electronic Freedom
Foundation
Daily David
What Is To Be Done:
Resolving the
Irreconcilable
Vanderboegh: Question
59 and the Myrmidons
Vanderboegh: Praxis -Shooter Ready
Vanderboegh: Saving
Lives, Two
Uncomprehending Tex...
The Squad BAR

A Chapter of 'Absolv ed'
by Mike Vanderboegh
Shooting Resources
WRSA Ev ents
Schedule - Updated
USMC - Rifle
Marksmanship MCRP 301 A
USMC M1 6A2 Intro to
Basic Rifle
Marksmanship V ideo
USMC M1 6A2
Weapons Handling
V ideo
US Army M9 9mm
Pistol Basics V ideo
US Army M9 Pistol
Training V ideo
US Nav y
Shotgun/Pistol/Rev olv er
Training V ideo
US Army FM3-22.9
Rifle Marksmanship:
M1 6A1 , M1 6A2/3,
Students of Marine Corps tactics are taught that the

sm allest tactical and m aneuver elem ent in the Corps is the
fire team . Many com bat-tested squad leaders, however '
m ight regularly dispute this contention. As a newlyarrived platoon com m ander in Vietnam , I ordered fire
team rushes during the heat of one of m y first contacts. I
was subsequently am azed to watch a lone figure burst
forth from the squad on m y left, and I rushed to query the
squad leader concerning his understanding of m y orders.
"THAT," he answered, "WAS m y first fire team ."
This experience, although hum orous in retrospect, was by
no m eans unique. It probably was m ore com m on than
being blessed with a continual full com plem ent of Marines.
In fact, its very frequency serves to cast aspersions upon
the effectiveness of the fire team . If a fire team sustains
only two casualties, or even one in som e instances, it
sim ply ceases to exist as a tactical or m aneuver unit. Thus
https://westernrifleshooters.blogspot.com/2008/11/vanderboegh-absolved-squad-bar.html
1/31
7/5/2016
M1 6A4 and M4 Carbine

ARfcom's Collection
of Weapons Manuals
and Other Reference
Materials
How To Shoot The US
Army Rifle M-1 (38 MB
.pdf download)
Zak Smith's Practical
Long-Range Rifle
Shooting: Part 1 - The
Rifle & Gear
Long-Range Rifle
Shooting: Part 2 - Optics
Long-Range Rifle
Shooting: Part 3 Shooting
Dan Newberry 's
Optimal Charge Weight
Load Dev elopment Site
6mmBR- Precision
Shooting Resources
'F' Class Long Distance
Shooting Links
US Army FM 44-8 Chapter 5: Use of Small
Arms for Air Defense
Weapon Light
Training V ideos
Stev e's Collection of
US Army /USMC/Joint
Serv ices/Other Military
Manuals
US Army FM 3-22.68
- Crew-Serv ed Machine
Guns -- 5.56-mm and
7 .62-mm
Civ ilian
Marksmanship Program
US Army FM 23-1 0
Sniper Training
Central V irginia
Tactical - Precision Rifle
Training
Sniper's Paradise
Forum
Sniper's Hide Forums
Gabe Suarez - Warrior
Talk Forum
JBM Small Arms
Ballistics - Trajectory
Calculator
The Ballistician's
Corner - Collection of
Online Interactiv e
Ballistics Tools
CastBoolits Reloading
it seem s that this vital link, which provides the foundation

for our entire tactical and adm inistrative structure, lacks
the flexibility to function properly at less than full
strength. -- Jam es Webb, "Flex ibility and the Fire T eam ,"
Marine Corps Gazette, April 197 2
An Embarrassment of Riches
Bill Curtis' squad had started out as just two friends getting ready for
uncertain times. That was back in the Nineties, after Waco. It was just
Bill and his friend Denny Powell. One buddy team. Friends in high
school, both of them were now v eterans. They 'd come home after
Desert Storm and left the rapidly downsizing military -- Bill had been
Army , Denny had been a Marine -- to take up wiv es and civ ilian
careers in their nativ e home, Double Springs, Alabama.
Now they each had teenage sons, two of whom also shouldered
weapons in the squad. That was the way it was with militia, a
confluence of like-minded friends, bolstered by family . There were
folks who allowed themselv es to be paraly zed by fear of linking up
with others, worried (and not necessarily irrationally ) about federal
snitches, provocateurs, or just garden-v ariety nut-burgers.
Not Bill and Denny . They 'd had their share of ex periences with all
three ov er the y ears, but they just kept on training and building their
unit, stay ing legal, keeping their ey es focused on creating skilled
riflemen. It probably helped that they each had lots of cousins. Y ou
didn't hav e to v et somebody y ou'd known all y our life. There were
four cousins in the squad.
But the rest were just friends or neighbors they met ov er coffee at
school ev ents, talking politics, finding like minds and, more
importantly , people willing to do something more than talk. They 'd
started out with just a buddy team, themselv es, and then found
another couple of hunters who had the same idea. Another buddy
team plus theirs and now they had a fire team. It was pure dumb luck
that they ran into another bunch of guy s training in the Bankhead
National Forest one weekend in 1 996. One pickup truck of camopainted faces carry ing rifles met three more pickup trucks of camopainted faces carry ing paintball guns and of course they 'd stopped to
ask questions.
The "commander" of that bunch hadn't been able to do a thing when
Bill and Denny cherry -picked his unit of the best and the brightest.
The squad's training was far more challenging and focused than
paintball games, and it attracted the more motiv ated. Ov er the y ears,
the unit had wax ed and waned, dropping men who fell out because of
changing circumstances or, more often, the demands of their wiv es.
2/31
7/5/2016
Forum
V ideos: Concealment
Does Not Equal Cov er
Ammo Shopping
Resources
Guerrilla Sniper Rifle
Project
Colonel Jeff Cooper's
Commentaries 1 9932006
Basic Rifle
Marksm anship
Series
Part I - Safety
Part II(A) - Open
Sights
Part II(B) - Aperture
Sights
Part III - Breathing
Control
Part IV - Trigger
Control
Practical Resources
Rawles' Surv iv alblog
Food Storage FAQ
(IMPORTANT!)
US Rescue & Special
Operations Group Blog
Alpha Disaster
Contingencies
Civ ilian Defense Force
Larry V ickers'
Tactical Tips
How To Select Body
Armor
USMC "Small Wars
Manual" - 1 940 Reprint
US Marine Corps Scouting and Patrolling
MCWP 3-1 1 .3
USMC Commandant's
Reading List (All Ranks)
Current US Army
Counterinsurgency
Manual FM3-24
Current US Army
Soldier's Manual of
Common Tasks STP 21 1 -SMCT - June 2009
USGS Topo Maps
US Army Map
Reading and Land
Nav igation Manual
FM3-25.26
USMC Marine Rifle
Bill and Denny tried hard to make sure the wiv es of their people were
happy , and that they networked with other spouses so the FTX
weekends wouldn't be dead time for them. Chery l, Bill's wife, and
Clarisse, Denny 's better half, had helped immensely with that. As
Chery l told him with a tinge of ex asperation, "Y ou know, we wiv es get
together out of self-defense. If y ou're going to run off ev ery other
weekend and play soldier, the least we can do is hav e as much fun as
y ou are," adding, "and when did y ou say y ou're going to get around to
cleaning the gutters?"
If somebody needed time off to deal with a home situation, nobody
ragged him. And for the most part, they alway s came back. Bill had a
policy , "Don't shoot the wounded." Ev en when a guy didn't come back
to the squad, they alway s parted as friends.
After Y 2K and the passing of the Clintonistas from the national
political stage, more men dropped out because they thought the
threat had ev aporated with the political retirement of the Great
Fornicator. But with the election of the current president, and
especially after the Battle of Sipsey Street, ev ents had once again
conspired to bring the old v olunteers back, bringing y ounger, newer
ones with them.
What was it Ben Franklin had said?
"Nothing concentrates the mind so wonderfully as the prospect of
being hung in the morning."
Of course they had alway s been friendly with Will Shipman's bunch
and had trained with them from time to time. But Bill's squad alway s
considered themselv es a cut abov e Will's unit because they had
tighter standards and were more phy sically fit. Fitness was the key to
liv ing in combat, Bill knew, and he insisted upon it.
"I'm try ing to keep y ou aliv e," he'd said to the complainers. "And me
too."
It had been a constant struggle, though, and he had probably lost
more v olunteers from inability or unwillingness to phy sically hack
the training than any other single cause. Bill had to admit that ev en
for him it was HARD to motiv ate y ourself when there didn't seem to
be threat looming on the horizon.
Now, howev er, he didn't hav e that problem.
Now ev ents had managed to grab all of their attention.
In fact, the new v olunteers scared up by the current crisis had
allowed him to spin off another squad of the guy s who were too old,
too y oung, too out-of-shape, or who had health conditions of one
3/31
7/5/2016
Squad Manual
USMC MCWP 3-1 5.1 -Machine Guns And
Machine Gunnery
Manual
US Army Ranger
Handbook
Backwoods Home
Magazine
Frugal Squirrels
Preparedness Site
FerFAL's Surv iv ing in
Argentina
Liv e US Police
Scanner Feeds v ia Web
V isible Body (webbased 3D human
anatomy resource)
Surgery for V ictims of
War (1 .1 MB .pdf
download)
Kearney 's Nuclear
War Surv iv al Skills
(downloadable book
with ex pedient shelter
plans, radiation basics,
etc.)
Where There Is No
Doctor
Where There Is No
Dentist
USDOD Emergency
War Surgery (2004
edition; 7 .4MB .pdf
download)
Operational Medicine
Collection of Medical
Training V ideos and
Books
Austere Medicine
(3.9MB .pdf download)
Remote, Austere, and
Third World Medicine
Forum
Emergency (Israeli)
Bandage Training V ideo
(click on "v ideo" tab)
Australian Civ il
Defense and Practical
Medical Downloads
Ranger Medical
Handbook 2007
Tactical Combat
Casualty Care And
Wound Treatment
Self-Aid/Buddy -Aid
Combat Lifesav er
Course Lessons 1 -9
Combat Lifesav er
kind or another. He'd organized them into a something like a logistics

