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In reply to the discussion: Multiple shooting in Kennesaw, Georgia at FedEx location [View all]Plucketeer
(12,882 posts)I was at Bien Hoa Air Base, Vietnam in early '65. I was an aircraft maintenance type on temporary duty from Clark AFB in the Philippines. Before deploying to Vietnam at that time - ALL persons going there had to learn how to handle an M-16 and be issued one to carry with us (I scored "Expert Marksman", BTW).
So here's a bunch of us maintenance types - sleeping peacefully in our barracks one night - when a nervous Marine guarding the base perimeter fired off a few rounds at a stray dog that had spooked him. THAT provoked all the "John Wayne" maintenance types to jump out of their bunks and grab their M-16s. Now there were a bunch of young GIs with only their skivvies and their M-16s - creeping about, outside of their barracks and shooting at one another (I was not one of those heroes. I had my gun alright, but that gun and I were practicing to see just how intimate we could get with the concrete floors). What's really amazing is that no one ended up wounded or worse. The next day they had us turn in our guns to squadron HQ. If we needed them after that, we'd have to run there and check them out.