Bigger Is Better

While goofing off and eating lunch, I ran across this article at American Thinker about known issues with the 5.56 mm round used by the military. The M855 rounds, aka SS109 green tips, were still new when I was stationed in North Carolina after the Gulf War. Then, as now, a large portion of the troops felt the 5.56 round was not very effective. The conventional wisdom on the 5.56 mm was ".223 in, .223 out", alluding to the small holes that result. It's nice to see that the Pentagon was aware of this, but did nothing.

I was also in service when the Army had to come through and retro-fit all of our 9mm pistols from Beretta. Why? Because after many repeated firings, something would break and then the next round would cause the slide to come off and straight back at your face. More great procurement decisions from DOD.

I also got to use one of the other great weapons the Army bought. We still (in 1991-93) had M3 submachine guns assigned to us. We never took them anywhere, except to the range on occasion. When we did fire them, we would unhook the strap from the rear, drop it on the ground, and step on it. That was the only way we could keep the muzzle from ending up vertical.