and support unit and giv en command of it to John Stentinius, a
Marine v eteran of V ietnam and Lebanon with an artificial leg to
replace the one he'd lost in the Embassy bombing and who had more
grit, gumption, and brains than the rest of them combined. John now
had his people busy ex tending and improv ing the sy stem of supply
caches that Bill and Denny had started back in the Nineties in the
Forest, and up in the Sipsey Wilderness area. They were also working
on getting communications links of v arious kinds up and running.
He'd had to transfer some of his old friends to the support element,
and none of them had liked it v ery much. But there were plenty of
y oung, ex perienced soldiers and Marines back from the wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan who were far better suited for what was coming. It
was no shame to admit the rav ages of time, he'd told the old guy s, but
they had hated it all the same.
Ev en so, if the v olunteers kept coming in at this rate, he could hav e
another combat-ready squad in a month, may be less. He'd probably
giv e command of that to one of the ex perienced newbies, Mike Parker
probably . Parker had come back from Iraq with a Silv er Star and the
rest of the men looked up at him as a demi-god of war, which he damn
near was.
He certainly was a competent squad leader, Bill thought, probably -no, positiv ely -- better than me.
Besides, Bill and Denny were like an old married couple by now.
They 'd had ev ery argument they could possibly hav e and had still
remained friends, and Bill didn't know what he'd do without Denny as
assistant squad leader. But if they grew much bigger, ev entually Bill
was going to be a platoon leader not a squad leader, and then what
would he do with Denny ?
The first real argument they 'd had, Bill recalled, was ov er the size of
the squad. Denny had insisted that if they ev er got big enough, they
should organize along the lines of a Marine rifle squad -- three fourman fire teams and a squad leader. Bill, thinking that they 'd nev er get
that big any way , had a preference for the smaller Army squad.
"We won't hav e any support weapons," Denny had argued, "we'll need
all the shooters we can get." And he'd added, "Besides, if we think
small, we'll alway s BE small. We ought to try to grow this as big as we
can."
It had all been merely academic until they finally did get that big, but
Bill ev entually had conceded Denny 's point. They would use the
prov en triangular Marine sy stem -- one attacking, two prov iding
cov er fire and security -- and they would concentrate on making
competent riflemen who could mov e, communicate and most of all
4/31
7/5/2016
Course Lessons 1 6-25

First Aid for Soldiers
FM 21 -1 1 1 988
Aussie Bushcraft
Series
A Well-Regulated
Militia - Ex tensiv e
Forum and Resources
US Army FM 21 -7 6-1
SER (Surv iv al, Ev asion,
Recov ery ) Manual (3MB
.pdf)
"Nev er Ev er Talk to
the Police" - V ideo Law
Lecture on PoliceCitizen Encounters Part I
"Nev er Ev er Talk to
the Police" - V ideo Law
Lecture on PoliceCitizen Encounters Part II
Boy d and Military
Strategy (collection of
Boy d/OODA articles
and links)
William S. Lind's "On
War" Blog (ex tensiv e
collection of 4GW
materials)
Air War College Military Theory ,
Theorists, & Strategy
Mao: On Guerrilla
Warfare
Lawrence: The
Ev olution Of A Rev olt
US Military Oaths
US Code of Conduct
shoot, dealing out deadly , aimed, semiautomatic fire.
T he Nex t Steps
Series
Control. This was perhaps the greatest advantage of the

new system as the squad leader had three subordinate
leaders in his span of control instead of 11 m en. This
produced m ore effective supervision.
What Comes After

Appleseed?
Thoughts on Basic
Surv iv al Weaponry
The Grey Man
From Dump to Dump
Where Hav e All the
Bullets Gone?
Hot Lead!
Personal Practice
with the Combat Pistol
The Warrior Way as
Surv iv al Strategy
Suarez:
Ambidex trous
Gunfighting
Of course they were hampered initially by the miscellany of

weaponry the v olunteers brought to the task. Deer rifles, shotguns,
SKS's, Garands, AR and AK clones - y ou name it. It was a logistician's
nightmare -- and a small unit commander's, if he cared about
standardization and the benefits that it brought in combat -- which
Bill did.
It was better now. Ov er the y ears the committed men of his squad -and those who'd stay ed were ALL committed -- had worked, scrimped
and sav ed to buy better, more capable weapons. The best shot in each
fire team was a dedicated marksman now with a semi-auto rifle in
7 .62 NATO or .30-06. The 7 .62x 39 ammo famine had been one more
reason to leav e the SKS's and AK's in the gun safes at home, although
one fire team had merely swapped out their AK-47 s for AK-7 4s in
5.45x 39, which was still av ailable and relativ ely cheap, although
"relativ ely " and "cheap" were two words of decreasing importance
these day s.
At the outset of World War II, the Marine rifle squad was
com posed of 12 m en, with no particular internal
organization. This setup literally cam e under fire early in
that war, as it proved im m ensely difficult for a squad
leader to m aintain control over as m any as 11 m en at one
tim e. Therefore, after a num ber of attem pts to rectify the I
e situation, our present fire team organization was
instituted in 1944. It has a num ber of advantages over the
form er system , and has been widely heralded due to its
"triangular concept" which offers m axim um control,
m aneuverability, and firepower. indeed, when com pared
to the "12-m an m ob" its advantages in these areas are
striking:
Maneuverability. With the creation of a Four m an fire

team , a sm aller tactical unit capable of independent
m aneuver evolved. This served to elim inate the spur of the
m om ent "you take Sm ith and Jones and go over there"
approach and ostensibly brought into existence a bonafide
m aneuver elem ent below the squad level.
Firepower. The fire team was created to gain m axim um
em ploym ent of the Browning Autom atic Rifle (BAR). in
fact, the whole fire team concept was built around the BAR,
which provided the nucleus of the team 's firepower. Fire
5/31
7/5/2016
Warrior Talk: Combat

Accuracy
Shoot Until The
Target Changes Shape
Or Catches Fire
BlackJack's 1 0 Week
Plan for the Worst Case
A Basic Preparation
Plan
T he Weapons
Platform : Y ou and
Y our Body
Starting Out
Shut Up, Get Dressed,
and Get Mov ing
USAMU Phy sical
Conditioning for
Highpower Shooting
Combat Fitness and
Phy sical Readiness
Suarez: Combat
Fitness -- Getting
Started
Building Y our
Distance Capability
Major XXX's Ruck
Marching Tips
Fartlek
Running Before The
Gunning
Fitness Drill For The
Weekend
USMC PFT And CFT
Training Resources
team form ations were designed to protect the autom atic

riflem an, and one riflem an was assigned a secondary
m ission of aiding the autom atic riflem an in, finding
targets and reloading m agazines.
This arrangem ent was highly successful in exploiting the
BAR (and later the M-14 autom atic) to full advantage; the
m axim um use and protection of the autom atic rifle seem s
to be the m ain justification behind the present fire team
concept. With the advent of the M-16, however, this nucleus
of the fire team has disappeared. Now there m ay be
justification for reorganization. In this regard, it is
recognized that Marine Corps planners are searching for a
heavy autom atic weapon which would provide the fire
team with the sam e type of firepower that the BAR and M14 autom atic did; however, two points m ust necessarily be
m ade concerning this. First, there is currently no such
weapon in use, and no positive guarantee that one will be
found, while the M-16 is currently being used. And
secondly, instead of finding a new autom atic rifle of this
type, perhaps a better solution would be to retain the M-16
and reorganize the fire team .
But now, thanks to the influx of new v olunteers, some of them v ery
ex perienced in the way s of war, and Will Shipman's largesse, Bill was
faced with an embarrassment of riches. Who could hav e believ ed in
the early y ears of this decade, when they were scraping by with doing
mini-FTXs with six guy s armed with whatev er they could scrape
together, that he would hav e this problem?
"Bee-A-Are"
Political Resources
The White House
US House Of
Representativ es
Website
US Senate Website
Find Federal
Legislation
Online Legal Research
- Cornell Law Library
Hazlitt's "Economics
In One Lesson"
Western Civ ilization
Study Resources
Declaration of the
Causes and Necessity of
Taking Up Arms
Declaration of
Independence
Articles of
Confederation
Y ou m ay not be arm ed now with a BAR (Browning

