Tag Archives: Fort Lewis

Fairchild Camera Machine Gun trainer, 80 years ago today

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Via the California Military Department Historical Collection:

Soldiers of the California National Guard’s Los Angeles-based 115th Observation Squadron (now the Channel Islands Air National Guard Station-based 115th Airlift Squadron) manning a Fairchild Camera Machine Gun trainer at Fort Lewis, Washington during the 1940 Fourth Army Maneuvers as part of California’s 40th Division. 9 June 1940.

Note the potato sack sandbags with a Van Nuys address, and the soldiers’ M1917 tin pan helmets. Also, ties!

Rather than use more expensive live or blank ammunition, Fairchild Aerial Camera Corporation developed this system for aircrews to train with. The system used film to evaluate the gunner’s performance.

Normally mounted on aircraft, it is seen here mounted on a tripod used for ground or low-level antiaircraft defense training.

They fought the LAW but the law won, or, Is that a LAW in your closet or are you happy to see me?

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You know you laughed...

You know you laughed…

The last of three Washington State National Guard soldiers who swapped a live M72A5 LAW rocket and launcher among themselves after returning from Afghanistan has been hit with probation last week.

According to court documents, it all started in September 2011 when a woman, Sabrina Hale met with Pierce County Sheriff’s Department detectives in a park in Puyallup, Washington and handed over the anti-tank weapon. Hale told authorities it came from Victor Naranjo, a National Guard soldier. After the LAW was handed over to the feds, it was disarmed and found to be a Norwegian-made device manufactured by Nammo Raufoss in 2007 for the Canadian military.

How it came to be in a Puyallup park was the interesting part.

More in my column at Guns.com