50 Cals & M-60's

I know you folks are talking mostly CH-46's but here's an interesting tidbit! When HMH-462 was stabilized to transpac to Vietnam, the armament for our birds, the CH-53's, was 50 cals. We deployed to Falon NAS, Nevada and had gunnery practise and at that time, the only people who knew how to set the head space in the squadron were the armorer, one of the pilots who was an ex-grunt first Vietnam tour, and me, another grunt on my first, (and only), tour with the wing.
Once in country and located at Phu Bai, we only kept the 50 cals for a month or so and then had to swap them out for M-60's. I never did learn with who, or, why we had to swap them out but sure wish we could have kept them. Rumor had it that the weight of the guns and ammo was a factor in the swap.

Duke Dearing
S-2 Chief
Mar68 - May69

HMM-164 had .50s when we came into country in '66. If I remember correctly, which is questionable, the 50 cals were taken off the 46 sometime in 1966 because they were "too destructive" to the things we were shooting at. But we never got shot at until we had to put on the M-60, which the VC didn't take long to realise that they were not as powerful as the 50s.

The only time I fired an M-60 from a 46 was in the states.

When I joined HMM164 in June of 1967 the birds were armed with .50 Cals and two cans or 200 rounds of ammo per gun. We’d lug that gun and ammo to the bird and hope we'd stay in service long enough not to have to return them each night. Also carried two thermite grenades just in case we had to burn the guns. There was no humping them out if you went down in some inaccessible valley or hostile place. Later, after I left I heard that an M-60 was placed on the rear ramp area.

Yes, the .50 could do some damage from afar and that's the way I preferred it. Afar! Close up, it would scare me if I were looking down the wrong end of the barrel. The muzzle flash alone would singe my biscuits. The old vintage WWII or Korean War A.P.I.T. rouinds we used would have the "I" part sometimes go off shortly after leaving the muzzle and when that happened for the first time, Mama San would have to do some serious cleaning of someone's skivvies.