Autom atic Rifle M1918A2), but you are expected to know
all about the weapon, because your fire team is built
around it. Y our squad is built upon its team s. If your
team 's BAR m an is knocked out, the weapon m ust be
m anned and this assignm ent m ay fall to you. Y ou have to
grab that BAR and get it into operation. Y ou have to keep it
in operation. Y ou will be the BAR m an. At present, there
are three Browning Autom atic Rifles assigned to each rifle
squad, with nine in a rifle platoon. This gives each
6/31
7/5/2016
US Constitution
Bill of Rights
1 982 US Senate RKBA
Report
2004 US DOJ Memo
re 2A as Indiv idual
Right
The Founders'
Constitution - Original
Intent Materials
The Federalist Papers
The Anti-Federalist
Papers
de Tocquev ille's
Democracy in America
Thoreau's "Civ il
Disobedience"
MLK's "Letter from a
Birmingham Jail"
LewRockwell.com
Murray Rothbard
Library
Thomas DiLorenzo
Library
Sun Tzu - 'The Art of
War'
Billy Beck's Book List
Horowitz on Alinsky
V on Mises -Socialism
Links
C odrea's War on Guns
C odrea's N ational Gun Rights
E xaminer
Sips ey Street I rregulars
Gun O wners of A meric a
Jews for the P res ervation of
Firearms O wners hip
FreeForc es S2 - Gathering
T he I nformation T he
A meric an P res s I gnores
I njus tic e E verywhere -- D aily
P olic e M is c onduc t Reports
Radley Balko's T he A gitator
Billy Bec k
N ew P altz Journal
A rc tic P atriot
John V enlet
E d Ras imus
Bill St. C lair: E nd the War on
Freedom
C laire Wolfe's "Living
Freedom"
A meric an D iges t
C ato I ns titute's C ato A t
Liberty Blog
com pany 27 BARs. Because these weapons are light,

m aneuverable, and have great firepower, they are the
m ost vital weapons of your platoon. Y ou m ust learn all
about the BAR now as future insurance. -- "T he Autom atic
Rifle," Guidebook for Marines, Chapter 15, 1 May 1948, p. 163.
They 'd met, seemingly by chance, at the Double Springs Tastee
Freeze.
Will Shipman's inv itation had been intriguing: "Come on by the house
after work and bring y our pickup truck with the cap on it. I'v e got
something for y ou. Oh, y eah, and bring a couple of y our best guy s."
That was all, and he wouldn't elaborate.
It was three day s after what the press was calling "The Winston
County Massacre." By order of the Gov ernor, the ATF and Brightfire
thugs were gone, replaced by Winston County sheriff deputies and
Alabama state troopers. Those few federal undercov er agents still in
place wore ABI surv eillance that was as close and intimate as their
underwear.
The feds no longer ruled Winston County .
Will was waiting for Bill and his boy s on the porch when they drov e
up. "Driv e around to the barn," he called out to them. "I'll be with y ou
in a minute." They were out of the truck by the time Will came around
the house and Bill started to ask what this was all about.
Will cut him off with an upraised palm.
"Please hold all questions until the end of the presentation," imitating
the v oice of Wilson Shropshire, the Double Springs High School
principal who had serv ed for three decades before passing away of a
heart attack at his desk. They all recognized their old principal's
measured tones and laughed.
Will unlocked the high-security padlock on the sliding door. That's
new, thought Bill. "All right, boy s," Will said as he slid back the big
door, "come on in and shut the door behind y ou." He walked ov er to
the light switch and gav e it a flick. Ov erhead flourescents flickered
into brilliance. Bill Curtis and Denny Powell followed Will in. Mike
Parker turned and slid the door shut.
Mike Parker whistled softly . The barn was packed with crates, Bill saw.
No, not just crates, military crates. Some had tarps ov er them and
some had recent spray black paint ov er the markings. What the . . .
Sec ond A mendment P atriots

C itizens C ommittee For the
Right to Keep and Bear A rms
Keep & Bear A rms (RKBA
Will turned to face Bill Curtis. "How big is y our unit now, Bill?"
7/31
7/5/2016

Keep & Bear A rms (RKBA
news aggregator)
Junior D eputy A c c ountant
"Total? About 32, with more coming in ev ery day ," Curtis answered.
"The ATF and Brightfire are really great recruiters for us."
Surplus rifle.c om
C hris M uir's Day by Day
V iew from the P orc h
Shipman nodded. "Y ou know, Bill, I alway s appreciated the fact that
y ou grew y our own unit and nev er tried to cherry -pick mine."
C aus apatet
T he E lec tor Retards
T he Liberty Sphere
Memento Mori
A rms and the Law
O leg V olk's A H uman Right
T he Belmont C lub
Curtis answered with a smile, "That's because I figured y ou'd beat the
hell out of me if I tried."
"Y ou're right. I would hav e. But we'v e both cooperated for so long I
think of y 'all as my own."
E ternity Road
John Robb's Global Guerrillas
Big Fur H at's 'I O wn T he
World'
Sens e O f E vents
T he Foundation for E c onomic
E duc ation
M is h Shedloc k's Global
E c onomic T rends A nalys is
Curtis started to open his mouth and Will Shipman saw the objection
coming. "Don't get y our panties in a wad. I'm not try ing to take ov er
y our unit, although the time may come soon when y ou'll want me to.
Let's just say for right now that we're brothers in arms and I can stand
hav ing y ou better armed, is all. We'v e both got plenty of enemies out
there, don't y ou think? DOMESTIC enemies?"
Bloomberg N ews
I nves tor's Bus ines s D aily
E ditorials
T elegraph (U .K.)
Res tore T he C ons titution
T he A meric an T hinker
Ov ercome by curiosity about what was in the crates, Bill was going to
let slide that crack about wanting Will to take ov er. So he merely
replied, "Y eah, they buried the Sheriff today on account of some of
those domestic enemies."
D rudge Report
Zero H edge
Real C lear P olitic s
Will nodded again. "I went to the funeral." The Sheriff and his two
deputies were buried in a common ceremony .
Real C lear M arkets

Real C lear World
Breitbart's Big Government
M aggie's Farm
I ns tapundit
M is es .org (E c onomic s &
Liberty)
Almost all of the county and half the state had turned out for it. The
Gov ernor was ev en there. So was Jack Durer.
Will continued, "Any way , I'v e got some presents for y ou and y our
boy s. It's time to spread around the Shipman family fortune, I think."
M ic helle M alkin
D avid Warren O nline
P ower Line
T he P eople's C ube
C hic ago Boyz
T heo Spark
Samizdata
Bill Curtis was fit to bust. "Quit beatin' around the bush, Shipman, and
tell me what's on y our mind."
Shipman grinned and turned to a shorter stack of crates in front of the
others. "This," he said as he pulled the tarp off, "is what's on my mind."
Jihad Watc h
James Bovard
M ark Steyn
On top of the stack of crates was twenty pounds of parkerized steel

and gleaming, linseed oil-soaked wood on a bipod.
Sultan Knis h
John Batc helor
T he C liffs of I ns anity
GardenSE RF's P lot
Free N orth C arolina
V ic tor D avis H ans on
The three men gaped at the sight. Finally , Bill Curtis said, "Whole-ESHIT." It wasn't an ex clamation, as much as a benediction. Mike
Parker added, "That's a fact." They all mov ed forward to look at it, but
nobody wanted to touch it, lest the mirage disappear.
Was hington Rebel

T L I n E xile
Gates of V ienna
E U Referendum
A utonomous M ind
Shipman smiled indulgently , like a dime store Santa Claus at a bunch

of goggle-ey ed kids. "This, my friends, is an M1 91 8A2 Browning
Automatic Rifle manufactured by the International Business
8/31
7/5/2016

A utonomous M ind
A s ia T imes
James town Foundation
P ro Libertate
Jim Sinc lair's M ines et
John Galt's Shenandoah
Machines Corporation in 1 944. It is new and fresh out of the

cosmoline. I'v e got magazines and ammunition to go with it."
Mike Parker jumped on that. "How many mags? How much
ammunition?"
D enninger's M arket T ic ker

M att Brac ken's Enemies
Foreign And Domes tic
FAIR USE NO TIC E: This

site contains copyrighte d
m ate rial the use of which
has not always be e n
spe cifically authorize d by
the copyright owne r. I use
such m ate rial in an e ffort
to advance unde rstanding
of political, hum an rights,
e conom ic, scie ntific, and
social justice issue s. I
be lie ve this constitute s a
'fair use ' of any such
copyrighte d m ate rial as
provide d for in se ction 107
of the US C opyright Law.
In accordance with Title 17
U.S.C . Se ction 107, the
m ate rial on this site is
use d without profit. If you
wish to use copyrighte d
m ate rial from this site for
purpose s of your own that
go be yond 'fair use ', you
m ust obtain pe rm ission
from the copyright owne r.
Shipman replied, "For y ou? Twenty magazines and 2000 rounds of

ball in bandoleers and stripper clips per rifle." He added, "I'v e also got
web gear to go with each BAR."
Parker whistled again, and then asked the last, v ital question. "How
many rifles are y ou going to let us hav e?"
"Well, I'v e been thinkin' on that. Allowin' for y our unit growin' and all,
plus may be puttin' some ammo and rifles in caches for back up, I
figured on ten. If y ou grow y our unit some later, there's more where
these came from."
"How many more?" asked Parker.
"There's a hundred total, counting these."
Bill Curtis said the only thing he could think of. "Well, shit and shov e
me in it."
Shipman laughed. "If y ou insist. I'v e got a manure pile out back that's
handy ."
Denny Powell finally recov ered his v oice. "Where in the name of God .
. ."
Subscribe to
Posts [Atom]
"Well," replied Will Shipman slowly , "that's a long story ."

