Lock N Load with R. Lee Ermey
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D2EE63C14441A485
Premieres FRIDAY, JULY 31 at 9pm/8c on HISTORY. History comes to life as former MAIL CALL host R. Lee Ermey leads viewers on a fascinating ride through the engineering, development and demonstration of weapons that made battlefield history in the new one-hour series, LOCK N LOAD With R. Lee Ermey.
August 7th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Dear Gunny,
I enjoy watching your series but must take you to task for your recent show on tanks which aired on August 7th. You stated that the M-60 was used in Vietnam. In this you are wrong, the M-60 did not see service in Vietnam, aside from the Combat Engineer Vehiche (CEV) M-728 and the M-60 bridgelayer. In fact the M-48 from which the M-60 evolved was the main tank used by both the Army and Marines during the Vietnam War. Should you need to confirm this consult either the PATTON by Richard Hunnicutt or my own publications, the M-48, and M-60 from Squadron Signal Publications. Aside from this error I enjoyed the show . Keep up the good work.
Jim Mesko
Akron, Ohio
August 10th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Gunny:
We were wondering when a segment is going to air so that we can tell our friends. You shot the Javelin (antitank) Missle with our son II Lt. Ryan Carr at Ft Carson. Please advise. LOVE the show!
August 10th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
I wouls like to see the markmenship training boots are given today and yesterday in the Corps.
Simper FI
John Bradley
Indianapolis, Indiana
August 27th, 2009 at 12:44 am
Mr. Mesko is slightly incorrect. M-60 tanks were used in Viet Nam. However, at the start of the war the best we had were M-48 Pattons and we gave the South Viet Namese M-41 Walkers.
The show missed an entire series of tanks starting with the M-26 Pershing at the end of WW II that was morphed into the M-46 Patton that in turn was highly modified as the M-47 Patton then entirely rebuilt as the M-48 Patton.
Also missed was our 60 ton M-103 with a 120 mm gun that the Army didn’t want and gave it to the Marines.
August 27th, 2009 at 12:59 am
The episode on pistols was rather well done but they totally overlooked a pistol that changed the world,. Or rather, it’s cartridge did.
You have to start off with Hugo Borschadt that designed a semi-automatic pistol with a toggle bolt action while working for Smith & Wesson. S&W didn’t adopt it so Hugo went back to Germany and had his friend, Georg Luger, manufacture some.
By 1902 they had slimmed it down considerably into the P-02 Luger firing a 7.65 mm round from a bottle-necked case.
In 1908 they delleted the bottle-nect and came out with the P-08 Parabellum (like military) in 9 mm. Over 100 variations of the Luger pistol was made up until WW II and some commemeratives by Mauser in the 1970′s.
But it was the 9 mm cartridge that caught everybody’s attention and pistols and sub-machineguns from the Browning and Sten Gun to the Beretta and Uzi have been built to use the 9 mm Parabellum.
It is now known as the 9 mm NATO pistol and sub-machinegun round 101 years after its invention.
August 30th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
would like to see something on the m88&m578 recovery equipment
September 2nd, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Gunney,
Has nothing to do about Lock ‘load the USMC also has an Airwing Section. Perhaps a segment depicting a launch & recovery (7011) technican might interest the viewing audience.
Not only used at Air Wing bases; they also are (were) used at SATS (short air tactical sites) bases.
John Butler
ex-7011 (1962-1966)
September 10th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
I just wanted to see if you know of any youth shootering sponsor. I am 16 a USA Shooting Team member.American Legion member, Boy Scout In Navel Junior ROTC I am the Rifle Team Commander Asst Drill Team Commander my rank is Cadet Senior Chief Petty Officer E-8.Went to Joint Summer Leadership School At the Citadel Charleston SC,boot camp Parris Island I also volunteer at the VA Veterans Affairs.I have 14 shooting matches coming up one at Fort Benning Georgia with the US Army Marksmanship Unit and many more.And I need a sponsor to help offset the cost for gear or expenses.I shoot many venues such as 3 Gun,International pistol.rimfire rifle and pistol,Air rifle and pistol.IDPA,ISPC,Trap shotgun.Thank you so very much for you time From Jamaurie Gause Semper Fair wind and following seas
Thank you.
September 20th, 2009 at 12:09 am
Just watched the episode on shotguns. It was extremely well done and gave John Browning the credit he deserves (a few scenes from his museum in Ogden, Utah would have been nice).
But there was ONE continuity error. At the start of the show the Blunderbuss expert CORRECTLY identified the purpose of the bellmouth for ease of reloading. Later in the program, Lee incorrectly stated the old legend that the bellmouth helped spread the shot. It did not. Shot clumping was restricted by the smallest diameter of the bore. The bellmouth was for rapidity of reloading and (possibly) powder flash protection.
September 25th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Gunny, just got through watching lock-n-load about troop transporting vehicles,the half-tracks,the 113′s,the bradleys and the MRAPs.
You and I appear to have been in the military about the same time, for me it was 1962-1965, ARMY with the 3rd. ARMORED DIV.,Friedberg, Germany. I was assigned to the 4.2 in.heavy mortar platoon. as a driver of the M59A1 gun track.. The M59 was the predecessor to the M113 A.P.C. The M59A1 was phased out and replaced with the M106A1 heavy mortar carrier. I must say that it was a lot of fun driving both the M59A1 and the M106A1.
