Monthly Archives: July 2023

500 Rounds with the Reflex (x2)

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FN over the past few years has been trying to shrink down its 9mm carry offerings as an answer to market demands sparked by guns like the SIG P365 and Springfield Armory Hellcat. While the 6+1-shot FN 503 was small and dependable, people seem to have that double-stack micro 9 itch and, to scratch it, FN has debuted the Reflex.

With a 3.3-inch barrel that gives it a 6.2-inch overall length, the FN Reflex falls into the increasingly familiar micro 9 subcompact category blazed by some rivals in the past few years. (All Photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Hitting the scales at just 18.4 ounces right out of the box, it runs a flush-fit 11+1 round mag with a pinky extension for better grip support and ships with an extended 15+1 round mag.

FN sent me a pair of the guns– one a plain black standard model, the second an optics-ready MRD in FDE– and I’ve put 500 rounds through each.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Third Times’ the Charm in Torpedo Fishing

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The 137-foot Danish trawler St. Anthony (L 510), while operating from her home in the small fishing village of Thyboron in Jutland– it is home to the Sea War Museum Jutland– last week pulled up something downright unfriendly from the bottom of the North Sea just off the Norwegian coast: a WWII-era German G7a torpedo.

“It’s not entirely harmless to be a fisherman. This morning we caught this torpedo 8 meters and about 2500 kg. It’s going to be a blast 5 km out on the channel tonight,” noted the vessel on social media.

The Norwegian Navy’s MCM group advised the crew that the best thing to do was to– carefully– lift it back over the side and place it back from where it came.

They then dispatched an EOD team to control-detonate it on the seafloor.

The St. Anthony‘s skipper said it was his third time pulling up old ordnance from the North Sea!

First of Ford’s Subusters Hits the Water

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Here we see, 105 years ago today, “Patrol Eagle (PE) Boat #1” ready to be Launched at the Ford River Rouge Plant, on the outskirts of Detroit, 11 July 1918. The vessel is seen sliding bow-first from the mammoth construction that was “Building B,” which was considered a temporary structure at the time

Ford Motor Company. Photographic Department. From the Collections of The Henry Ford. THF97490

And there she goes…THF270203

During World War I, Ford built “Eagle” anti-submarine patrol boats at a new plant on the Rouge River. Ford assembled the boats using the same mass-production assembly-line techniques it perfected for its automobiles. The launching of the first Eagle, above, was cause for celebration.

The Rouge Plant consisted of a 1,700-foot assembly line that would spit out a 200-foot patrol boat at the end, ready to take on the Kaiser’s undersea pirates. When fully operational, it could do so at a rate of 25 vessels a month. It was initially thought that 125 Eagles would be a good number to start with.

During World War I, Ford Motor Company built “Eagle” anti-submarine patrol boats for the U.S. Navy. Henry Ford called on industrial architect Albert Kahn to design the Eagle factory, located at the mouth of the Rouge River. Kahn created three principal structures: a fabricating shop, a main assembly building, and a fit-out shop. Via the Henry Ford Museum

Eagle No. 1 had her keel laid on 7 May 1918, was launched on 11 July, and was commissioned on 27 October, a span of 173 days. This rate never really shortened, and, by Eagle No. 11, which was completed post-war, was stretching well over a year. 

Inside Building B at Rouge. Construction of Ford Eagle Boats (200′ Patrol Boats #1 to 60) Ford Motor Company, Detroit, Michigan. March 29, 1918. NH 112098

Ford Built Eagle Boat No 1 via Hampton Roads Naval Museum

Ford Built Eagle Boat No 1 via Hampton Roads Naval Museum

These boats had a solid cement bow, specially built for ramming and sinking submarines– a popular early Great War ASW practice. They were equipped with 4-inch guns on the bow and stern and also carried depth charges and primitive sound gear. Here, class leader, USS PE-1. NH 85434

Ford Built Eagle Boat No 1 via Hampton Roads Naval Museum

Note the depth charge stern racks and projectors. Via Hampton Roads Naval Museum

Ford Built Eagle Boat No 1 via Hampton Roads Naval Museum

However, the war ended four months later, before any of the boats saw combat, and, in the end, just 60 were built. Only the first three were in commission on Armistice Day. 