So he told them about the preacher's son, the deacon and the box car.
He gav e them the short v ersion.
When Will was finished, Bill Curtis looked at the BAR again, longingly ,
lov ingly . In wonder, he said again, "Well, shit and shov e me in it."
"There's more," Shipman offered.
"What?" asked all three men at once, as if on cue.
"Hand grenades. Old World War II frags, but they work. Some M1 5
Willy Peter smokes. Rifle grenades. High Ex plosiv e Anti-Tank dual
purpose and Willy Peters. Springfield rifles with attachments to
launch 'em and the blank cartridges to make 'em fly . Y ou can hav e ten
Springfields, too. That's a case of them right there," Will said as he
pointed at the bottom of the stack of crates. "And another 1 0,000
rounds of ammo to go with 'em. It's corrosiv e of course, and y ou'll
9/31
7/5/2016
hav e to be scrupulous about cleanin' the weapons, but it's got one
adv antage ov er modern non-corrosiv e."
"What's that?" asked Mike Parker.
"It's free, son," replied Shipman, "it's all free."
Bill Curtis knew enough to look a gift horse in the mouth. "And what
will y ou be wantin', Will Shipman, in pay ment for all these 'free' toy s?"
He knew the answer, but he wanted to hear it from Will's own mouth.
Will looked offended, then smiled craftily , and then, he turned deadly
serious. "What I want, Billy Curtis, is for y ou and y our bunch to come
runnin' if me and mine get hit. Just like I'll come runnin' if y ou get hit.
There's a war comin'. If y ou hadn't noticed, it's already here. So what I
WANT is for y ou and y ours to get real familiar with these 'toy s'," Will
ground out the word with emphasis, "so y ou won't blow y our own
balls off when I need y ou. I need y ou to be blowin' the other bastards'
balls off when, and not if, they come back."
Will paused, then turned friendly again. "What I want in return for the
firepower is for y ou to show me what a competent small unit leader I
know y ou to be. Good enough?" He stuck out his hand.
Curtis didn't hesitate. He shook Will Shipman's hand. It was a blood
oath and they both knew it.
"Hell, Billy ," said Shipman, "y our boy s are better than my boy s
because y ou'v e had 'em trainin' for y ears when mine were just laid up
and watchin' war mov ies on the DV D. I'm smart enough to know that.
Well, my boy s are gettin' ready again, but y our boy s are ready now.
Think of this as a return on all that sweat equity y ou put in."
Bill nodded at the complement, equally pleased that it had been giv en
and also in the knowledge that it was indisputably true. Then a
thought occurred to him.
"Y ou know," observ ed Bill Curtis, "this ain't the first time the Curtises
and the Shipmans hav e stood shoulder to shoulder against an enemy ."
"No," allowed Will, "it ain't." He paused, and then clapped the y ounger
man on the shoulder and proclaimed, "The First Alabama Union
Cav alry Regiment rides again."
Curtis reached out for the BAR, but Shipman beat him to it. "Get y our
own damn BAR, this one's mine. It took me half the night to get the
cosmoline off'n it. It was like petrified dinosaur turd after almost
sev enty y ears in that mine. Go clean y our own."
"Okay ," said Bill Curtis good naturedly . "C'mon, boy s," he said to
10/31
7/5/2016
Denny and Mike, "let's get this stuff loaded and back home." The work
party set to their task with enthusiasm.
Will Shipman just stood back and enjoy ed the scene.
He could afford to, bein' Santa Claus and all.
T.O. & E.
The key weakness of our present system is a lack of
flexibility. The present fire team concept cannot absorb
casualties and continue to function adequately, does not
properly use the team leader as a unit leader, and is poorly
suited to the M-16 rifle. However, it is far superior to
previously attem pted concepts and there seem s to be a
question as to whether a better system could ever be found.
There is a better system which is easily adaptable to
today's Marine Corps. It involves no changes in m anning
levels and has been com bat tested. It involves changing
the fire team from its present four-m an structure to a sixm an team com posed of a fire team leader, assistant fire
team leader, and four riflem en. Let's exam ine the
advantages using the triangular concept as a reference
point. -- Jam es Webb, "Flex ibility and the Fire T eam ,"
Marine Corps Gazette, April 197 2
Tommy Powell, Denny 's oldest son, tossed and turned in a dream
from which he could not awaken. People were try ing to kill him and
they shouted in strange languages. There was a wall. They had to
make it to the wall, somebody y elled.
His dad? No. Somebody else.
He followed him as the bangs and flashes and zips seemed to come
from ev ery where. Somebody in front of him got hit. Tommy could see
the blood and tissue blown out the back of the man's thigh. He knew
that he knew him but he couldn't remember his name. Y oung like me.
The rifle, someone else screamed, get the rifle. Tommy slung his own
and picked it up. It was big and heav y , but somehow though he'd
nev er seen one before, he knew how it worked.
He made it to the wall, and woke up cov ered with sweat, the shots and
the shouts and the screams still echoing in his ears. He was in his
room. It was quiet in the room, still early ev ening and he had to go to
school tomorrow. Bey ond the door, he could hear the muffled news
on the telev ision downstairs as his mom waited for his dad to come
home. He lay back down on the sweat-soaked cov ers and closed his
ey es, but sleep wouldn't come for a long time.
11/31
7/5/2016
"Well, if we drop back into the old late World War II/Korean War
model used by the Marines, then that makes it one grenadier and one
BAR per fire team, with one rifleman designated as the assistant BAR
man," said Denny Powell.
They were all in the cab of Bill Curtis' pickup, on the way home to
ex amine their new toy s. They were discussing how this
embarrassment of riches would fit into their Table of Organization
and Equipment, their T.O. & E.
"We'v e already got a Designated Marksman per fire team," said Curtis.
"We nev er figured on getting automatic weapons and the DM was
supposed to sub for that. So do we giv e up the DM? Y ou can't make
the Assistant BAR man do any thing else but that, right? Are we going
to hav e fire teams made up of all specialists ex cept for the team
leader? Who's going to be the rifleman/scout? The DM? The team
leader?"
Denny Powell replied, "Look, I don't hav e an answer y et, I'm just
thinking out loud here, so bear with me. The Marines summarize their
fire team organization with the phrase "ready -team-fire-assist", since
that's the arrangement of the fire team when its in a column. 'Ready ' is
the rifleman/scout. 'Team' is the team leader, who also works as a
grenadier with an M203."
Mike Parker broke in, "Y ou can't hav e a team leader with a bolt action
rifle, it's too damn slow."
"Y eah, y eah, I know," said Denny , "let me finish the thought. OK. The
automatic rifleman, nowaday s armed with an M249 SAW, also serv ed
as second in command of the fire team and is called "Fire." The AAR
carries his ex tra ammunition and is called 'Assist.' That way , when
y ou're communicating in the middle of a firefight, nobody has to
guess who's being addressed."
Denny paused for a moment.
Mike said, "Well . . ." but Denny cut him off.
"Let me finish. So y ou mov e by rushes. If y ou take fire, the fire team is
organized in such in a methodical way as to engage the enemy with
fire team 'rushes' -- mov ement by one part of the team during cov er
by fire by the other part of the team. Usually , its first the Rifleman
and Team Leader will mov e ahead, being cov ered by the Automatic
and Assistant Automatic Riflemen, then the Automatic and Assistant
Automatic Riflemen will mov e up to the Rifleman and Team Leader,
being cov ered by the Rifleman and Team Leader, and so on. The
process is repeated until y ou can't go any farther without serious risk
to the entire fire team. Of course the team is also cov ered by other
fire teams in the squad. The optimum ratio of support fire teams to
12/31
7/5/2016
attacking fire teams is 2 to 1 . Somebody actually did a study on it.

Some Army general, I think, I read an article about it once, General
Dupree or something."
Mike Parker corrected him, "DePuy ."
"Y eah, that's it." Denny took a sip from his Diet Mountain Dew and
continued.
"Any way , once y ou're on the objectiv e, the fire team assumes a 'hasty
1 80', where the Automatic Rifleman cov ers 1 1 o'clock to 1 o'clock (1 2
o'clock being the most likely av enue of enemy approach), with the
Rifleman and Assistant Automatic Rifleman cov ering 9 to 1 1 and 1 to
3 respectiv ely . The Team Leader is nex t to the Automatic Rifleman to
complement his fire with grenade rounds and to assign targets for the
M249. Once a frontal enemy counterattack is deemed unlikely , the
fire team then will assume a 'consolidated 360' to secure the flanks."
Curtis cut in, "And y our point is?"
Denny responded with more than a little ex asperation. "I told y ou, I
don't hav e a point y et, I'm thinking out loud. But I don't see how
putting a bolt action rifle into the mix is going to work. It's too thin.
And what if y ou hav e casualties? The whole damn thing breaks down."
"Well, we don't hav e to use the Springfields, y ou know," said Bill. "We
can shoot the grenades off an M1 or M1 4 ty pe rifle, ev en an AR come
to that."
"Where would we get the grenade blanks?" asked Denny .
"I heard one of Kraut Mueller's guy s had some for sale at the last
AGCA gunshow. They 're rollin' their own now. Had 'em in all calibers,"
replied Bill.
"Guy s," interjected Mike Parker, "may be there's another way ."
"What?" asked Bill and Denny simultaneously .
Mike Parker smiled. Sometimes these guy s were like an old couple
that had been married since kindergarten.
He began to ex plain.
The m ost obvious advantage of a six-m an fire team is its
overall flexibility in every area of the triangular concept.
Control. The team leader's ability to control his unit should
not be affected by the addition of two m en. Col Hays
established the m axim um lim it for control at seven m en.
13/31
7/5/2016
The newly organized fire team would provide its leader

