I’ve been in the gun industry off and on for some 25 years, spanning from working the counter at a small-town FFL in my early 20s to full-time writing and editing. In that time, I’ve met some really smart and pioneering guys in the gun world, such as Mark Serbu and Jim Tertin.
However, probably the biggest brain guy in the gun industry in terms of suppressors is Dr. Phil Dater, MD, founder of Gemtech and a man considered by many in our industry to be the modern-day godfather of silencers.
Dater back in the day
Jake Kunsky, who developed quiet products for NEMO Arms, Gemtech Suppressors, Smith & Wesson, and Maxim Defense and now runs JK Armarment, recently sat down with the gun world’s “Dr. Phil” — now 86– and talked about a wide range of subjects for an hour.
Topics include
Where Gemtech got its name?
How Dr. Dater, a Radiologist by training, brought silencers out of nearly a century of obscurity?
How a microphone’s diaphragm affects decibel measurement?
What arguably the most experienced man in the industry thinks about various methods of measuring silencer performance?
How military and consumer requirements for a silencer differ?
Why the ATF Form 4 approval process took only a few weeks back in the 70s?
How John Wayne inspired the modern silencer renaissance?
If you have an hour and are interested at all in gun culture or suppressor history, check it out.
Some 105 years ago today, after helping to break the British lines at Villers-Bretonneux, German A7V (Abteilung 7 Verkehrswesen) tank No. 542, better known as “Elfriede,” to the crew manning her, was overturned in harsh terrain and abandoned. This happened on 24 April 1918.
She was eventually captured and recovered
Elfriede was lost during the first recorded tank-vs-tank battle in history, where three A7Vs ((including 561, “Nixe,” and 506, “Mephisto“) faced off with three British Mark IVs (two female machine gun-armed tanks and one male with two 6-pounder guns).
Elfriede went on to become one of the most photographed of her type.
A month later, a British unit managed to right the tank, which remarkably, was still in operational condition. After Armistice, Elfriede was put on display at the Place de la Concorde in Paris. Two stereoviews of Elfriede wound up in A.O. Fasser‘s collection – though he had returned to America by the time these were taken:
Elfriede at the Place de la Concorde, sometime in late 1918 or early 1919. Stereoview on 6×13 cm glass diapositive from the Fasser Collection, courtesy of the Jordan/Ference Collection.
During its time on display, barricades were in place to prevent visitors from vandalizing Elfriede, taking souvenirs, etc. However, soon after, it was taken away and tested out. At this point it was covered in graffiti, as seen in a film taken by the French government to display the tank in motion. Its history between 1919 and 1940 is shaky – there is documentation in 1940 that mentions that it had been scrapped. But when was it scrapped? So far, no information on this is forthcoming. Most A7V tanks were scrapped in 1919 for their steel, and most historians believe that Elfriede was as well. But without documentation, it’s possible that the tank had some second life for another 21 years!
Only about 20 A7Vs were made and, while it appears that 18 of them were captured by the victorious Western allies, the only confirmed chassis remaining is, ironically, Elfriede’s old buddy from the Villers-Bretonneux tank scrap, Mephisto, which was captured by the 26th AIF Bn and is preserved in the Queensland Museum and dubbed by the Australian War Memorial, “The Rarest Tank in the World.”
Ok, guys, if you don’t have a pistol brace, skip this one.
If you are one of the estimated between 10 million and 40 million Americans that may own a large format pistol with a stabilizing brace installed– which the ATF has arbitrarily said is now an illegal unregistered short-barreled rifle– and unsure what to do next, read on.
First, you have four choices.
You can remove the brace and make it to that it cannot be reinstalled.
You can turn over the firearm to the ATF for destruction
You can convert it to a full-on rifle, complete with a barrel at least 16 inches long, and just slap a real stock on it.
You can register it in accordance with the NFA as an SBR. For the latter, the ATF has been magnanimous enough to waive the $200 making tax.
As for me, I have several of these braced pistols and, while many would advocate non-compliance, that isn’t really a thing for me as I have several articles and videos floating around going back to 2012 with me using said items. Thus, I have a much higher visibility than most when it comes to this stuff.