Downright ugly and generally seen as being unsuccessful due to poor speed and range, they were largely disposed of by the early 1930s without ever firing a shot, although eight survived long enough to see limited CONUS WWII service. It was in that later conflict that one, PE-56, was sunk on 23 April 1945 by the German submarine U-853 off Portland, Maine just two weeks before VE Day. 

Meanwhile, after Eagle production ended, Ford exercised its option to buy the production “B” Building from the federal government, which postwar became the core of Ford’s Rouge factory complex. It was from that building that “everything from Model As to Mustangs” were made. It remained in use until 2004.

The Ford has an extensive online resource on the Eagles.

Husky at 80

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“Invasion Craft—Sicily,” by U.S. Navy war artist Mitchell Jamieson.

Painting, Oil on Canvas; 1943; Framed Dimensions 44H X 35W. NHHC Accession #: 88-193-GA

“Grim, stark reality and the enemy lie ahead for these steel-helmeted men as they are huddled closely together inside an invasion craft bound for the beach at Sicily.”

Today is the 80th anniversary of the Allied amphibious landings in Sicily, 10 July 1943. Some 160,000 men from the U.S. Seventh Army (with attached Free French units) along with the Commonwealth forces of the British Eighth Army, hit the beaches in Operation Husky, the first time the Allies landed in Europe for other than raids since the withdrawal from France in June 1940.

By the time the Sicily campaign ended in August, the Allies would suffer over 23,000 casualties, including 5,600 dead.

Army Officially out of the Chemical Weapons Biz After 106 years

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The U.S. Army’s final Sarin (GB) nerve agent-filled M55 chemical rocket was destroyed on July 7 at the Blue Grass Army Depot, Kentucky. It was the last crumb of the more than 30,000 tons of chemical weapons agents on-hand in U.S. arsenals in 1986 when Congress pulled the plug on using the category of weapons, then later pivoted to destroying it.

Operators pose with the last GB nerve agent rocket as it is loaded for destruction at the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant on July 7, 2023. The destruction of this munition marked the completion of the destruction of the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile. U.S. Army photo.

The rocket was the last “of more than 100,000 mustard agent and nerve agent-filled projectiles and nerve agent-filled rockets” destroyed at BGAD since 2019, including 51,000 M55s.

In addition, a team of companies in Colorado wrapped up the destruction of more than 780,000 mustard agent-filled 155mm and 203mm projectiles at U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot on June 22.

“This is a momentous day for the U.S. chemical demilitarization program,” said Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth. “After years of design, construction, testing, and operations, these obsolete weapons have been safely eliminated. The Army is proud to have played a key role in making this demilitarization possible.”

1917 Beginnings

With the Germans, British, French, and Russians all neck deep in the active use of chemical weapons when the U.S. entered the Great War in 1917, General Pershing established the Gas Service to supervise chemical warfare activity in the AEF on 3 September. Back home, The Committee on Noxious Gases National Research Council was formed in early 1917 with a mixture of Army Medical Department and U.S. Bureau of Mines personnel.

A large-scale production plant at Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland was established that eventually produced chlorine (CL), chloropicrin (PS), mustard (H), and phosgene (CG) filled in assorted 75mm, 155-mm, 4.7-inch, and Livens projectiles.

Edgewood Arsenal produced more than 935 tons of CG and 711 tons of H by 1918. Meanwhile, contractors made an additional 150 tons of Lewisite and 681 of CG.

The first U.S.-made and filled shell was tested in April 1918 although none of the US-manufactured chemical-filled rounds would reach Europe prior to the end of the conflict. Fundamentally, this means that no “warshot” lethal American CW has ever (officially) been used in battle. 

However, the Army did have a unit that got its hands in the war.