with a m axim um of five m en, well within the seven m an
lim it, and certainly m ore challenging than the present
m axim um of three. Abolishing the autom atic riflem an and
the key positions he presently occupies, plus the addition
of two m ore m en, gives the fire team leader the advantage
of placing him self where he can best control his unit. The
final control consideration is the creation of an assistant
team leader who would be ready to take charge without
hesitation. He would also occupy key positions in tactical
form ations.
Maneuverability. A six-m an fire team could sustain up to
three casualties and still exist as an effective m aneuver
elem ent, thus fulfilling its m ission of being a tactical and
m aneuver unit. The six-m an team has the flexibility
necessary for com bat since form ations can be changed to
accom m odate sm aller num bers with no loss in efficiency.
Firepower. The team m em bers m ay fire on sem i-autom atic
or full autom atic at the discretion of the team leader. An
additional point should be m ade at this point concerning
the present search for a new, heavier autom atic rifle to fill
the gap left by the dem ise of the M-14A. While a heavier
autom atic rifle would undoubtedly provide the fire team
with greater firepower, the sacrifice in overall flexibility
negates its advantages. This is especially true when one
considers that the M-60 m achine gun is usually available
at the platoon level, and that any contact m ade at ranges
in excess of even 100 m eters m ay be supplem ented by
external supporting arm s of som e sort. Therefore, the
advantages gained in overall perform ance and flexibility
by not im plem enting a different autom atic weapon are
greater than those derived from its use. . . The beauty of
this entire proposed change is its flexibility, and the fact
that it would have absolutely no ill effects on current
m anpower requirem ents within the Marine Corps, while
increasing the overall effectiveness of the fire team and
squad itself. Tactics of em ploym ent would not change,
except that the fire team , perhaps for the first tim e, would
actually becom e what it is purported to be by our
instructors-a viable tactical and m aneuver elem ent,
capable of sustaining casualties and still perform ing its
assigned m issions. -- Jam es Webb, "Flex ibility and the Fire
T eam ," Marine Corps Gazette, April 197 2
"Is that the same Jim Webb that wrote Fields of Fire and got himself
elected as a Democrat U.S. senator from V irginia?" asked Bill.
"Y up, the v ery same," replied Parker. "Of course, he wrote that back in
14/31
7/5/2016
1 97 2, before the Squad Automatic Weapon and he had entirely too

high of a regard for the M1 6 if y ou ask me. I hated that jam-o-matic
mouse gun in Iraq."
"So," Curtis asked, "what y ou're say ing is that we adopt the six -man
fire team model, keep the BAR man and his assistant, the grenadier,
who is not the team leader, and the Designated Marksman and we still
hav e a rifleman/scout?"
"Right," replied Carter. "We'll call them 'Ready -One' and 'Ready -Two,'
with the DM being 'Ready -Two.' The grenadier would be the assistant
squad leader, which would take the decision making load off the BAR
man. Let's call him 'Grenade'. I'm with y ou, though, Bill, the grenadier
shouldn't hav e a Springfield. We should find a way to get him the
ability to fire them off a semi-auto. And we ought to add one other
man. A runner slash RTO to tag along with the squad leader. The
assistant squad leader can be the best of the team leaders. I know its
big. But y ou know what? The only reason the Army ev er had smaller
squads that I could figure out is that y ou couldn't get a bigger squad
in a helicopter or an APC. And the last time I checked, we didn't hav e
any air or armor."
The other two men chuckled.
"Look, it's a twenty man squad. But its controllable. The squad leader,
we'll call him 'Six ", still controls 3 fire team leaders plus the
RTO/runner. I dunno what we'll call him, 'Arty ' may be. The team
leaders control fiv e. Its doable. It max imizes our strengths, including
the new weapons. And we'v e got the numbers to do it. We'll be able to
outrange any ATF or Brightfire bunch we'v e seen so far and we'll hit
harder, ev en if some of them hav e M203s. Y ou know, ev en if we didn't
hav e the BARs and the rifle grenades, this would be a better
organizational model for militia. Y ou can still start out with buddy
teams and build to this point. Webb may be a sell-out prick as a
politician but he was right about this. And y ou know what, Marine
squad leaders in Iraq and Afghanistan shuffled their teams to make
two teams of six for just those reasons."
"I was going to giv e y ou the nex t 1 3-man squad, y ou know."
Parker shrugged. "So what? If it happens, it happens. Its not like it
means a big raise in salary or something. The main thing is to put
together as capable a squad as possible and this is the way I think we
can do it. But I'v e got one other radical suggestion."
"What?" asked Curtis.
"We transition from two-man buddy teams to three-man teams."
Denny blurted, "What?"
15/31
7/5/2016
Curtis just said, "Why ?"

"I know, I know, it's heresy right? We all learned on the two-man
buddy team concept. But I'v e been doing a lot of reading lately on
squad organization and I'm conv inced that just like bigger fire teams,
the larger buddy teams make sense. Hear me out."
He saw they would hold their objections and so he proceeded.
"If a fire team is six men, then why not hav e two three man buddy
teams? One is led by the team leader and the other lead by the
assistant team leader. The three-man team, some folks call 'em 'triads',
has greater depth that the traditional buddy team. If one man is hit,
there's still two more to carry on with the mission, rather than hav ing
an orphan with nobody to watch his back. The ChiComs and the NV A
and V C all used three-man cells as the ideal building block of their ten
man squads with 3 3 man cells and a squad leader. Y ou'v e got a full
crew for an automatic weapons section, like for an ex ample a BAR
man, 'Fire,' an AAR, 'Assist', and our Assistant Team
Leader/Grenadier, 'Grenade.' That's one base of fire element
supporting the Ready One, Ready Two and Team on the assault."
He paused and he saw they were with him so far.
"Now, in addition to being more durable in case of casualties, it's a lot
easier to spread the work of liv ing in the field and maintaining
y ourself as a fighting team with three instead of two. We don't want to
be caught in the position of digging fighting positions or any thing
unless we hav e to, but it's sure as heck easier with three instead of
two. Plus, ex cept during operations y ou'v e got one guy on watch, one
guy cooking, cleaning weapons or working and a third sleeping."
Mike paused, looked up and saw Denny nodding.
"Now Denny , y ou're absolutely right about DePuy 's work. He not only
thought that two back, one up was a better way to assault, he PROV ED
it. With two fire teams to prov ide a base of fire to ensure suppression
of the defenders and one fire team, out front attacking (which giv es
y ou fewer targets for the enemy ), the attack would succeed nine out
of ten times. If y ou rev ersed it and put two up in the assault and kept
one back, the odds of success fell to 25 percent. His conclusion was
that on whatev er scale of military operations y ou were talking about,
success went to the smallest size of maneuv er element backed up by
the greatest amount of suppressiv e fire."
"Patton said it the same way in World War II, but nev er got around to
putting it down in so many doctrinal words. Remember the way they
used to do it with the old heav y weapons squads? Automatic weapons
to keep their heads down to make them seek cov er. Mortars to seek
16/31
7/5/2016
them out with indirect fire when they hid. And anti-tank missles to
destroy the bunkers or the houses when they ran from the mortars
into ov erhead cov er. Well, gentlemen, our fire teams will now hav e all
three. BARs and Designated Marksmen for accurate suppressiv e fire.
Rifle grenades to hit them with indirect and more rifle grenades to
blow holes through walls."
He saw they were both nodding, working it out in their heads,
imagining the new T.O. & E.
"The greater our suppressiv e fire and the faster we maneuv er into the
bastards, the more fights we'll win and the fewer casualties we'll hav e.
Rommel said it. Patton said it. DePuy prov ed it. It requires training,
practice, and repetition, but now we'v e got the tools to make it all
work."
Parker stopped, looking at Bill and Denny like a prosecuting attorney
surv ey ing a jury after an eloquent, lucid and forceful summation.
Curtis looked at Denny Powell. "What do y ou think?" he asked.
"I think Mike's right. I think it'll work."
"OK," decided Bill Curtis, "I'm not entirely conv inced about the threeman buddy team, but let's try it."
Slow Rate
]
The m ission of the rifle squad is to locate, close with, and
destroy the enem y by fire and m aneuver, or repel the
enem y's assault by fire and close com bat. The rifle squad
consists of three fire team s, each of which is built around
an autom atic weapon and controlled by a fire team leader.
The squad is com posed of 13 m en: a sergeant (squad leader)
and three fire team s of four m en each. Each fire team
norm ally consists of a corporal (fire team
leader/grenadier), two lance corporals (autom atic
riflem an and assistant autom atic riflem an), and a private
or private first class (riflem an). . .The Squad Leader . . . is
responsible for the discipline, appearance, training,
control, conduct, and welfare of his squad at all tim es, as
well as the condition, care, and econom ical use of its
weapons and equipm ent. In com bat, he is also responsible
for the tactical em ploym ent, fire discipline, fire control,
and m aneuver of his squad. . .The Squad Leader trains his
squad in the perform ance of tasks. . . He m aintains the
condition, care, and econom ical use of assigned weapons
and equipm ent. The Squad Leader is capable of perform ing
17/31
7/5/2016
all the tasks required of a riflem en, Assistant Autom atic

