"Dressed to Kill," Washington Post, 26 Nov 2001

J

Jaywalker

New member
The Washington Post has an article today entitled "Dressed to Kill," at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14195-2001Nov25.html .

The print edition had pictures to accompany the article, including a close-up of Special Ops guy in Afganistan. He was carrying what to my eyes appeared to be an M4 with an ACOG, but I'll defer to anyone who disagrees. I was unable to locate any pics in the online edition.

This that it isn't intented to be hard news - it's in their Style section, where the comics and fashion news hang out. Think of this as a fashion article for M16 and AK afficianados, and with minor technical errors (the source of light in red dot sights, for instance), it's well done.

Jaywalker
 
Good read...made my morning. Always nice to see an accurate gun article in the Post, although from Stephen Hunter, ("Point of Impact" author), it's to be expected.
 
The author knows his stuff, and yes, we all look for the 'cool' gun, not the standard stuff that works, but what looks 'cool'.

Deaf
 
Lets forgive him, he has written some great books and has some good interest and info into the firearms world. Hunter makes a great ambassador
the ppsh41 was chambered in 7.62 Tokarev right?
 
Image

If I've done this right, here's the image of the Spec Ops guy.

I15861-2001Nov26
 
If only more journalists/writers were so objective. He talks about guns having history and ideology behind their design, but he does not refer to them as good or evil or having any intent on their own. Very good piece.
 
Lately with the conflict in Afghanistan I've been seeing a lot more pictures of the M4 with the SOPMOD kit. It's good to be able to see in action what we're equipping our troops with. And if I'm not mistaken, in last weeks Time magazine, there was a picture of a special forces soldier with an M4 with an M203, but the barrel of the M203 looked to me like it was shortened. It barely extended in front of the attachment point to the barrel. I've seen this on the cover of another magazine (I can't remember which). I was just curious if anyone else has seen such a thing. It is a good article, though, and it's about time to find a reporter who actually writes correctly on firearms (Time has been horrendous on the subject)
 
How could this have been in the Washington Post? The mind reels -

oh, and : "You see as well the ever-present PK machine gun on its bipod, the former squad automatic weapon of the Soviet army; it looks like it was designed by drunken plumbers in an Odessa hotel room while waiting for the hookers to arrive. "

:D
 
He made a mistake with the AK, too. It is, in fact, 7.62x39 not 5.45 as judged by the magazine's curve. Perfectly forgivable, though.
 
Samw as when I was in the Sandbox...desert cammies, green assault packs. When will they do a tan one?

And the important question EVERYONE has missed---WHERE CAN _WE_ GET BOFFO DESERT TAN HARDWARE FOR OUR ARs????
 
I have a problem with this article. To me Stephen Hunter disrespected Mikhail Kalashnikov. Mr. Hunter belittles Kalashnikov accomplishments. Mikhail Kalashnikov is second only to John Browning.
 
If second only to Browning, he is a very small second.
Kalashnikov did not design no where as near as many firearms that are still in use around the world. Yes, he did a great number with the AK, BUT, Browing has a huge number, and there are other designers that still have their designs manufactured.

Browning just did the work of 10 people in the firearms field and I doubt that will ever be matched.

Deaf
 
I agree about Browning. Probably the closest person in America would be Eugene Stoner. He was another barefoot genius when it came to weapons design. He designed a whole family of weapons, namely the Armalite series. AR-10, AR-15, Stoner, etc.
A brilliant man.
 
madmike, this picture was discussed in detail over at AssaultWeb in the Gear section. I believe the thread title was "they have Bowflage in Afghanistan?" In addition to having used the rifle after painting, as MulsanneArnage mentions, they also pointed out he forgot to paint the dust cover.

They also wondered why he painted the weapon and not the pack. I've been convinced by the "experts" that the ideal situational camo is OD gear and a bunch of cans of paint. :)
 
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