The first dedicated Army unit trained to use chemical weapons was constituted on 15 August 1917 in the Regular Army as the two-battalion 30th Engineer (Gas and Flame) Battalion (later Regiment) under the command of Col. Earl J. Atkisson.

Sent to France, it would deliver phosgene via British-supplied Livens projectors to German lines on the Western Front, assisting British gas troops in their use as early as March 1918 suffering their first casualty, Pvt. William K. Neal of Company B was killed at Cite St. Pierre by a German shell.

Their first all-American gas attack was against the “Boche” at Bois de Jury in the Toul Sector on the early morning of 18 June 1918. The unit was supported by 100 loaned French Tirailleurs Sénégalais, who helped emplace its hundreds of projectors. 

Livens projectors: simple 8-inch steel tubes fitted with a 28-pound baseplate and single 65-pound projectile (filled with 30 pounds of agent) and electrically fired. The 30th Engineers would use as many as 900 of these at a time, typically in 20-tube batteries set well back behind the lines to prevent enemy observation. Once fired, they had to be dug up and reset before firing again as their azimuth would be screwed. The range was out to 1850 yards, depending on the angle. The Army kept these around well into WWII.

Soon the 30th would be converted and redesignated 13 July 1918 as the 1st Gas Regiment and by that time was using British-supplied 4-inch Stokes mortars to deliver not only gas, but also thermite, and high-explosive shells and earned the nickname “The Hell Fire” battalion.

Demobilized on 28 February 1919, at Camp Kendrick, New Jersey, the 1st Gas earned campaign ribbons for Lys, Aisne-Marne, St. Mihel, Meuse-Argonne, Flanders 1918, and Lorraine 1918. They suffered 39 killed or died of wounds between 21 March and 10 November 1918. Today, the 2nd Chemical Battalion, which remained an offensive combat unit until 1958, carried the lineage of the old Hell Fire Boys 

It wasn’t until 28 June 1918 that the Army Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) was established, with seven main departments. By the end of the conflict, it would contain 1,680 officers and 20,518 enlisted, albeit most involved in chemical warfare defense.

WWII stockpiles

Between 1940 and 1945, the CWS produced roughly 146,000 tons of chemical agents at locations throughout the United States. These included: 

  • 500,000 4.2-inch mortar shells, 25,000 AN-M78 500-pound bombs, 63,000 AN-M79 1,000-pound bombs, and 31,000 7.5-inch aerial rockets filled with CG.
  • Hydrogen Cyanide (AC) was used to fill 5000 1,000-pound bombs.
  • Some 25 million pounds of Cyanogen chloride (CK) procured by the CWS in WWII went into 33,347 M78 500-pound bombs, each holding 165 pounds of agent, and 55,851 M79 1000-pound bombs, each holding 332 pounds.
  • Mustard gas, the American favorite for decades, filled no less than 2 million gallon-sized land mines as well as “540,746 4.2-inch mortar shells were filled and stored. For the artillery, 1,360,338 75-mm. Mk 64, 1,983,945 105-mm. M60, 784,836 155-mm. Mk 2A1, 290,810 155-mm. M110, and smaller quantities of other shells, were readied…The service procured 594,216 M70 and M70A1 115-pound bombs, developed by the Ordnance Department, and 539,727 M47A1 and M47A2 100-pound bombs.” The service also procured 92,337 M10 30-gallon airplane spray tanks. “A plane flying at an altitude of 100 feet and carrying four of these tanks could spray mustard over an area 75 to 80 yards wide and 600 to 700 yards long.”

Cold War

On August 2, 1946, the CWS became the U.S. Army Chemical Corps, which is still around today (despite the efforts of Creighton Abrams). Post-Korea, the Army looked to field more modern CW weapons including the 115mm M55 chemical rocket, capable of carrying 10 pounds of Sarin (GB) or Venomous Agent X (VX) nerve gas to 6 miles, as well as the M23 landmine and assorted modernized 105mm, 155mm, and 203mm artillery shells.