Not to get too personal, but I have done a mix of the above options including Nos. 1, 3, and 4.
If you are curious about just how to go about getting your “free” SBR, which comes with a raft of future restrictions and isn’t an option for those in NJ, NY, CA, RI, HI, MD (if OAL is less than 29″), DE (Wilmington only), and DC, it isn’t that complicated to pull off.
I did my amnesty Form 1s via Silencer Shop, which charges $50 per form submission, but includes the fingerprint service via their kiosks (which are everywhere, I had like 8 in my small city of 50,000 alone), review of your form prior to submission by people who do it every day, an engine that files it all via ATF’s archaic eForms GUI, and a program that automatically notifies the local CLEO. A portion of that fee also goes to 2A groups to help fight such things.
It was an easy process and I have multiple forms now pending ATF approval.
The bad news is, “Due to popular demand and to ensure all forbearance applications are successfully submitted prior to the ATF’s May 31, 2023 deadline, the last day to start a tax-exempt Form 1 through Silencer Shop will be April 26, 2023. No new tax-exempt Form 1 services will be offered after this date.”
For more info on how it’s done, check out this video:
For those who are either too late to start a form via Silencer Shop or would just rather keep the $50 fee, Fudd Busters (who is a firearms attorney but not Your firearms attorney), has a step-by-step video on how to use ATF eForms to do a Form 1 for a pistol brace/SBR.
Class leader USS Salmon (SS-182) running speed trials in early 1938. Note the S1 designator. NH 69872
As covered in past Warship Wednesdays, the hard-charging Salmon-class fleet submarine USS Sturgeon (SS-187), under command of LCDR William Leslie “Bull” Wright (USNA 1925), a colorful six-foot-three cigar-chomping Texan, made a name for herself in the early days of the Pacific War. After an early attack on a Japanese ship just after Pearl Harbor, she flashed “Sturgeon no longer virgin!”
It was on her fourth patrol that she came across the 7,266-ton, twin-screw diesel motor vessel passenger ship MV Montevideo Maru which had been used by the Imperial Japanese Navy as a troop transport in the early days of the war, supporting the landings at Makassar in February 1942 and was part of the Japanese seizure of New Britain.
Via ONI 208J.
Sailing on 22 June unescorted for Hainan Island off China, Montevideo Maru ran into Sturgeon eight days later. Our submarine pumped four fish into the “big fella” in the predawn hours of 1 July, after a four-hour stalk, with young LT Chester William “Chet” Nimitz Jr. (yes, that Nimitz’s son) as the TDC officer.
All the prisoners on board died, locked below decks. Of note, more Australians died in the loss of the Montevideo Maru than in the country’s decade-long involvement in Vietnam.
Sturgeon, of course, was unaware that the ship was carrying Allied POWs and internees.
DANFS does not mention Montevideo Maru‘s cargo.
Four days later, Sturgeon damaged the Japanese oiler San Pedro Maru (7268 GRT) south of Luzon, then ended her 4th war patrol at Fremantle on 22 July.
Sturgeon earned ten battle stars for World War II service, with seven of her war patrols deemed successful enough for a Submarine Combat Insignia.
Bull Wright, who earned a Navy Cross for his first patrol, never commanded a submarine again– perhaps dogged over the Montevideo Maru, or perhaps because he was 40 years old when he left Sturgeon— and he retired quietly from the Navy after the war as a rear admiral. Although a number of WWII submarines and skippers with lower tonnage or fewer patrols/battle stars under their belt were profiled in the most excellent 1950s “Silent Service”documentary series, Bull Wright and Sturgeon were noticeably skipped.
Now, Montevideo Maru has been discovered in her resting place off the Philippines. An expedition team, led by Australian businessman, maritime history philanthropist, explorer, and director of not-for-profit Silentworld Foundation, John Mullen, found the hell ship’s wreck earlier this month.
This 23 April is roughly the 1,720th anniversary of the execution of a Roman Army Officer, George of Lydda, so condemned by Emperor Diocletian for not renouncing his religious faith. In addition to being venerated across Europe, both Eastern and Western, Saint George is the only saint depicted fighting on horseback– slaying a dragon at that.
