A key bit: While awaiting orders to combat, Stein who was a toolmaker prior to the
war and an innovative armorer took it upon themselves to create a weapon
they believed better suited them.
That being
Yah. When I read a book on Iwo Jima back in middle school Stein's story was the one that leaped out at me. While flopping on a grenade to earn your MOH is a great noble sacrifice, much better is the example of Stein, running across the black volcanic sand, his huge brassy balls clanging like the bells of Notre Dame, firing the Stinger.
He wasn't the first, Or only Marine to come up with this Idea. He was just the first one to get famous using it. The ANM-2/3 were EVERYWHERE in the Pacific and the mod had been around since the "Canal". But was widely disliked by old school Marines because of its hellish ammunition consumption and inability to utilize cloth ammunition belts.Gunny John Basalone(spell?) another CMH "winner" who was killed on Iwo Jima and who had seen the Mod. used in combat, refused to allow the "stinger" mod in his M.G. platoon as he considered them to have a severe jamming problem. It is notable that the USMC tested and banned the "stinger" mod. in 1945. It saw no action after "Iwo".
2 comments:
Yah. When I read a book on Iwo Jima back in middle school Stein's story was the one that leaped out at me. While flopping on a grenade to earn your MOH is a great noble sacrifice, much better is the example of Stein, running across the black volcanic sand, his huge brassy balls clanging like the bells of Notre Dame, firing the Stinger.
He wasn't the first, Or only Marine to come up with this Idea. He was just the first one to get famous using it. The ANM-2/3 were EVERYWHERE in the Pacific and the mod had been around since the "Canal". But was widely disliked by old school Marines because of its hellish ammunition consumption and inability to utilize cloth ammunition belts.Gunny John Basalone(spell?) another CMH "winner" who was killed on Iwo Jima and who had seen the Mod. used in combat, refused to allow the "stinger" mod in his M.G. platoon as he considered them to have a severe jamming problem. It is notable that the USMC tested and banned the "stinger" mod. in 1945. It saw no action after "Iwo".
Post a Comment