Along with the new TMU-28/B VX spray tank and MC-1 and MK94 GB bombs.

Meanwhile, much of the WWII mustard gas, with the exception of 155mm shells, were burned or deep-sixed off the coast. The NOAA chart for the Mississippi Sound and Florida panhandle has listed “mustard gas” dumps all my life.

Fielding an offensive BW program until 1969, the U.S. stopped production of new chemical weapons the same year and later de facto halted the ready availability of CW to the service in 1986 then soon began to destroy those still on hand.

By 2012, the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Activity completed the destruction of nearly 90 percent of the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile, then stored at six U.S. Army installations across the U.S. and on Johnston Atoll in the Pacific, closing all but Pueblo and BGAD.

That figure hit 100 percent last week.

“Following the elimination of the U.S. stockpile, the facilities will be closed in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and mutual agreements between the Secretary of the Army and the governors of Colorado and Kentucky.”

For a deeper dive, check out this 519-page official circa 1988 history of the Chemical Warfare Service branch.

Happy 80th, 10th Mountain

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Constituted on 10 July 1943, the 10th Mountain Division (Alpine) (often just called “the 10th”) was conceived as a light infantry division able to maneuver against Axis forces in Europe’s frigid mountains.

Via the Army’s Center of Military History:

Reports of combat operations involving Finnish, Italian, and German mountain troops prior to America’s entry into World War II convinced the National Ski Association, the National Ski Patrol, and later the American Alpine Club and the National Ski Patrol that the American army needed a mountain and winter warfare capability. Throughout 1940, Charles Minot Dole, Chairman of the National Ski Patrol, acting as spokesman, lobbied President Franklin Roosevelt, Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall, and many others, to organize a cadre of trained mountain troops. Dole also assisted in the initial recruitment of experienced skiers for the Army.

Beginning in November 1940, the War Department authorized the formation of small ski patrol units within several Army divisions. However, it was not until November 15, 1941, that the First Battalion of the 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment began training at Fort Lewis, Washington, just 22 days prior to the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. By March 1942, the Army had formulated a plan to activate a full mountain division in 1943. To reach this goal, construction of a large training facility began at Pando, Colorado in April 1942. This facility, named Camp Hale in honor of General Irving Hale, Colorado National Guard, was completed by November 1942. The Second and Third Battalions of the 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment were authorized in May and June 1942, and by December 1942, all three battalions of the 87th Regiment had moved to Camp Hale.

87th Infantry, 10th Mountain, sentry standing guard at Mount Rainier wearing sleeping bag bear suit carrying a Springfield Armory designed and manufactured gas trap M1 rifle

World War II American soldiers on skis take aim with m1 Garands during winter training in the Colorado Rockies 

March 1943 Saturday Evening Post showing 87th INF in training

In June 1943, the 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment transferred from Camp Hale to Fort Ord, California to engage in amphibious training prior to participating in the invasion and recapture of Kiska Island in the Aleutians. Amphibious landings occurred on August 15, 1943. However, Japanese forces had evacuated the Island just before the landings. The 87th Regiment remained on Kiska until November 1943.

Meanwhile, the 10th Light Division (Alpine) was activated at Camp Hale on July 15, 1943. It consisted of the previously activated 86th Infantry Regiment and the 85th and 90th Regiments, which were also activated on July 15, 1943. Upon completion of operations at Kiska, the 87th Regiment returned to Camp Carson, Colorado, and joined the 10th Light Division at Camp Hale on February 23, 1944, replacing the 90th Regiment. Three infantry regiments, the 85th, 86th, and 87th, along with engineering, artillery, and other support units, now comprised the 10th Light Division. The division’s intense training program at Camp Hale included winter survival, rock climbing, skiing, mule packing, and the extraordinarily demanding “D-Series” winter exercises, which occurred during the Spring of 1944.