Riflem an, Autom atic Riflem an, and Fire Team Leader. He
carries, perform s operator m aintenance for, and is a
proficient m arksm an with (all weapons). -"All right, guy s, gather round, take a seat at the tables by twos and
we'll get started."
Mike Parker stood at one end of a large cleared space in the back of
Duff's Plumbing Supply . On the folding table in front of him was an
M1 91 8A2. They had cleaned it up, along with the other nine. There
were twenty men in the room, two per rifle. The automatic rifles lay
on other folding tables in front of the men, two rifles and four men per
table. The tables and chairs were borrowed from the First Baptist
Church.
The BARs didn't look the same as they had when they 'd been first
cleaned of cosmoline. The clunky bipods had been remov ed and were
laid out beside the rifles, and the original flash hiders had been
replaced with Korean War v intage slotted flash suppressors, which
were far more efficient at their job.
When Parker saw the flash suppressors, he had to know. "Where did
y ou get these?" he had demanded of Bill Curtis that morning.
"Oh, Will Shipman gav e 'em to me, along with a whole bunch of other
stuff. The day after we got the rifles, I told him our ideas for using the
BARs and the grenades, and how we needed grenade launching
attachments for the M1 As and the Garands that we already own. And
I threw in about how some 7 .62 NATO grenade blanks would be a
good idea, and may be some BAR spare parts kits. Three day s later he
shows up with a couple of stout cardboard box es of stuff and
y esterday the rest of it came in by UPS to Will's marina, and he called
me to come pick it up."
"Where did he get it all?" asked Mike Parker. "How did he come up with
it? Snap his fingers?"
"Well, I asked him the same thing and he told me traded Kraut Mueller
for all of it."
"Well, Mueller's got the connections. What did he trade?"
"Y ou're goin' to lov e this. Y ou remember that box car? Well, there
were two crates of Liberator pistols in there, new in the cardboard
box es. TWO CRATES. What're they worth these day s? At least a couple
thousand each for new, unfired in the box , right? Well, it seems all he
had to do was wav e a couple of those under Kraut Mueller's nose and
ev ery thing we needed appeared by magic."
18/31
7/5/2016
Mike Parker marv eled at the way the world sometimes worked. "Bill,
it's like a famous man once told me, 'Shit and shov e me in it.'"
Y ou could hear their laughter out on the road.
I joined the 26th Division while they were right in the
m iddle of the Tennessee m aneuvers. I was assigned as a
BAR m an in the 2nd Platoon of C Com pany, 101st Infantry
Regim ent. I liked the BAR; it gave you a lot of firepower.
My BAR was a M1918A2 with a bipod on the barrel.
Although in com bat, I got rid of the bipod. I think
everybody did. It would catch on things. I kept m ine in m y
pack. I fired the BAR quite a bit during training and
qualified with it. We had three=m an BAR team s back then.
I had an assistant gunner and an am m o bearer, but I
always carried the gun. Our squad was m ade up of a squad
leader, a first and second scout, the BAR m an and then the
am m o bearer and assistant. The rest were riflem en; we
only had one BAR in each squad. We got over to France in
Septem ber 1944. In com bat, I wore a six pocket BAR belt
that held two m agazines in each pocket. But in one pocket,
I carried a sm all box-like leather case that had all kinds of
spare parts for the gun, So I only had ten m agazines in the
belt and one in the gun. The assistant gunner and am m o
bearer carried extra m agazines for the BAR, as well as
am m o for their own weapons. They both carried M1s. My
am m o bearer also wore a full BAR belt with m agazines. At
one tim e the arm y had these square shaped canvas bags
with a shoulder strap to carry BAR m agazines, but I can't
rem em ber if either of the guys had one. Both m y assistant
gunner and am m o bearer were captured in early
Novem ber. -- Neal Burdette, in US Infantry Weapons in
Com bat: Personal Ex periences from World War II and Korea
by Mark G. Goodwin, pp. 18-19.
But just now, Mike Parker was all business.
"All right, gentlemen, this is what y ou came here to learn about. This
is an M1 91 8A2 Browning Automatic Rifle. The BAR is an air-cooled
automatic rifle using a gas-operated long-stroke piston rod actuated
by propellant gases bled through a v ent in the barrel and locked with
a tilting breechblock. It fires from an open bolt. The spring-powered
cartridge casing ex tractor is contained in the bolt and a fix ed ejector
is installed in the trigger group. The BAR is striker fired and the bolt
carrier serv es as the striker."
"Each fire team will hav e one BAR assigned to it, as well as a gunner to
carry it and a-gunner to feed it. Howev er, y ou will ALL learn how to
load, fire, field strip and maintain this piece. If ev ery one else in y our
19/31
7/5/2016
fire team is down and out of the fight, I want the last guy to be
shooting this."
Parker picked up the rifle and held it in front of him. "This is one
heav y mother of an automatic rifle. But it is what we hav e. All of the
rifles in front of y ou came from the factory with Bakelite stocks which
makes them lighter, not that y ou'll notice after y ou hump them for a
while. Unloaded, the rifle weighs about twenty pounds. With a web
belt full of twenty -round magazines, y ou'll be humping more than
twice that. Each loaded magazine weighs one pound, sev en ounces.
That's why we assign y ou an assistant automatic rifleman to tote ex tra
magazines, refill y our empties and, if need be, to wipe y our troubled
brow."
The men chuckled softly , but no more than that.
"What they will NOT do for y ou is tote y our rifle, no matter how heav y
it gets. If y ou are assigned the BAR based on y our aptitude, Y OU will
carry it, and not y our 'Assist.' In the process y ou will rediscov er y our
biceps and find other muscles y ou nev er thought y ou had. This is
normal. Now, we hav e also helped y ou by stripping off the bipods
they came with. Some BAR men swore by them, but most said they
weren't worth the weight, that they got caught in v egetation. We also
remov ed the carry ing handles. Together, this will sav e y ou about
three pounds. Also, because we want to make y ou harder for the
enemy to spot on the battlefield, we hav e remov ed the old World War
II flash hiders they came with and installed Korean War v intage sure'nuff flash suppressors. This not only makes it harder for y ou to be
spotted, but preserv es y our all-important night v ision."
Parker glanced around the room.
"OK, now the M1 91 8A2 is an automatic rifle which uses a change lev er
fire control mechanism on the trigger housing that permits fully
automatic fire only at two rates of fire. I repeat, there is no semi-auto
setting for this rifle. There is a fast rate, the 'A' position on the
selector. This puts out about 550 rounds per minute. There is also a
slow rate, the 'F' position on the selector which puts out 350 rounds
per minute. The slow rate of fire is achiev ed by engaging a buffer
dev ice installed inside the buttstock. Howev er, the max imum
EFFECTIV E rate of fire is about 1 20-1 50 rounds per minute, fired in
short bursts of from three to fiv e shots. This means y ou'll be pulling
the trigger and immediately releasing it. With practice, y ou'll get used
to it and y ou will be in full control of the rifle, not the other way
around."
"The 'S' position," and here Parker showed the men how he was
manipulating the selector lev er on the left side of the trigger group, "is
'Safe.' This weapon has fully adjustable iron sights, with a post
foresight and a leaf rear sight (adjustable for windage and elev ation)
20/31
7/5/2016
which is graduated from 1 00 to 1 ,600 y d with a combat zero notch

for immediate firing up to 300 y d."
Parker took in the room again. They were all furiously scribbling
notes.
Good.
"Now remember, this is NOT a light machine gun, people, it is an
automatic rifle. Y ou will NOT spray and pray with this. If y ou fire too
fast and ex haust magazine after magazine as fast as y ou can, y ou will
burn the barrel out and then y ou won't be able to hit the broad side of
a barn with it. Y ou WILL use aimed fire in short bursts, I don't care if
y ou're fighting the People's Liberation Army of China in an alley . This
weapon fires faster, is psy chologically more intimidating to the
enemy and punches harder than any other rifle we hav e. With AP y ou
can penetrate any body armor with plates that y ou are likely to
encounter. This weapon is our ace in the hole. SO Y OU WILL NOT PUT
Y OUR OWN RIFLE OUT OF ACTION BY Y OUR OWN STUPIDITY .
UNDERSTOOD?"
They all sang out, "Y es, Sergeant!"
"There may be times when we may need y ou to use the bipod, for
ambushes, defensiv e positions or long-range shooting, so the Assist
will be carry ing it in his pack. When y ou do, y ou will also use this foldout shoulder rest in the butt of the rifle. We will teach y ou how."
Parker flipped the shoulder rest out, then back in.
"OK, for some of the problems with the weapon that y ou will
encounter if y ou do not perform maintenance the way we teach y ou.
The rate reducer mechanism is difficult to clean and is susceptible to
damage from moisture and corrosion. This renders the weapon
inoperable or prev ents it from firing in automatic mode. Ev en BARs
that were used in the dry deserts of North Africa had this problem
and I'll tell y ou why . If y ou rest the butt of this weapon on the ground
to clean it v ertically , instead of lay ing it flat on a surface, cleaning
fluid and burned powder collect in the buffer mechanism. In addition,
y ou will be issued corrosiv e ammunition for this rifle. Why ? Because
that's what we hav e. So y ou will need to be scrupulous about cleaning
it, especially the gas cy linder. And I mean on a daily basis,
gentlemen. Howev er, if y ou take care of Miss Browning, she will take
care of y ou. She is rugged and reliable as long as she's regularly fieldstripped and cleaned."
There wasn't a ripple of amusement. Good, thought Parker.
"OK, because this is a weapon that fires from an open bolt, y ou will
NOT carry the BAR with an open bolt on 'Safe' unless in the presence
21/31
7/5/2016
of the enemy . This means that at all other times y ou will carry the
weapon with the bolt down on an empty chamber and then, and only
then, will y ou place a magazine in the rifle. Whether in the presence of
the enemy or not, loaded rifles are ALWAY S carried with muzzles
elev ated or pointed to the front. ALWAY S."
"Now, y ou will notice that each automatic rifleman will be issued an

