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by Rhino1
Sun Jul 01, 2018 10:43 pm
Forum: Rifles & Shotguns
Topic: USAF pilots' ejection seats to have M4 variant & 120 rounds.
Replies: 26
Views: 11061

Re: USAF pilots' ejection seats to have M4 variant & 120 rounds.

In SEA, and I assume current combat environments, we carried a Blood Chit in our survival vests. It was a silk cloth with US flag and verbiage in all the local indigenous languages to the effect that you were in distress and our country would reward you if you helped the downed airman. They harkened back to before WWII when the Flying Tigers were flying P-40s to help the Chinese against the Japs. They wore a Chinese flag on the back of their flight jackets.

When I left active duty, I flew with the Texas ANG in Houston. There was a period of time when we wore a large Texas flag on the back of our flight suits. (In interest of giving due credit, it started with San Antonio ANG squadron). Anyway, we called it our South Texas Blood Chit. Wanted everyone to know that we weren’t some Yankee if we ever had to punch out.
by Rhino1
Sun Jul 01, 2018 8:22 pm
Forum: Rifles & Shotguns
Topic: USAF pilots' ejection seats to have M4 variant & 120 rounds.
Replies: 26
Views: 11061

Re: USAF pilots' ejection seats to have M4 variant & 120 rounds.

My response is dated as I flew F-4s but imagine the seat kits are similar to current aircraft. The seat kit was a hard pack that attached to the parachute harness (parachute itself was part of ejection seat). After ejection and the parachute opens, the seat kit opens, if set on automatic. (In SEA we typically flew in manual because wanted to reduce to chance of being hung up in jungle canopy between the parachute and life raft). When the kit opened, the life raft would inflate and was attached by a nylon cord to the left side of parachute harness. Inside the seat kit was a rubber bag with survival aids (radio, flares, etc). The GAU-5 would likely be stored in that bag as well.
We were issued the same S&W revolver in SEA. I had an instructor who was shot down on his first tour. I remember him saying a .38 is a pain to reload when being chased through rice paddies. I bought a personal Browning Hi-Power and took it with me. When I was getting ready to fly commercial from Houston to San Francisco and on to Travis AFB, I called the airline to ask how to transport a firearm. They just said to put it into my baggage. How times have changed!

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