In late June 1944, the 10th Light Division departed Camp Hale for Camp Swift, Texas to participate in maneuvers and regular infantry training under extremely harsh, hot conditions. The 10th Light Division officially became the 10th Mountain Division on November 6, 1944. Brigadier General George P. Hays arrived at Camp Swift on November 23 to take command of the reorganized Division. Hays ordered the addition of heavy weapons companies to each battalion, and additional artillery support units were authorized.

Deployment to Italy began on December 11, 1944, when the 86th Regiment embarked for Naples aboard the USS Argentina, arriving on December 22. The 85th and 87th Regiments sailed aboard the USS West Point on January 4, 1945. Support units, including the 604th, 605, and 616 Field Artillery Battalions and the 126th Mountain Engineer Battalion followed on board the transport General Meigs.

The 10th Mountain Division began combat patrols in mid-January 1945 and launched its first offensive on the evening of February 18, 1945, with a surprise, and successful night assault on Riva Ridge. The next night the assault continued with an attack and capture of Mount Belvedere, the key German observation point. The first offensive lasted through February 25 when Mount Della Torraccia was secured. During a second offensive, from March 3 to March 6, 1945, the 10th Mountain Division attacked and cleared German forces from Mount della Torraccia to Mount della Spe, where the Allied command temporarily halted the offensive.

The Division’s final offensive began on April 14, 1945, and lasted until the German surrender in Italy on May 2, 1945. During this final operation, the 10th Mountain division broke through the German mountain defenses and into the Po River Valley. On April 23, 1945, the 87th Infantry regiment crossed the Po River under fire, and the entire division then advanced to Lake Garda in northern Italy by the war’s end.

Following the German surrender, the 10th Mountain Division deployed near the Italian border with Yugoslavia, to participate in what some historians have called the first engagement of the Cold War. Anticipating a deployment to the Pacific Theater, the Division returned to the United States in August 1945. Reports of the dropping of the Atomic Bombs and the announcement that the Japanese forces would surrender came while much of the Division was still crossing the Atlantic. Many men returned to Camp Carson, Colorado, where the division was inactivated on November 30, 1945.

Over 32,000 men served with the 10th Mountain Division between 1942 and 1945. Of these, approximately 20,000 men engaged in combat operations in Italy. The 10th Mountain Division sustained nearly 5,000 casualties during World War II, with 999 men being killed in action. Among the combat deaths were twenty men who died during the Kiska operation, eleven of whom died as a result of friendly fire during intense fog.

Reactivation

After a brief reactivation from 1948 to 1958 as a conventional infantry division, the 10th MD (Light Infantry) was revived on 13 February 1985, returning to its roots as a rapid response and maneuver infantry unit. In this capacity, the 10th MD saw action in domestic disaster relief and overseas missions in Somalia (see: Black Hawk Down), Haiti, Kosovo, and the Sinai.

At the outbreak of the Global War on Terror, elements of the 10th MD became the first conventional force to deploy after September 11th and maintained a presence in the Middle East almost continuously from 2002’s Operation Anaconda to 2019’s Operation Freedom’s Sentinel.

U.S. Army Pfc. Joshua Tubbs from Sebring, Fla., with 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, pulls security during a patrol in the Charkh District of Logar province, Afghanistan, during Operation Charkh Restoration, April 5 2012

10th Mountain troops working the trench complex at Fort Drum, New York, Nov. 2018

Of note, the DPL has a huge stack (12 boxes) of the 10th’s WWII records.

Gavin’s D-Day jacket

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Below is the M1942 Paratrooper jacket that Brig. Gen. James Maurice “Jumpin’ Jim” Gavin (USMA 1925) wore on the drop by the 82nd Airborne into Normandy, courtesy of the West Point Museum.

Of note, 80 years ago today, on 9 July 1943, then-Colonel Gavin was the first man out of his plane as the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment (Airborne) became the first Army regiment to execute a combat jump as part of Operation Husky. He also completed more jumps in combat than any other Army officer in WWII, parachuting into Sicily (twice), Normandy, and Holland.

On 9 July 1943, at an airfield outside Kairouan, Tunisia, standing left is Col. James Gavin, CO of 505th PIR, briefing his sky soldiers prior to their boarding C-47 transports.

