The Loadout Room
Professional Gear Reviews
It weighed over 20 pounds, jammed when it felt like it, and chewed through belts of 7.62 NATO like a chainsaw on meth…but for the American warfighter in Vietnam, the M60 was more than just a machine gun. It was an iron pig that ate communism for breakfast. Birth of a Beast Born out of […]
They say that rain is a blessing. Showering the Earth and making the grasses look a bit greener— but what if it is an ooey-gooey, deadly, yellow rain? The Deadly Drizzle It was one bright and sunny day in 1981 when the Vietnamese and Laotian people noticed a sticky yellow liquid occasionally pouring down on […]
Fighting knives are the best knives. Well, they are at least the most fascinating knives one can get their hands on. In America, the design of fixed-blade fighting knives has changed over time based on contemporary tactics and trends, and the wars being fought. The Gerber MK II is a product of its time, but […]
Special Patrol Insertion/Extraction (SPIE) flights offer a unique way to get troops into and out of terrain that a helicopter may not be able to land on. To the untrained observer, SPIE flights might look like a helicopter simply lowers a rope, warfighters clip on with carabiners, and then they get taken for one hell […]
Editors note: MACV-SOG was organized and functioned as the first true joint special operations task force (JSOTF). Formed during the Vietnam War, the unit conducted special operations, to include providing intelligence, psychological operations, and personnel recovery, in support of the theater campaign plan. From John’s book Across The Fence: The Secret War In Vietnam, here’s […]
This article will speak about two vital weapons that served U.S. Special Forces during their service in the Vietnam War. They were the M-14 Anti-Personnel mine, more commonly known as the “Toe Popper,” and the V40 Mini-Fragmentation Grenade. Over the course of the conflict, these miniature terrors drew much blood against the North Vietnamese Army […]
In 1964, the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG) was formed to carry out unconventional operations. The strategic reconnaissance and clandestine missions were designed to secretly carry the fight to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in order to dissuade them from supporting the Viet Cong insurgency in South Vietnam. The nature […]
Before the days of Salomon, Merrell, Oakley (all of which I own and love) and the endless list of boot options available to soldiers (at least in the SOF community), and the “after market” desert boots available to all, there was one venerable, unchallenged boot for the grunt. Few items conjure a nostalgia like seeing […]
(Courtesy of Breach Bang Clear) Monday Night Knife Fights: The Attleboro Knife Alexander Crown A few years ago a good friend of mine, Ken Hunt, started a small knife outfit with his much-cooler-than-him wife, Kat. Ken is a retired Special Forces officer who fortunately spent time enlisted first, and I remind him often that is […]
So you are a Navy SEAL crawling around deep in the enemy’s back yard. You are vastly outnumbered which means your primary weapon is stealth. You are a shadow—you have to be if you expect to get out of this alive. The thing is, the enemy’s camp has dogsthat are bound to bark. What do […]
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