Saint George Killing the Dragon c. 1434, Bernat Martorell
Thus he is the patron saint of Cavalrymen and now modern Tankers and Scouts, going back at least to 1917.
Great War BEF commander, Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, KT, GCB, OM, GCVO, KCIE, a polo enthusiast who began his career as a lieutenant into the 7th (Queen’s Own) Hussars on 7 February 1885, slaying the Hun Dragon from his mount on a Mark V tank, Punch 1917
So for all those horse soldiers past and present– the cossacks, cuirassiers, dragoons, chasseurs, hussars, spahis, uhlans, lancers, jäger zu pferde, and mounted rifles, as well as those riding tracks and wheels today, raise a glass!
80 years ago today: An unidentified infantryman of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division, who is armed with an Enfield P14 sniper rifle and scope, taking part in a sniping-stalking-camouflage training course, England, 23 April 1943.
Note the skrim and balaclava. Library and Archives Canada, MIKAN 3596209
Another image from the same day. Much more skrim and balaclavas.
Of course, the Canadians had a rich sniper history going back to the Great War, and continue to have one to this day.
Below, if you have time to kill (see what I did there?), a great little doc on the Black Watch snipers in WWII, including interviews with four of the gentlemen on the sharp end.
In an allegory to the tale of the 16 vessel class, the final monohulled Freedom-variant Littoral Combat Ship, the future USS Cleveland (LCS 31), was christened and launched last weekend at the Fincantieri Marinette Marine, Marinette, Wisconsin Shipyard.
A traditional (for the yard) side launch, while such events are always dramatic, this one proved even more so when PCU Cleveland was involved in a minor collision with a commercial tugboat that was helping her take to the water.
No injuries were reported, and damage to Cleveland was reportedly “limited” and above the waterline.
Even before the incident, the Navy had reported that “Follow-on ships are planned to be launched using a ship lift system,” which translates to the new Fincantieri-awarded USS Constellation (FFG-62) class frigates.
The future Cleveland is the fourth ship to be named in honor of the city of Cleveland, Ohio. Previous USS Clevelands were the World War I cruiser (C 19), the World War II light cruiser (CL 55), and the Vietnam-era amphibious transport dock (LPD 7), decommissioned in 2011.
Sadly, her class has been probably the most troublesome to the Navy in decades.
While the Navy originally wanted as many as 28 Freedom variants in 2005 (and a similar number of trimaran hull Independence-class LCS variants) to replace the 51 old Knox class frigates and 14 Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships, the program as a whole has proved such as let down that this has been capped at 16 Freedoms and 19 Indys.
While the Indys have had their own issues with mechanical failures and hull cracks, a series of propulsion hardware defects (particularly in the transmission and combining gear) led to the Freedoms having numerous high-profile breakdowns at sea that required extensive post-delivery repair and refit– a problem that is likely still not fully corrected.
This led to class leader USS Freedom (LCS-1) to be placed in mothballs in 2021 after 13 years of service, and the first nine vessels of the class (Fort Worth, Milwaukee, Detroit, Little Rock, Sioux City, Wichita, Billings, Indianapolis, and St. Louis) all show up on the Navy’s decommission wish list with planned lay-up dates as early as this year, even though the latter two ships are realistically just past their shakedown period.
While I’d love to see the vessels rebuilt to work properly, even if that meant just swapping them out to a humble diesel-electric plant that actually worked but dropped the speed down significantly, it may be for the best to sideline these albatrosses.
In related news, the Indys seem to be finally kind of hitting their stride and only the first two (Independence and Coronado) have been mothballed. Further, the two oldest that have not completed completed lethality and survivability upgrades– USS Jackson (LCS-6) and USS Montgomery (LCS-8), commissioned in 2015 and 2016, respectively– are now marked for foreign military sales as part of the decommissioning plan.
The future USS Kingsville (LCS 36)— the 18th Independence-variant LCS and the first warship named for the town near Naval Air Station Kingsville, Texas– will be christened during a 10:00 a.m. CST ceremony on Saturday, April 23, in Mobile, Alabama.