Husky was the first brigade-sized U.S. airborne operation in history and the largest American combat jump to date.

During the Torch landings the previous fall, the 509 PIB made smaller jumps to seize airfields at Tafaraoui, Morocco (8 November) and Youks les Bains, Algeria (15 November), but they were battalion-sized jumps with no more than 556 paratroopers were involved.

Husky was much bigger, involving six times as many troops jumping from aircraft on Day 1 alone. On 9 July, some 226 C-47 transports were required to lift the regiment and its attached units (3 Bn, 504 PIR; 505 PIR; 456 PFA; 307th Para Eng) over Sicily, with 3,407 men stepping out the door. 

The next day, Husky II would see another 2,304 paratroopers (of 1 & 2 Bn, 504 PIR; 376 PFA) drop in as reinforcements.

Of the 3,407 soldiers of 505th PIR who jumped into Sicily, 424 – 33 officers and 391 soldiers – were wounded or killed.

Incident #3658

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80 Years ago today: Attack on the Type VIIC German submarine, U-134 (Kptlt. Hans-Günther Brosin), by a PBM Mariner of the “Flying Tigers” of VP-201, lat 27-04W, Long 59-48W, the pilot was LT John T. Hitchcock– a gunfighter’s name– in incident #3658, on 8 July 1943.

U.S. Navy photo in the National Archives. 80-G-205264

The U-boat survived this attack, along with three others on 18 and 19 July and 21 August. U-134 notably knocked USN Blimp K-74 (Sqdn ZP 21) from the sky on the 18 July encounter– the only airship shot down during WWII.

U-134 finally met her match on 27 August 1943 in the Bay of Biscay north of Cape Ortegal, in position 44.03N, 08.05W, by depth charges from the British frigate HMS Rother. (Axel Niestlé & Eric Zimmerman, July 2004).

All hands were lost, with Brosin and his 47 tough-to-kill members of the Ubootwaffe, still on patrol.

The pilot of the lumbering flying boat in the image above, LT Hitchcock, would become an anthropologist and college professor of some note after the war, hanging up his guns so to speak.

As for VP-201, it was redesignated VPB-201 on 1 October 1944, then on 15 May 1946 to VP-MS-1, then to VP-ML-8 the next year when they converted to the new P2V Neptune, and finally Patrol Squadron (VP) 8 on 1 September 1948, later becoming the first squadron to field the P-3 Orion. The Flying Tigers are still around, based at Jacksonville as part of AIRLANT. These days they fly the P-8A Poseidon.

Update on Marine Corps Force Design 2030

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The Congressional Research Service just released a well-done 15-page backgrounder on the controversial reformation of the Marine Corps that was announced three years ago. It comes just after the Corps’ own 20-page report on the subject.

The general plan was to basically cut all the heavy and persistent combined-armed abilities that the Marines had in favor of building a few light regiments equipped with anti-ship missiles that could deny ocean space to a threat, generally seen as China, by landing on islands and atolls and setting up shop.

Among the cuts:

  • eliminating all Marine Corps Tank Battalions and associated MOSs;
  • eliminating all Law Enforcement Battalions and associated MOSs;
  • eliminating all Bridging Companies and associated MOSs;
  • reducing the number of Infantry Battalions from 24 to 21;
  • reducing the number of Cannon Artillery Batteries from 21 to 5; and
  • reducing the number of Amphibious Vehicle Companies from 6 to 4.
  • phased out most legacy logistical capability, previously intended for sustained
    land operations

Planned Marine Aviation force deactivations included

  • Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 264,
  • Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 462,
  • Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 469,
  • Marine Wing Support Groups 27 and 37, and
  • Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 367.
    The Marines also intend to reduce the number of F-35 B and C aircraft in each squadron from 16 to 10

The Marine Corps had more than 450 tanks prior to the deactivation of the tank battalions.
To date, Marine Corps Systems Command has transferred more than 400 tanks to the
Army. The remaining tanks in the Marine Corps inventory are afloat globally on Maritime
Prepositioning Ships and are scheduled for transfer to the Army over the next few years.

