If you are a Viet Nam vet, or if you have family members who were, you are eligible to enter this P228 Karma. Winner will be picked on 4/30/19. Thank you!

Any Viet Nam related pics, stories, ranks, etc..., you care to post to share would be fun and very appreciated.

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The gun: KF (1995) P228 that is a factory error. Serial # B252000 on frame, but B251999 on slide and barrel. Info I gathered from the ex-manager at SIG DE is that it was simply a factory human error in assembling the parts. Gun will come with 2x factory 13-rounders, manual, and the SIG gray case. No mags will be included for commie states that limit to 10 rounds.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 12131,

I’ll have a go for my Dad, who served on a minesweeper during the war, and for my father-in-law, who was a medic.

12131,
You offer the best karmas.

A brother and two cousins who were over there, all came back though not necessarily whole. I missed it by a couple of years. (Turned 18 in 1976) If that's good enough I'd like a shot.

Thank you for your generosity!

Count me in please. My father was on a destroyer in the war. Thank you and all vets for their service and sacrifice.

Please include me. 1965-69 thank you.

Not entering your amazingly generous karma as no family members were involved with the conflict, but I’ll share a story of a co-worker and good friend.

Martin was infantry assigned to a tank column. Their column was hit in an ambush during which time he took an 7.62x39 round to his abdomen and was sprayed with molten metal shrapnel in the same from what is believed to be a glancing hit on a tank with an RPG. He was left behind with other dead and wounded in the withdrawal. As he lay on the ground, he saw a VC working his way through the battlefield with a revolver.

The VC was giving coup de grace shots to American soldiers dead or alive. When he saw Martin, he drew down on him. Martin instinctively raised his arm to block the shot. The round struck his wrist and shattered it. He played dead and the VC was fooled. Not long afterwards, Americans swept the area and recovered him.

Martin spent as much time in country as it took to make it possible to fly him home to Walter Ried without killing him. He spent a long time recovering and dropped down to about 95 pounds in the process. Stainless steel cables were surgically placed in his abdomen to help his shredded abdominal cavities heal. His wrist was fused and is locked straight to this day. About 10 years ago, the steel cables were FINALLY removed . Additional shrapnel was discovered and removed.

Martin could have retired with full disability, but chose to pursue a career in law enforcement instead. He was an expert shot and was on the departments small pistol team. He carried a gun until about 5 years ago when he retired at around 72 years of age. He is one of the toughest and finest people I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet. Ironically, Martins duty pistol from 1994 until his retirement was a triple serial P228.

Very generous Karma! My dad served in the mid 60's before I was born. He worked supply out of Okinawa. He would tell stories of seeing the new troops heading over to Vietnam and sadly the ones coming back in body bags.

Chris

Viet Nam era Vet if that counts. I signed on the dotted line to protect my country against enemies both foreign and domestic. They just didn't need me bad enough I guess.
USN 1971-1975. I have been told my many to thank GOD I didn't have to go.

That is an awesome Karma...

I do not want to be included, just want to brag on my father..

From 1968 to late 1969 he was assigned to LZ Uplift just north of Phù Mỹ. His unit worked in conjunction with an Armored Cav unit running patrols, convoy protection etc..


"The Army had never tried to make LZ Uplift anything more than it was, a temporary combat base in Charlie's back yard.
Situated in the Central Highlands in the midst of hostile hamlets and enemy troop concentrations. The North Vietnamese main supply route, the Ho Chi Minh trail, fed directly into this area. The primitive basecamp was a square half-mile piece of dirt, mud and more mud
Largely a tent city, every piece of wood from ammo boxes found a home somewhere. Creature comfort wasn't high on the agenda."

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mrapteam666,

Please enter me for my brother-in-law who was career Air Force and served in Vietnam and beyond. He is now retired and lives in Jacksonville, IL.

I’ll happily take a spin for my dad. I think he would be quite tickled to receive a beautiful 228.

***Edit*** I should have mentioned he served in the Navy. I’m not certain much of what he did. There is a two year span of his life that has never been discussed. I have asked many times in my life and have been shutdown every time.
I wish I could supply everyone with some great details, but some leaves are best left unturned.

That said, he’s a great man, and served his country well.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Beancooker,

Q, Still think your contact at Sig DE is wrong re serial numbers. How does he explain the rotating die number on the slide. Definitely a changing from 251999 to 252200.

