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In the summer of 1966, the Army saw fit to train me as a tank crewman, the equipment for which included the M1911A1 .45 pistol and the M3/M3A1 .45 *greasegun* submachinegun, among other novelties. When I came out of my Advanced Individual Training at the Armor School, I had a shiny new expert's badge for *tank weapons* and *pistol* to go with the expert rating I had earned with the M14 rifle when I went through Basic. I pretty much figured at that point that I knew what I was doing with a .45 auto; I'd often shot my dad's old Air Corps .45, so I was good.
Until I got to my new unit, where I found out just how much I didn't know. The 70th Armor was [and still is] the oldest and most decorated independent tank unit in the US Army; they made 3 amphibious landings during WWII, and were the yank outfit that linked up with the Airborne advance units still fighting when the 70th's tanks rolled up. Korea was pretty much the same deal: the 70th's tank companies with 90mm gun Pershings got *lent out* to the Cav units whose M24 light tanks main gun rounds were bouncing off the Soviet-supplied T34s just like they had with Panthers and Tigers 5 years previously. So we had high standards to meet.
We relearned EVERYTHING about the M1911: how to kill saomeone with it without firing a shot, how to kill ourselves with it- not an inconsequential consideration if you've ever seen a tank burn with a crew inside- how to use it for a bottle opener, how to detail strip it down to each and every one of its component parts and reassemble them correctly.
And then we relearned how to shoot the M1911, including firing the .45 pistol qualification course from the drivers and loaders hatches of five tanks parked on the pistol range. We fired off arpund 4000 rounds- 4 of the .50 caliber-sized ammo cans of ammo worth- of .45 ammo in the course of relearmimh on how to use the pistol at ranges from two feet [a bad guy on the back deck of the tank behind the turret] to about 200 yards, about as far as a .45 is generally effective. We also leaerned about some of the exceptions.
Later in life I attended a couple of *handgun schools,* including, among other things, personal instruction from Ray Chapman and Col. Jeff Cooper when they were alive and teaching.
I've got a .45 Commander built by Armand Swenson, actually a lightweight Commander slide he fitted to a M1911 frame he shortened to Commander length for me, long before Colt offered the Combat Commander around 1970. Neverytheless, it's a treasured heirloom now, a reminder of the days when we were still hacking around to find out what worked and what doesn't. My most usual carry piece now lately is a pretty much plain-Jane 1911, in this example an Argentine M1927 series DGFM, reworked and tuned, but pretty much looking stock, and usually carroed in an old M3 tanker's shoulder holster, same as I did as an 18-year-old crewdog 45 years ago.
I've got and use other tools of course; and the factory sights on a Walther P.38 work a little better in the dark with my older eyes than those of a 1911 generally do. I like Glocks and SIGs and Springfield XDs, several of each of which I've owned and tried.
But when it comes time to go out and face the possibility of another of the three lethal fights in which a handgun was my working tool rather than something more authoritative, it's most generally a M1911A1 that's along with me. We get along just fine, and after all these years, we understand each other.
