re: Veterans: How much use does a military pistol actually get in deployment?

Heck, when I was in, we had old .45's. Suckers were like baby raddles. They were finished.

Sgt York used it.

you obviously have no experience in the military. of course you need to conceal a gun any time you're in a combat zone. you wont always be lugging that rife around, and you damned well BETTER always be ready to be shoot some pos at a bar,going by you in a vehicle, on a bike, etc

It all depends on your MOS. As a corpsman in the Nam I was issued a Colt 45 and when they asked me if I wanted a weapon I said Hell yeah, give me an M-16. There's this thing called fire superiority. That 45 is for special occasions. I fired the 16 at the bad guys a few times but never the pistol. Unfortunately one of my marines accidentally killed his bunker mate while cleaning his damn pistol. Our FO (forward observer) used his pistol for a kill, but then again, it was a special occasion and FOs are carrying a radio and binoculars. I used the M-16 as a disguise although the Unit One (medical bag) probably gave me away. I was I loved my Colt but felt like I was naked without the 16.

I have two stories shared by my father and a platoon member who shared with me at a reunion that my father hosted at his home after his retirement. Both were how his sidearm saved his life. In WWII he survived the Iwo Jima landing and he was guarding his buddy while sleeping in a naval shell hole with his .45 in his hand. One night a shell exploded and illuminated a Japanese soldier attempting to bayonet his buddy. My father shot the Japanese with his pistol and saved his buddy and himself. He was discharged by the Marines and went to school and got his commission in the Army prior to Korea. In Korea on July 31, 1950 his company was overrun by the North Koreans and he was wounded through the thigh with a Burp Gun. He was of one of six out of the entire rifle company to survive the attack. He was able to get down the hill with his .45 in stomach of a South Korean who spoke to the North Koreans on the way down the hill.

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2000 rds a year thru a pistol?

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Yes. Easily.
You did see where I said "at the range" didn't you?
On several occasions, I have seen multiple M-9's send 400 - 500 rounds downrange in one day.

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VERY few people are even issued a pistol.

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This is true, however when I was in the USMC, all Officers, Staff NCOs, Navy Corpsmen, and many Marines of lesser grade filling certain billets (Armory personnel, STA platoon, etc.) were allowed to qualify annually through the Entry Level Pistol (ELP) course of fire.
Do you think we gave each swinging dick at the range a sidearm? HELL NO. We might take 15 - 20 pistols for ~50 bodies.
After you completed the course of fire, you passed that weapon off to the next shooter. Each shooter was usually allowed to complete the course of fire twice before firing for an official score on his third relay.

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I never once fired mine (legally) my entire hitch in Korea.

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I don't give a frick what you did (or didn't do), where you were, or what type of unit you were with.


Stick to your survival BS, 'cause you obviously don't know what you're talking about when it comes to marksmanship training.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Thanks!

So it looks like 8 out of 10 would say, don’t carry the pistol along with the rifle in deployment.

Veteran pistol carrier checking in. The Colt .45 was my primary weapon in the Army. It was because my MOS required me to carry around a tripod and a surveying transit (scope looking thing). So I couldn't carry a rifle and all of that shite with me at the same time.

And the colt was a beautiful pistol and a massive pile of shite. It was so old that it couldn't shoot straight. I was scared to death that they wouldn't give me an M16 if the shite ever hit the fan. Because if it did hit the fan I was better off throwing my pistol at the enemy. Our pistols were old and worn out. They were so worn out that at the end of my tenure we moved to the Beretta which was a fine piece of weaponry.

So overall,

If you get deployed with an m4, do you want a pistol to back it up?


Or would you consider it a burden and not worth the weight?

Cousins kid to 2 Astan and told me if he had to go to his pistol the last bullet would be reserved for himself.