I suppose this should probably be in the "Books" section, but I was interested to read in this very fine book about a year plus worth of one platoon's patrols in Afghanistan and about the use of pistols as in a last ditch defense to prevent being overrun. The book is "Outlaw Platoon" by Sean Parnell (the Platoon Lt) with John R. Bruning. Highly recommended.

quote:

One by one, our heavy weapons ran out of ammunition. Brown's 240 went silent. So did Private Dugin's fifty that was mounted on Waites's rig. Nobody was in Sabo's turret now that both Emerick and Lewis had gone down with head shots. Despite every effort, Bray's Mark 19 refused to fire (note: had been hit by enemy fire earlier in battle). Our best weapons were all but useless. Desperate, the gunners drew their 9mm pistols, racked the slides, and fired into the onrushing waves of enemy. It was a measure of last resort that I'd never thought I'd see.

GG I know this forum is about Personal Carry etc. but have you read anything about the use of snipers by "the other side"? I see the comment about two men going down with head shots". Lucky?
Peter.

The "head shots" in question were indeed probably "lucky" shots. The volume of fire the 24 men in the platoon were receiving from hundreds of insurgents of a well lead and a very well planned attack was unbelievable. BTW, both survived, one was just basically knocked out by a bullet that penetrated his helmet, "ringed" his skull, and knocked him out for a while, he later emerged and got back in the fight.

What is surprising, is how few men are hit/killed considering how many thousands and thousands of rounds that were fired at or in their location.

In general, it appears that the opposing snipers learned mostly by OJT, and were and are not nearly the quality of our highly trained marksmen. OTOH getting dead by a shot from a less than well trained sniper is little comfort. Another good book, "The Reaper" is about a very good and deadly Ranger Battalion sniper who happens to be black and he engaged (countersnipes) a sniper known as "The Chechnian".