Murphy's Law: Guns

"This is my rifle. This is my gun. This one's for shooting. This one's for fun."

Pardon me while I dig through old boxes of slides but I'm amazed how well they scan. These were taken in the army. That's not me but it's my watch. I had all the instincts of Madison Avenue as a buck sergeant. I shot these with a P.X. purchased Olympus OM-1. Sgt. Murphy was the model and while I thought I was too creative for the army - - Sgt. Murphy was an artist.

As sergeants we carried .45s in the field. Problem was they were a pain to clean after 30 days in the woods. Depending on how big a jerk the guy running the arm's room was - you could spend a life time cleaning the damned thing before it ever passed inspection. This caused great anxiety because all you wanted to do was get a hot shower, change into civies and head into town for lemonade and cookies at the Methodist church social.

Almost everybody wrappped their .45's in OD green plastic and stuffed them in the holster. We were playing war in the woods of North Carolina so no one really cared. Murphy had a brilliant idea that. It involved the purchase of a Daisy BB gun from K Mart ($19.99) that was a dead ringer for a real .45. We'd wrap it in the same OD plastic and no one was the wiser. Plus, we had he added enjoyment of shooting at each other with BB's or playing darts with a board we took to the field (the Daisy fired pellets and darts as well as bbs).

When we got back to the barracks after the exercise we'd run up to our rooms, unlock our lockers, take the real .45 out and swap it for the BB gun. Run downstairs and turn it in while the arm's room guy wondered how it had been kept so clean - or was cleaned so fast. Like I said, Murphy was an artist. God, I hope men like him are in the army today.

Tomorrow - Murphy's Law: The Tank