M1 937 BAR Magazine Belt. These belts and the empty magazines
issued with them are on each end of y our table. Study them. Y ou will
notice when y ou do that the original lift-a-dot and stud fasteners hav e
been remov ed and replaced with v elcro. This was done by our ladies'
aux iliary at our commander's request because the original set-up was
known to deeply dent the magazines if the auto rifleman hit the dirt
hard enough. The blow would center on the post, driv ing it into the
mag and the resulting dent would stop the magazine follower from
freely trav eling, causing a failure to feed. I know that the v elcro is
noisier than the snaps. All that means is that y ou take the flap off y our
first pocket and tuck it down behind the magazines before y ou settle
in to an ambush position. After the ball is opened, believ e me,
nobody 's going to hear the v elcro."
"One last comment on magazines. They require at least as much
maintenance as the rifle itself. They must be frequently disassembled,
cleaned, wiped dry , and thinly coated with oil. As much as possible,
keep them free from dirt and rust. If not the spring and follower will
stick. Y our life and all of our liv es may depend upon it. And y ou'd
better not sluff that duty off on y our Assist. I don't mind if he helps. I
don't mind if y ou're a finicky SOB who insists on cleaning his own
mags. Good on y ou. But if I catch y ou dumpin' the job on y our AAR,
I'll feed y ou those mags rectally , without lubricant."
He glared at the crowd. Nobody breathed. They believ ed him.
"All right. Here's how y ou field strip the M1 91 8A2 BAR . . ."
Tommy Powell was mesmerized. This was the rifle from his dream.
The one somebody had dropped and that he'd picked up.
He'd had the dream twice more since the first night. It started at the
same place, but the second and third time it ended a little further on.
He was at the wall. He ejected the empty magazine of the rifle and
slapped in a new one, and he pointed it at the screaming men try ing to
22/31
7/5/2016
kill him and began to fire rolling bursts at the windows. There was a
farmhouse and there were windows. Someone was screaming about
grenades and he woke up.
It troubled him some, especially now that he understood that it
wasn't a dream, or ev en a nightmare, but a v ision. His grandmother
had the sight. His momma had it too, although not as specific as his
grandma.
It was the Cherokee blood in them that gav e them the v ision power.
Tommy knew he had it. He'd once seen his grandmother and
grandfather when they were y oung down sitting under the Natural
Bridge. There was an old-timey car and a picnic. His grandfather took
out some chewing tobacco from his bib ov eralls and bit off a chew.
Then he looked up at Tommy and smiled. That was it. He woke up.
It had been broad day light and he was sitting under the Natural
Bridge and it was a waking dream. A v ision, said his grandmother
after he'd told her about in embarrassment, not a dream but a v ision.
There were places, she ex plained, where the v isions came more
readily than others. His momma, who had more education than his
daddy , ex plained it like this.
"Tommy , there's places in our world where time and space intersect.
Where y ou can stand today and feel y esterday looking ov er y our
shoulder, hear it whispering in y our ears, and see it play ing out in
front of y our ey es. Natural Bridge is place like that. I met a man once
who said he had an ex perience like that up at Stone's Riv er in
Tennessee on a battlefield where his great granddaddy fought. Y our
grandfather died a long time before y ou were born. I reckon it was
just his way of say ing hello across the y ears. Don't try to figure it out.
Don't try to tell any body else who hasn't got the sight about it, they
won't understand. Just appreciate it for the gift it is. Someday it might
warn y ou of danger so's y ou can get out of the way ."
Since then, he'd had other v isions. His grandma came to him the night
she died in Birmingham, him sleeping in his bed in Winston County ,
and told him not to fret, that ev ery thing was all right. He woke up the
nex t morning, and his momma and daddy had come in all puffy -ey ed
and cried out from the ride home and told him she had passed. He
told them about how grandma had said it was all right, and he wasn't
upset, not a bit, though he'd been close to her. There were other
times, v isions he couldn't ex plain. An eagle and an Alabama black
panther, fighting, but friendly -like, as if neither wanted to kill the
other. A Cherokee warrior who turned and spoke to him in ancient
words he understood, though afterwards he couldn't remember them.
And now this. It was a warning, Tommy had no doubt. May be he
would hav e the dream enough times where he could see the end and
know what to do when the time came.
23/31
7/5/2016
He would wait.
After they were captured, I was short on am m o. Another
guy in the squad filled in for them after that. I had a m etal
loader that fit over the top of the m agazines and he would
get stripper clip am m o, the five round clips for the
Springfield, and he'd run those stripper clips down into the
m agazines. He was pretty good, he always cam e up with
am m o and grenades and kept us well-supplied. If we didn't
get issued the five-round stripper clips, we'd have to get our
am m o from eight-round M1 clips. We got a m ix of ball and
arm or piercing am m unition, but no tracers. I didn't want
any tracers. . . The BAR was very accurate, if you had open
terrain you could shoot out to 600 yards. I felt like I could
stitch som eone at that range. With trigger control, I could
shoot one round at a tim e or two rounds or as m any as I
wanted. I never had any problem s at all with m ine; it was a
dependable weapon. Y ou had to keep it pretty clean, but I
didn't think it was hard to m aintain. I kept a can of bore
cleaner and a little can of oil in the belt pocket with the
leather case. I would have to borrow a cleaning rod to
clean the bore. -It took them a while to train up the BAR men and the grenadiers and
to work the kinks out of the new structure. On weekends, the
Bankhead once again rang with automatic weapons fire and the crump
of ex plosions, but nobody complained or called the Sheriff's office.
Hearing the echoes, they would just say to one another, "That's our
boy s up there again, hard at it." If any body replied it would be
something like, "I hope they sav e enough ammo for those damn
Brightfire fiends."
Try ing to control 1 9 men seemed tough at first to Bill, but mostly it
was just a matter getting used to the fact that the new squad front was
so much bigger than the old and not to jam in on each other. Using
the two back, one up sy stem also took some practice, and the three
man buddy teams caused some friction with men who had been split
up and didn't like it. Finally , some of them came to Bill and told him it
just didn't feel right. Ev en Parker had to admit that the sociology of
three men as buddies didn't alway s work out. Some men play ed
dominance games and others just had a buddy they wouldn't part
with and treated the third man like a go-fer, not a partner. Parker
argued that is was just a matter of leadership by the squad and fire
team leaders to make sure the third man wasn't dumped on, but it still
caused problems.
Finally , being militia, they decided to compromise. There would be
fire teams made up of two-man buddy teams and others made up of
three-man teams. The troops griped about that too because it meant
24/31
7/5/2016
shuffling the fire teams once more, but they had to admit it was better
than the alternativ e.
But ev en with the unsettling changes, the men could sense the new
power they had, and they responded well, coming up with new
suggestions. They had used whistles for command and control before,
but it was y oung Phillip Curtis who suggested to his father that each
team leader and the squad leader should use one of a different ty pe or
pitch so as eliminate confusion. They worked with small squad radios
for the leaders and with 26.5mm flare pistol signals -- smoke for day ,
star clusters by night -- and gradually got used to firing and
maneuv ering without tripping ov er each other.
Hav ing such capable fire teams allowed them to be split off for special
missions in the middle of an FTX without worry ing about their lacking
the combat power to accomplish it. The other thing they all noticed
was how hav ing bigger fire teams enabled the fire team leader to take
adv antage of tactical opportunities without waiting for help or
instructions from the squad leader. The squad was not only more
powerful, but it became more nimble, ev en with its added bulk.
When they went up against Will Shipman's much larger unit with
blanks and umpires as OPFOR in the biggest militia tactical FTX any of
them had ev er heard of, they cleaned Shipman's clock.
It wasn't ev en close.
The one big attack we m ade while I was there, we ran the
Krauts off of Hill 310 in France. We all lined up around the
back of an old church with all our autom atic weapons. We
started firing to keep the Krauts pinned down. There was
also artillery and m ortar fire hitting the hill too. While we
fired, another platoon walked down this little valley and
then went up the hill. We kept firing until they got on top of
the hill and we were afraid we were going to hit them . Then
we quit firing and took off right after them . I fired about six
or eight m agazines during the attack. My assistant was
lying right there beside m e and when I'd drop an em pty
m agazine from m y gun, he would reload it. He was
reloading them as fast as I was firing them . He was a cool
and calm guy under fire. The Krauts were still popping up
out of the holes when we overran them . It was like a Fort
Benning field problem and it worked just the way it was
supposed to work. We just kept up a steady fire and the
other platoon did m arching fire going up the hill and the
Krauts were pinned down in their holes. I rem em ber when
I ran up there, I ran past a Kraut m achine gun with a big
fram e m ount and a scoped sight. The crew had been
captured, we'd kept them so pinned down they couldn't do
anything. I cam e to another hole and these guys popped
25/31
7/5/2016
up and then dropped back down. I wasn't going to run past

them and leave them behind m e, so I stuck the BAR down
the hole and fired about five rounds. I'm not sure if I hit
them or not, but I went on. We didn't have a single
casualty in the whole attack. -- Neal Burdette, in US
Infantry Weapons in Com bat: Personal Ex periences from
World War II and Korea by Mark G. Goodwin, pp. 19-20.
Bill Curtis, Denny Powell and Mike Parker sat outside the CP tent,
pleasantly ex hausted, staring into the campfire. Most of their boy s,
and Shipman and all his troops, had gone home. They had finished
their own after action analy sis. Their new sy stem had worked.
"Well," said Mike, "I guess the pay off will come when we face
somebody for the first time for real."
"Y eah," said Denny , "but who and when?" Powell and Parker looked at
Curtis.
"I don't know," their leader replied, "But we're a hell of a lot more
ready than we were a few months ago, whoev er it is and whenev er it
happens."
Mike Parker raised his folding aluminum canteen cup with instant
coffee in the air, "Here's to the Deacon and his box car."
"Amen," said Bill Curtis and Denny Powell as one, raising their own
coffees.
Parker laughed.
Just like an old married couple, he thought.
Tommy Powell had another v ision that night.
This time, it went all the way to the end. He saw what was going to
happen and what he had to do.
Funny thing, his grandfather was standing right beside him at the end
of the v ision, pointing out the danger and what he must do. He did it,
and his grandfather smiled.
Then he woke up.
This time, he wasn't sweating.
p o s te d b y C o nce rne d Am e rica n | 11:27 P M
13 Comments:
26/31
7/5/2016
ST said...
When will the book be ready ? Y our killing us out here :-)
No ve m b e r 19, 2008 a t 5:15 AM
Sam said...
@st I agree Im frothing at the mouth for this book
III
No ve m b e r 19, 2008 a t 3:34 P M
ranam acar said...