I’ve been to the commissioning of two of these thus far, including limited tours, and was impressed with the design even though I would like for them to be much better armed, especially when it comes to ASW and AAW.
Moreover, their helicopter decks are huge for their size, allowing them to embark a lot of different packages. For instance, all these were recently aboard USS Montgomery (LCS 8):
Speaking of which, a group of shots taken by the “Scorpions” of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 49 off San Diego earlier this month just captured four Indys at play off the coast in an ad-hoc surface action group. Reportedly the first ever LCS IPEX (integrated phase exercise) with a four-ship SAG.
Four LCS underway, in early April 2023: USS Manchester (LCS 14), USS Kansas City (LCS 22), USS Montgomery (LCS 8), USS Mobile (LCS 26)
Four LCS underway, early April 2023: USS Manchester (LCS 14), USS Kansas City (LCS 22), USS Montgomery (LCS 8), USS Mobile (LCS 26)
Four LCS underway, early April 2023: USS Manchester (LCS 14), USS Kansas City (LCS 22), USS Montgomery (LCS 8), USS Mobile (LCS 26)
I have to admit, something like this, paired with a flag DDG for air defense and loaded up with full MH60/MQ-8C air dets, could be of some actual use.
An LCS’s offensive capability comes primarily from weapons organic to the LCS hull, the SUW mission package, and the aviation detachment’s MH-60S Seahawk helicopter. Deploying multiple SUW-configured LCSs in a SAG would increase the targeting radius of the ships’ weapons and the lethality of their combined aviation detachments.
Two mutually supporting LCS SUW mission packages could triple the integrated sensor coverage, increasing weapons employment range.6 Multiple LCSs could combine intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) data from all SAG assets, including the embarked MH-60S Seahawks and the MQ-8 Fire Scout unmanned aircraft systems. Equipped with a multisensor targeting/surveillance system and surface-search radar, the MQ-8 is a valuable scouting platform. Two Fire Scouts operating concurrently in separate sectors theoretically could increase the surveillance range by 300 nautical miles, feeding ISR data into a common operational picture.7 The MH-60S is equipped with a Multi-Spectral Targeting System well-suited for integration into the kill chain. Two MH-60Ss and two MQ-8s would increase surveillance capacity and over-the-horizon targeting capabilities for weapons such as the Naval Strike Missile.
And that’s just two LCSs working together. What if it is a four-pack or a six-pack?
There are tons of Colt 1911 fans out there, after all, the pistol has been in (near) continuous production by the company for 122 years.
There are also tons of CZ 75 super fans out there, and for good reason, and the excellent shooting Czech 9mm has been cloned by almost as many people as the 1911.
There is a big Venn diagram of overlap between these two groups (myself included), and, with the CZ Group acquiring Colt back in 2021, this was one of the things the people who live in that overlap wanted to see– a limited-run of matched semi-custom CZ75 M1911s sets.
The 50 Tribute to Legends edition serial number range is COLT2021001 to COLT2021050 for the Colt 1911 and CZ2021001 to CZ2021050 for the CZ 75, which refers to the year of the Colt and CZ merger. The same unique serial number engraved on each pistol can also be found on the gold-plated base plate of its corresponding magazine.
CZ is holding an auction for NFT “Right to Purchase” tokens on its in-house Collector’s Hub for three of these sets which is actually kind of interesting in itself as, one could always hold on to the NFT for apparently years and then trade it on the Colt CZ Group marketplace for bitcoin or whatever without having to have the pistols shipped to an FFL and do a transfer.
This 1891 photograph via the Detroit Photographic Company shows Captain Silas Casey III (USNA 1860), skipper of the cruiser USS Newark (C-1), sitting in his well-furnished stateroom with his Old English Bulldog sleeping quietly on the floor.
Casey doubled down on being a dog lover as shown by his taste in art as the picture behind him is an illustration used for the “No Monkeying” brand of cigars, which depicts two bulldogs playing poker with a monkey, from a lithograph by Emile Steffens.