Any way, please put me in the hamper: 2/9 Field Artillery, 4th ID, artillery liaison to 1/35th Inf, Central Highlands, RVN. 1969.

Thank you and take care.

PS: I might add: have you ever seen a slopping serial number on any other Sig frame, slide, or barrel?



.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: redleg2/9,

I am not entering as I have no military background but I will share a story about my neighbor and good friend - Jim.

Jim was in the Army SF at 21 and was ready to go to Vietnam at 24 when they called up his unit. He was removed from the line when boarding and recruited into the CIA. He went to Chau Doc district in southern South Vietnam along the Cambodian border and was running a paramilitary group of Laotians and Chinese against the VC with the help of a younger SF SSGT - Drew Dix. When the Tet offensive came about the VC took the entire town overnight. Jim and Dix, along with about 20 Chinese ran rescue operations into the city continuously over the next 56 hours, rescuing an American Nurse, several foreign volunteers and eventually rescuing the Vietnamese provincial chief's family from the VC.

Dix received the CMOH for his actions and Jim received the Distinguished Intelligence Cross - the CIA's equivalent to the CMOH - for his. He has lived all over the world while working for the CIA for 40 years. Even after retirement he carried on as a consultant. Today he works with SF groups training them in the "old school" ways of communication and navigation.

He says he still has no idea how neither he nor Dix were ever hit as the bullets were everywhere and it was a miracle that they survived with minor scrapes and cuts.

Jim did all this when he was 26-27 years old and Dix was 23. I can't imagine that kind of responsibility at that age. BOY can he tell some stories!

You can read about it here - Book Pages 10, 45 & 46 https://www.cia.gov/library/ce...2013-cia-at-war.html

I enter this Karma on behalf of my Stepfather - David Gilliss..flew 204 RC-4 missions over North Vietnam.

Rocking cool karma!

https://flic.kr/p/2fD8WHX

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 18Z50,

Please add me. I was in Viet Nam for 6 months in 1969. Then spent my last 6 months in Laos. Air Force. Would post a picture from Viet Nam but they all got damaged. So here is one from Laos.

That looks like a very nice P228. Thanks for another generous karma, Q!

I regard myself as a Viet Nam era vet, more than a Viet Nam vet, as I never actually served in Viet Nam. If that counts for your karma, please count me in: U.S. Army, 1971-1974.

My only Viet Nam story was narrowly escaping being sent over. I had eleven months remaining when I received orders for Viet Nam. Thing is: My MOS wasn't critical any more and the Army rules at the time were that you couldn't be sent overseas if you had less than 12 months remaining and your MOS wasn't critical.

I served three tours in Southeast Asia as a Security Policeman in the USAF from 1971-1973. I missed the Tet Offensive. On my first tour I worked law enforcement town patrol in Thailand until I was sent to Phan Rang RVN to a heavy weapons and small unit tactics instructor course. From that point on my job was Air Base Defense. Spent a lot of time in bunkers and APC's on the perimeter at night, swatting mosquitoes and watching for snakes and sappers. On a second tour the Air Force sent me to Mortar and Fire Direction Control Center instructor school and I trained Security Police in country on the mortar and heavy weapons. I carried a S&W Model 15 and a GAU-5 most of the time. Traded shots with VC on the perimeter but was never involved in heavy fighting.

I witnessed firsthand our aircraft coming back to the base with battle damage, some crews celebrating air-to-air victories, and some aircraft never came back.

We often saw Marines and Soldiers who came in from the bush and loved hearing their stories but also traded them for weapons and ordnance we could not get through our supply channels.

From time to time emergency calls came out on the Security Police radio net for volunteers to give blood for wounded being brought in. Everybody with the blood type they needed rushed to the hospital. I have always seen the aircrews and ground troops engaged in direct combat as the great heroes. Those of us playing a supporting role often felt inadequate in the presence of wounded warriors. I still feel the same today almost 50 years later.

After my last tour I went on to the OSI Academy and learned a lot about the backstory on the Vietnam War in intelligence training courses. God Bless our warriors.

You always have great karmas, and I don't necessarily mean the prize.

Dad is a Vietnam Vet. It's only in the last year we've started having brief conversations about it. Please enter him. Will def take pictures of us at the range should he win.

Thank you

I would be honored to be included.

My uncle is on this list:
http://www.armyflightschool.org/vietnam/717thcav.htm