Just picking a nit here, Mike, but the Liberators didn't get serial
numbered as far as I know. I'v e only seen two up close and didn't
see a number on either one. Not that it detracts any thing from the
story , which I'm waiting to see in print.
No ve m b e r 19, 2008 a t 9:37 P M
tom said...
The BAR could ride again rather easily , in an improv ed form ev en.
Been a lot of firearms design water under the bridge since 1 941 .
I'v e got mechanical drawings courtesy of Captain Melv in M.
Johnson, Jr. (USMC, Reserv e), of Johnson Rifle fame.
Reckon the patent has run out and they could be scanned and put
on the internet?
If y ou don't hav e a copy , I recommend his book "Automatic Arms,
Their History , Dev elopment, and Use."
William Morrow, 1 941 .
Rare, but there are copies out there. My copy is MINE and it has
mechanical drawings of ev ery thing relev ant up to 1 941 .
No dimensions giv en on the blueprints but those could be
ex trapolated from the legal parts av ailable, the size of the
standard cartridge at the time, and such.
Would be a tougher nut than making y our own Sten or Sterling,
but not past the abilities of competent and determined machinists.
Happy Shooting. I'll hav e to look into the copy right issues and
how badly I wish to piss off the Federales this month.
No ve m b e r 19, 2008 a t 9:44 P M
tom said...
Seem to be copy right issues.
I just spoke to the people at Harper Collins, who still hold the
27/31
7/5/2016
copy right as they bought out William Morrow and I'm negotiating
with them if me publishing a reproduction would be fair use or if
they 'd ev en care.
If they say "no" then somebody other than my self might stick it on
some sort of file sharing sy stem that's untraceable that could
inv olv e the word "torrent" in the name.
I try to be law abiding.
Book's been out of print since the 40s and they hav e no intent to
re-publish, but publishers are greedy bastards it seems ev en when
all the authors and illustrators of the books are dead.
No ve m b e r 19, 2008 a t 10:03 P M
Joel said...
Y eah! I'm buy ing one.
If y ou're up for critical comments, I think y ou're lay ing on the
TO&E manual quotes - and in fact the TO&E details in general - a
little thick. Y ou're gonna hav e plenty of readers who won't be
interested in that stuff, and it slows down the story big time. Some
of these chapters read like a really competent thriller. Others, like
this one, come across too much like militia wannabe how-to.
May be y ou plan it that way , but in real life there's no box car full of
BARs.
But really ! Great y arn! I want one.
No ve m b e r 19, 2008 a t 11:05 P M
tom said...
Some of us hav e machine shops, semi-auto abortion v ersions, and
machine drawings.
I ain't lay ing nothing on thick. If I can make a BMW run faster out
of the gate than BMW does I reckon I can handle the idea of
manufacture of small arms, being as I'v e studied and worked at it
for decades.
Take a skilled machinist to do it, but they don't hav e to fall out of
box cars any more than M2 trigger groups hav e to fall out of the
sky .
Regards and happy shooting y ourself in the feet,
tom
Information is much more important than actual items unless
y ou're a dolt that can't build any thing, and then I reckon nobody
wants y ou in their militia any way because y ou'd be a liability that
needed resupply rather than an independent operator, if need be.
28/31
7/5/2016
Take it personal or not, I'm not backing down on that statement.

I'v e nev er minced words. May GOD hav e mercy on y our defeatist
soul.
No ve m b e r 20, 2008 a t 3:39 AM
Vanderboegh said...
Boy s, boy s. No need for quarrelling. The criticism of too much
TO&E stuff in Absolv ed is v alid, and I struggled with it, but here's
the deal. This book is as much a resistance manual as any thing
else. And if some folks choke on the theory , I can understand it,
and y es it does get in the way of the story , but the story is not the
entire deal here.
Look guy s, this is nev er going to be a Dell paperback blockbuster.
But the folks who will read it in the coming period of our history
need to know this organizational stuff as much as they need to
know how to fieldstrip an AR-1 5.
If I'v e offered too much theory for some, I concede the point, but
also know that for ev ery one who chokes on Webb's article, there
will be one, or some fraction out of a hundred, who's been
struggling with the subject and who say s, "Oh, y eah, I get it now."
One other thing, and that's this quote from abov e.
"Take a skilled machinist to do it, but they don't hav e to fall out of
box cars any more than M2 trigger groups hav e to fall out of the
sky ."
I feel the same pride as a father watching his son take his first
steps. I want to shout, "GIV E THAT MAN A KEWPIE DOLL!"
Y ou'v e broken the code, my friend.
Thanks.
Mike V anderboegh
III
PS, y ou're right about the indiv idual serial numbers of the
Liberators. Big oops there. Will be fix ed shortly and will not
appear in the book.
No ve m b e r 20, 2008 a t 6:20 P M
tom said...
Some of us got riled under ev ery administration they 'v e dealt with
since 1 968 and went to school on some things.
29/31
7/5/2016
Thanks for the compliment.

Not sure what I'd do with a doll. Probably giv e it to my best
friend's new son who I hope liv es to see a FREE America at an age
when he can recognize the v alue of such.
Best Regards,
tom
No ve m b e r 20, 2008 a t 10:53 P M
ranam acar said...

Thanks for letting me catch a minor flaw in a grand plan, Mike :>)
I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so the serial number thing stuck out to
me. I figured y ou wanted to keep the story as historically accurate
as possible, otherwise I wouldn't hav e brought it up.
If y ou need any reference work on interrogation, drop me a note.
That was one of my MOS's in the Army . The nuclear weapons work
I did won't be of much help unless y our book takes a serious plot
twist.
ranamacar
No ve m b e r 21, 2008 a t 4:31 P M
Anony m ous said...

There were some FN-D parts kits around a while back. Essentually
a Swedish BAR in 7 .62X51 that used FNFAL mags. These kits came
with cut receiv er parts and barrels.
And there are a few sites with semi-auto builds done with these.
No ve m b e r 23, 2008 a t 4:51 AM
Anony m ous said...

Here is a v ideo, which may help someone understand how a BAR
works and produce some for the Militia.
http://www.y outube.com/watch?
v =KA1 80Bfx 47 8&feature=related
I hope this will help.
Ma rch 6, 2009 a t 2:02 AM
DC Handgun Info said...

This series is "strong drink". Small nitpick here: The alleged quote
attributed to Benjamin Franklin is actually by the great
Englishman Samuel Johnson:
"When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it
concentrates his mind wonderfully ."
-- Samuel Johnson
Ja nua ry 4, 2010 a t 7:55 P M
30/31
7/5/2016

P o s t a C o m m e nt
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Ho m e
31/31

Western Rifle Shooters Association - Vanderboegh - Absolved - The Squad - BAR

Enviado por

Dados do documento

Título original

Direitos autorais

Formatos disponíveis

Compartilhar este documento

Compartilhar ou incorporar documento

Opções de compartilhamento

Você considera este documento útil?

Este conteúdo é inapropriado?

Direitos autorais:

Formatos disponíveis

Western Rifle Shooters Association - Vanderboegh - Absolved - The Squad - BAR

Enviado por

Direitos autorais:

Formatos disponíveis

7/5/2016

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

The Squad BAR

Students of Marine Corps tactics are taught that the

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

M1 6A4 and M4 Carbine

it seem s that this vital link, which provides the foundation

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

kind or another. He'd organized them into a something like a logistics

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

Course Lessons 1 6-25

shoot, dealing out deadly , aimed, semiautomatic fire.

Control. This was perhaps the greatest advantage of the

What Comes After

Of course they were hampered initially by the miscellany of

Maneuverability. With the creation of a Four m an fire

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

Warrior Talk: Combat

team form ations were designed to protect the autom atic

Y ou m ay not be arm ed now with a BAR (Browning

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

com pany 27 BARs. Because these weapons are light,

Sec ond A mendment P atriots

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

Real C lear M arkets

On top of the stack of crates was twenty pounds of parkerized steel

Was hington Rebel

Shipman smiled indulgently , like a dime store Santa Claus at a bunch

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

Machines Corporation in 1 944. It is new and fresh out of the

D enninger's M arket T ic ker

FAIR USE NO TIC E: This

Shipman replied, "For y ou? Twenty magazines and 2000 rounds of

"Well," replied Will Shipman slowly , "that's a long story ."

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

attacking fire teams is 2 to 1 . Somebody actually did a study on it.

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

The newly organized fire team would provide its leader

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

1 97 2, before the Squad Automatic Weapon and he had entirely too

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

Curtis just said, "Why ?"

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

all the tasks required of a riflem en, Assistant Autom atic

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

which is graduated from 1 00 to 1 ,600 y d with a combat zero notch

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

"Now, y ou will notice that each automatic rifleman will be issued an

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR

up and then dropped back down. I wasn't going to run past

Western Rifle Shooters Association: Vanderboegh: Absolved - - The Squad -- BAR