In 2020, the Marines divested more than 5,500 pieces of equipment valued at $494 million.

For this “divest to invest” the Marines would get three Marine Littoral Regiments (MLRs), delivered ashore by a force of 35 yet-to-be-built Landing Ship–Mediums (LSMs), which are basically just an updated 1940s LCI/LST, although not as heavily armed.

The MLR includes about 1,800 to 2,000 Marines and sailors and includes three main elements: a
Littoral Combat Team (LCT), a Littoral Anti-Air Battalion, and a Littoral Logistics Battalion. The
LCT is organized around an infantry battalion along with a long-range anti-ship missile battery.
The Littoral Anti-Air Battalion employs air defense, air surveillance and early warning, air
control, and forward rearming and refueling capabilities. The Littoral Logistics Battalion provides
tactical logistics support to the MLR. A regimental headquarters provides the MLR with enhanced signals and human intelligence, reconnaissance, communications, logistics planning, civil affairs,
cyber, and information operations capabilities.

In March 2022, the Marines reportedly redesignated the 3rd Marine Regiment as the 3rd MLR.
The Marines reportedly plan to convert the 12th Marine Regiment into the 12th MLR in Okinawa,
Japan, by 2025, and also plans for a third MLR, possibly to be stationed in Guam. The Marines
have not indicated if additional MLRs are planned for regions outside the Indo-Pacific.

For reference, every living former commandant has slammed the plan.

Meanwhile, the Navy is fast retiring its LSDs– with all set to be gone by 2025– and the total number of big amphibious warfare ships is set to drop well below the Congressionally mandated 31-hull minimum as only a dozen LPD-17s, seven LHDs, and two LHAs are active. Plus, you can bet the Navy would grab all the LHDs and LHAs that are F-35 capable to serve as “Lightning Carriers” should things go pear-shaped in the Pacific.

Behind the scenes at Galco

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My Fink’s Custom K-frame snubby, completed by a Galco Combat Master (All photos: Chris Eger)

With an origin story that began with making a custom shoulder holster catering to Chicago Police detectives that later skyrocketed to fame with Sonny Crockett, Galco has been the quiet force in the American gun community that you never knew you knew.

It was in 1969 that Richard N. Gallagher formed The Famous Jackass Leather Company as a small family business in Chicago. The custom leather shop originally specialized in items ranging from sheepskin jackets to handbags and wallets to hats, with everything made on-site. While some leather holsters were offered from time to time, it was in the early 1970s that an early H-frame harness combo shoulder holster and magazine carrier, crafted from hand-polished saddle leather and harness-stitched with six-cord waxed linen thread for durability, became a local hit.

Dubbed the Jackass Rig and hand-molded for then-popular carry guns such as the 1911 and Browning Hi-Power, it was advertised for $29.95 in “The Blue Light,” a journal for Chicago PD officers, and soon orders for hundreds of the shoulder holsters were placed.

The original Jackass Rig, this one for the Browning Hi-Power.

The hard-wearing holster launched The Famous Jackass Leather Company on a trajectory that saw it re-brand as the Great American Leather Company, or Galco International, LTD, in 1980, and move to Phoenix, Arizona shortly after.

With former Chicago PD detectives such as Dennis Farina working for director Michael Mann as a police consultant, it was logical that the Jackass Rig would show up on screen sooner or later. When Mann’s “Miami Vice” hit the small screen with a bang in 1984, its lead character, Don Johnson’s Rolex-and-pastel-clad fictional Detective Sergeant James “Sonny” Crockett, carried first a SIG P220, then a Bren Ten, and later a S&W 645.

He did it all in a modified Jackass Rig, which, in honor of the show’s popularity, became the Miami Classic in Galco’s catalog.

One of the Jackass Rigs used in Miami Vice.

I was able to tour Galco a couple months ago, and we made (what I feel is) a great 21-minute video of the Galco story.

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