GUNNY, I just thought I’d mention this tid bit of info .
THANKS for your time.
September 27th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
“Rockets” episode. Overall pretty good but missed some WW II & Korean War history.
The WW II Bazooka was 2.35″ dia and good against most light & medium German and Japanese armor. Knocking out a Tiger was more of a miracle than power.
Also the Germans had their own version called the “Panzerfaust” of which today’s RPG is patterned after.
In the Korean War, the Bazooka was enlarged to a 3.5″ dia warhead to take on the T-34′s.
Also the predecessor to the modern multiple rocket launcher was the “Katusha” rocket racks carried on truck beds by the Soviets and on top of M-4 Shermans by the Americans.
I know you can only get so much in with the showtime allowed. But the editors can delete some (or most) of the previous scenes after each commercial break to fill in a little more of the history.
Otherwise, a really very good episode. Too bad gunny wasn’t allowed to fire the Javelin.
October 10th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
The episode on “AMMO” was done quite well and I got a kick out of Gunny’s reference to his movie “Full Metal Jacket”.
BUT: He was only technically correct in saying the .44 magnum did not exist in the old West when he was showing off his Ruger Super Blackhawk.
What was overlooked by the writers is tha before S&W came out wih its .44 Magnum in the 1950′s prior to that the Whitneyville Walker Colt was considered the most powerful handgun back in those days. I tas a black powder front loading 6-shot revolver, percussion cap fired and no topstrap to reinforce the frame.
It was an extremely heavy gun and when I fired a replica once I needed both hands to hold it up.
October 14th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
BLADES.
A little late on this but overall the show on swords and bayonets was done quite well. Tthe tests of penetration power or slicing power based on the shape of the sword were well presented.
However, using blade bayonets as knives or short swords overlooked two of the most famous knives of WW II and Korean War fame.
Namely the K-Bar (basically a small Bowie knife) and the Fairbain Commando knife (a heavy handled two-edged stilleto/dagger) of Carlson’s Raiders fame.
How could Gunny forget his fellow Marines of Carlson’s Raiders?
October 25th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Finally caught my recording on the “Rifles” episode. An excellent show and some very good examples of marksmanship. Especially for a guy his age (only 8 years younger than me).
But gunny sort of contradictted himself when he extolled the virtues of the M-1 Garand. I love that rifle also and have two of them.
But, on his former show (Mail Call), he said the M-14 was his most favorite rifle. To me, the M-14 and the M-1A are merely upgraded versions of the Garand but with a box magazine. But the M-14 is also selective fire and should also have been used in the full auto scene where everybody had a lot of fun.
Such an upgrade to the M-1 was designed and tested in WW II using a BAR magazine but wasn’t ordered in quantity or issued. Berretta of Italy sort of beat us to it whith their BM-59 while we were still testing the M-14.
So, gunny, which is your favorite? The M-14 that can use only .308 Wiinchester or the M-1 Garand that will eat anything that says .30-06 on the base?
October 25th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Ooh. One more thing. Gunny said the .30-06 was the first rifle cartridge to use smokeless powder. Theodore Rooselt’s book about his experience in the Spanish-American War wrote about the advantage of smokeless powder used in the Mauser Rifles issued to the Cubans and Spanish troops.
Our .30-40 Krag-Jorgensons still used black powder that would give away our positions but the Mausers that might only show a quick flash made it hard for us to fire back when the enemy was in denxe forest or brush.
October 27th, 2009 at 12:36 am
Would it be possible to do a show on Anti-Tank Rifles, they are a little known part of military weaponry, and it would be great to see if they were really up to the job.
November 8th, 2009 at 2:17 am
Machine guns:
An excellent episode showing comparisons between American and foreign MG.s Though would have likded to have seen a comparison between the Browning M1917 water cooled against the British Vickers and the German Maxim.
In showing off the greatest MG in the world (the “Mah Deuce” of course) it would have been interesting to show the Russian attempt to copy it with their 12.7 mm MG. Comparisons of effectiveness and durability would have been interesting though the Russian gun had to be hauled around on wheels.
A friend who normally is not interested in firearms watched it with me and found it very educational and Gunny very enjoyable to watch.
November 13th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
“Bunker Busting”
A very dramatic show on demonstrating the most dangerous (and often required) methods of blowing a hole through a bunker, pill box or barbed wire. By the way, in WW II we had an explosive device for wire cutting just like the one demonstrated but it was called a “Torpedo Mine”. The problem was that somebody had to crawl right up to the side of the bunker or the line of wire that is probably being covered by MG fire from another bunker.
In WW II the 2.35″ Bazooka was quite succesfrul as was the 3.5″ Bazooka in the Korean War. But even then you had to be fairly close to get a hit. And if the bunker was logs and sandbags (not loose cinder blocks), you had to try to shoot through the slit.
By the time the Korean War started, our tanks were now armed with high velocity guns and used the “Pick and Shovel” technique with both 76 mm and 90 mm guns.
The method was to fire a round of Armor Piercing to drill a deep hole in the side of a bunker (the “Pick”). Then it was followed by an HE round (the “Shovel”). Logs and sand bags could be “dug” apart quickly by this method and from a safe distance behind some thick steel.
Gunny would have loved to be in a restored tank of that era and punched the firing plunger. Hmmm. So would I. I wonder if we got any M41A1 Walker Bulldogs around to demonstrate that. Nah. Probably can’t fit through the hatch anymore.