Почему человеку с M79 разрешали иметь при себе только семизарядный пистолет

#M79GrenadeLauncher #VietnamWar #M203 #DeadZone #MilitaryHistory The Army Gave the M79 Grenadier a 7-Shot Pistol for Close Range. His Squad Gave Him a Rifle. It Took the Army 7 Years to Agree. 20 feet. That's how close the enemy was when the first shot left the barrel. The round the grenadier fired didn't detonate. It flew straight. It hit. It didn't explode. Because 20 feet is inside the arming distance of the M79 standard round. And the weapon the Army had decided was his primary arm had just become a club with a trigger. So he did what the Army had prepared him to do when that happened. He set the M79 down in the dirt. He drew the M1911A1 .45 pistol from his hip. Seven rounds, single action. A veteran from the 327th Infantry described that exact moment: "I laid the M79 down and pulled out the .45 and fired off most of my spare clips." This is the story of two numbers that the Army put next to each other and ignored for seven years. The M79 arms at 14 to 28 meters from the muzzle. Nearly 80% of all Vietnam firefights happened at 30 meters or less. The platoon's most powerful specialist was least effective at precisely the ranges where most of the war was fought. The Army knew this. They gave him a pistol anyway. For seven years. ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 — 20 feet, round doesn't detonate, M79 becomes a club — the dead zone in action 1:00 — Two numbers: M79 arms at 14–28 meters, 80% of contacts at 30 meters or less 1:45 — The spin-lock fuse: why the physics can't be wished away inside the arming band 2:30 — SLA Marshall and Australian researchers Hall and Ross — the contact distance data 3:00 — Table of Organization 717E, July 15th 1963 — M79 plus pistol, no rifle authorized 3:30 — The M1911A1 .45: seven rounds, single action, designed as a sidearm not a primary weapon 4:00 — January 1967 Human Engineering Laboratories survey: 29% of combat troops fighting regularly with a .45 4:30 — The Army published the survey and continued issuing the M79 without a rifle 5:00 — The M576 buckshot round: solved the fusing problem, didn't solve the firepower-per-second problem 5:30 — Single shot break action: one round, then tilt, push, extract, find, chamber, close 6:00 — The squad's answer: unofficial M16s, M14s, CAR-15s, captured AKs — whatever they could source 6:30 — No order authorized it. No regulation prohibited it. Unit commanders tolerated it. 7:00 — SOG teams go further: the sawed-down M79 shorty alongside an XM177 CAR-15 7:30 — Both weapons, one man, the logic the institution hadn't budgeted for 8:00 — December 1966: the XM148 underbarrel launcher — Carl Lewis design, Colt, 1,764 units to Vietnam 8:30 — The XM148's failures: 30lb cocking force, unguarded trigger bar, accidental discharges, withdrawn late 1967 9:00 — The GLAD program, AI Corporation, the M203 development from mid-1967 9:30 — 500 XM203s to Vietnam April 1969, standardized that year 10:00 — November 30th 1970: Table of Organization 7-18E takes effect 10:30 — "The armament of 1 M79 grenade launcher and one pistol was replaced with 1 M16A1 rifle with underbarrel M203" 11:00 — Seven years after 717E gave him a pistol — the army published what his squad had known since 1966 11:30 — The institutional calculation vs the squad's calculation — and which one was right 12:00 — 4 years is a long time to be in a jungle with a seven-shot pistol 📚 SOURCES & REFERENCES US Army FM 23-31 — M79 Grenade Launcher field manual (14–28m arming distance, 31m minimum safe range) Table of Organization and Equipment 717E — effective July 15th 1963 (M79 plus pistol, no rifle) Table of Organization and Equipment 7-18E — effective November 30th 1970 (M16A1 with M203 replacement) US Army Human Engineering Laboratories Technical Note 67 — Small Arms Use in Vietnam, January 1967 (83 combat troops surveyed, 29% fighting with .45 pistol) Dr. Bob Hall and Dr. Andrew Ross — Bang on Target, Australian Army Journal (4,100 contacts analyzed, 80% at 30m or less, 50%+ of ambushes at 15m or less) SLA Marshall — Vietnam contact range assessment (10–30m typical, rarely exceeding 100m) 327th Infantry veteran — dead zone ambush account (laid M79 down, drew .45) XM148 grenade launcher — Carl R. Lewis design for Colt, field evaluation 1967, Army Concept Team Vietnam assessment M203 grenade launcher — AI Corporation, GLAD program, XM203 shipped April 1969, standardized 1969 M576 buckshot round — 20 pellets double buckshot, 40mm, effective range 30m