Ma Deuce?

Ma Deuce on our Phrogs, Larry?:confused: I only saw and flew them with M-60's (early to mid 1967) and .50 cal after that.

shitter

Is the ch37 the shitter you refer to? If so I believe it was armed with .50

53 guns vs 46 guns

because phrog flyers are JOHN WAYNE !!!!!!:D

Clarification

CH-53 = Shitter
CH-46 = Phrog
MA-2 The M2 Machine Gun, Browning .50 Caliber Machine Gun, or "Ma Deuce" is a heavy ... It was nicknamed Ma Deuce by U.S. Military personnel or simply called ...

The grunts I was talking to were from the 1969 time frame. I have no idea why the -53's had the M-60.

50's and 60's

So there I was----As I recollect---we use 60's when we were in an area that someone didn't want us to destroy all. I must say that most pilots in our preflight said, should we recieve fire---return fire uh uh I mean get permission to return fire. The rest of the time we used 50's. They were heavy, but I loved them because we didn't take fire most of the time when we had them. Reacon they could see the differance?

50's and 60's

Larry, Was at Marble end of '66 and first part of '67 [ HMM-263]. Phrogs there had 50's on board. When first 53's det came in [ Beal's Bombers - four birds I think ] they carried 60's. Rumor at that time was any 53 driver that got a bullet hole would be immediately supplied with new orders to Adak or Keflavik so they didn't need heavy defensive firepower. Can't tell you if later they got upgraded to 50's. Joe H. [ aka Hostileman]

During my tour with HMH-463, we used both types of gun's. Mostly depended on which type of gun mounts were on the bird. I prefered the 60's light weight so that I could take it with me if we went down. Never had a malfunction.

Why

HMH-462 had 50 cal's when we arrived in country. The squadron had deployed to NAS Fallon, Nevada, for aerial gunnery training prior to being put aboard ship for transpac to RVN.
When we off loaded at Phu Bai, we still flew with the 50's for a month or so but then were required to turn them in for the M-60's as they were much lighter and as you know we had a lift problem with the heat and the mountains.

Semper Fi -

Duke Dearing
HMH-462, S-2
Mar 1968 - Aug 1969

MA duece

Larry,
Sorry for my brain fart... I never called or heard called our beloved .50 cals anything but that. .50's. I thought that the MA-2 was the ground pounder version of our aerial .50....Guess it was after all. None of the recon or platoon sized units we transported ever carried one, guess that were too big and heavy to carry and maneuver.