GMG3 Frank Jones was a SEAL.  As the squad automatic weaponsman he carried the "pig."  In this case, the M60 7.62mm NATO General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG).  Frank's M60 had been customized to make it lighter and yet retain its punch in a firefight.  The butt stock had been replaced with the rubber cap from the M60C helicopter fixed gun; the bipod and front sight wer removed and the barrel turned down and rethreaded so that the flash suppressor extended about an inch and a half past the end of the gas cylinder plug.  These modifications dropped about six pounds from the 23 pound weight of the gun and made it more compact, while the gun's punch and firepower remained the same.

 

The automatic weaponsman was a very important to the squad.  His job was to lay down continuous suppressive fire when contact was made.  When he went into action, Frank carried four belts of linked 7.62mm ammunition (800 rounds) criss-crossed across his chest like a Mexican bandit and a short 50-round "teaser" belt in the gun.  Beneath the ammuntion was a black UDT inflatable life jacket to give him emergency floatation when the crossing canals that were everywhere in our operations area.

 

Today's mission was a daylight sampan operation.  Intelligence said that a Viet Cong tax collector was in the area and was coming through a certain area.  The SEALs put several sampans on our boat and we took them down river to the mouth of a canal.  The sampans were unloaded, the SEALs climbed aboard, and they began paddling down the canal to their ambush site.

 

After 20 to 25 minutes, there was a burst of heavy firing and then it abruptly stopped.  The SEAL radio operator came up on the net and told us they were OK, but they were extracting.  Some time later the sampans came back into view, paddled up alongside, the SEALs debarked, and the sampans were stowed aboard our boat.  We then returned to base. 

 

I noticed that Frank was soaked from head to foot.  I asked him what had happened. 

 

"Well, we were on our way in when we saw group of five guys in black pajamas and rifles coming down the path alongside the canal.  We all opened up on them.  The next thing I knew, I was out of the sampan, and on the bottom of the canal." 

 

"I tried to push off from the bottom, but my gear kept me down.  I then remembered by life jacket and pulled the lanyard on the inflation cartridge.  The vest inflated with a WHOOSH . . . except it wasn't boyant enough to counteract the weight of my gun and all the ammo.  It occurred to me that I'd better dump my gun and ammo because I was just about out of air.  I dumped my ammo and gun and I popped to the surface like a cork."

 

"By the time I surfaced, contact was broken and the bad guys had split.  My next mission was to dive down and recover my M60 and ammunition I'd dumped on the bottom of the canal.  While the other members of the squad stood security, I went diving and recovered everything.  I've got to come up with some better flotation, though."

 

Frank's idea for better floation, given his combat load, was simple and direct: the next time he went out he used two inflatable life jackets under his belts of ammunition.