A better view of the stateroom is Lot 3000-F-14 at the National Museum of the U.S. Navy, which still shows the dogs playing poker image on the bulkhead.
U.S. Navy protected cruiser, USS Newark (C-1), the cabin, possibly Captain’s Cabin. Note the dogs playing poker illustration and the spittoon
Laid down by William Cramp and Sons, Philadelphia, Pa., on 12 June 1888, the brand-new 4,000-ton/311-foot cruiser was commissioned on 2 February 1891, with Casey in command, and was the first modern cruiser in the U.S. Fleet. The above images were likely taken around the time of her commissioning.
Active in the Spanish American War– the warship bombarded the port of Manzanillo on 12 August 1898 and on the following day accepted its surrender then after the Battle of Santiago, she participated in the final destruction of Admiral Cervera’s fleet through the bombardment of the burned hulks– she went on to serve in the Philippines. She spent her last days as a station ship at Guantanamo Bay and then as a quarantine hulk for the Naval hospital in Providence/Newport until scrapped in 1926. USS Newark (C-1) unofficial plans, published in the Transactions of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, 1893. Published in the Transactions of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, NH 70105.
For reference, Casey was the son of the well-known Civil War Maj. Gen. Silas Casey, Jr., author of the three-volume System of Infantry Tactics manuals that were in use by the Army for a generation. During the Civil War, the younger Casey was very busy. He served aboard the USS Niagara in the engagements with the batteries at Pensacola; aboard the USS Wissachicken with the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron including engagements with Fort McAllister; and on USS Quaker City with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron against Charleston and Fort Fisher.
After commanding Newark, Capt. Casey served a stint at Annapolis then went on to serve as rear admiral commanding the Pacific Squadron, 1901–1903, before retiring.
He passed in 1913, aged 71, no doubt with a dog somewhere near.
Armed with six . 50 caliber machine guns in the nose with 200 rpg, the P-80 Shooting Star was one of “Kelly” Johnson’s kids and, with its first flight in 1944, only barely missed mixing it up with Luftwaffe Me-262s in combat over Germany. In fact, the prototype aircraft was developed by Johnson’s team in just 143 days, with the 262 as the goal to match/beat.
It nonetheless made a lot of “firsts.”
In addition to making the first U.S. transcontinental jet flight, the Shooting Star was the first American aircraft to exceed 500 mph in level flight, the first American jet airplane manufactured in large quantities, and the first U.S. Air Force jet used in combat. It was in an F-80C of the 16th FIS that the first American claim for a jet-versus-jet aerial kill was made when 1st Lt. Russell J. Brown reported that he downed a MiG-15 over Korea in November 1950– just six years after the type’s first flight.
In all, some 1,700 P/F/RF-80s were produced, along with over 6,500 of its dopey T-33 Shooting Star younger brothers, and the type remained in at least limited USAF and U.S. Navy service well into the 1980s.
Well, some 50 years or so since the type left U.S. martial service, an Iowa Air National Guard F-80 just took a flight, of sorts.
S/N 47-0171, a P-80C-1-LO built in Burbank in 1947, is the sole example constructed almost entirely of magnesium (talk about a nightmare if it ever caught fire!).
After service at the Wright Air Development Center as the only NF-80C model, she was later sent to the Air Force Museum and preserved on static display in Canton, Ohio, wearing Ohio ANG livery in the 1990s.
She was then restored and has been on display in the livery of the Iowa ANG’s 174th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (which flew F-80Cs from 1953 to 1955), at the Iowa Gold Star Military Museum aboard Camp Dodge since 2012.
Well, after a decade of outside display, she needed a new paint job and was taken to an ANG paint facility in Sioux City last September.
To get the aircraft back to the state headquarters last week after the refresh, she was carried via sling lift under an Iowa ARNG CH-47 Chinook of the Davenport-based B/171 Aviation Regiment.
Air National Guard photo Senior Master Sgt. Vincent De Groot
Air National Guard photo Senior Master Sgt. Vincent De Groot
Air National Guard photo Senior Master Sgt. Vincent De Groot
