On a USN nuclear submarine in 1974 our topside watch had a duty belt with a 1911 holstered on the belt and two loaded clips. The pistol wasn’t loaded. If a threat occurred he had to insert the clip and rack in a round. I have a story of something that happened to cause a watch stander to load a pistol over an altercation. It’s a long story involving a drunk shipmate, shore patrol and a repel boarders drill. Point they weren’t carrying a loaded weapon.
When I did prisoner escort or payroll guard, I was issued a 1911 with three rounds in the magazine, and not supposed to chamber until too late.. I always had a few extra of my own that they didn’t need to know about.
And there were a few times in a ‘warm zone’ on sentry duty, we had M-16s with an empty mag. Some of us had a full mag secreted somewhere, just in case.
I had to do a job where the dock wasn’t stable, and they couldn’t unload a nuclear submarine of its missiles. So there it sat on the water (under a roof).
They told me not to cross the yellow line that was a foot or so from the sub. The four guys standing on the sub with their rifles seemed ready all the time.
Two small boats with what looked like .50 caliber guns swept back and forth both fore and aft of the sub.
I figured everybody was ready to go. Not that I was going to test them or anything!