{"id":2228,"date":"2024-05-30T22:57:22","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T22:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=2228"},"modified":"2024-05-30T22:57:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-30T22:57:22","slug":"capt-dye-this-almost-killed-me-in-vietnam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=2228","title":{"rendered":"Capt. Dye \u2014 This Almost Killed Me in Vietnam"},"content":{"rendered":"


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By Capt. Dale Dye, USMC (Ret)<\/a><\/p>\n

The guy who almost killed me was named Khai.<\/p>\n

At least that was the part I could read before the S-2 Scouts policed up the bundle of papers I found in his rucksack. We met \u2014 stumbled into each other is a better description \u2014 along a soggy triple-canopy jungle trail on a dreary afternoon when the winter monsoons were beginning to saturate South Vietnam. Our meeting was somewhat less than cordial. Khai threw a jungle workshop grenade at me that failed. I fired three rounds in his direction that did not.<\/p>\n

\n<\/picture>
Capt. Dale Dye, U.S.M.C. (ret.) with a Chinese Type 53 bring-back rifle from Vietnam. The gun was taken from a Vietnamese soldier who tried to kill the author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was one of only a few encounters with enemy forces during Operation Osceola in the fall of 1967 when the 2nd Battalion, 1st<\/sup>\u00a0Marines was ordered to penetrate the triple canopy jungle of the Hai Lang Forest preserve south of Quang Tri in northern I Corps. We were searching for elusive elements of the 808th<\/sup>\u00a0VC Main Force Battalion that had been lobbing rockets and heavy mortars at the Quang Tri combat base. Apparently, the NVA and VC were as miserable as we were and didn\u2019t want to come out and play in the soaking rains that rotted boots and wrinkled skin until we all looked like a line of prunes on parade.<\/p>\n

\"Chinese\n<\/picture>
The author\u2019s bring-back Chinese Type 53 rifle is a variant of the original Mosin-Nagant and is a copy of the Soviet Union\u2019s M44.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But there\u2019s always that one guy that decides what the hell, he\u2019ll take a shot. Or maybe Khai was some kind of runner or scout tracking us through the downpour. Whatever his reasons for being out there all alone in those miserable conditions, he was full of fight and that made me curious. Waiting as ordered for the S-2 people to arrive, I went through Khai\u2019s sodden combat gear. In a little two-pocket grenade pouch, he had another of the homemade frag grenades. I could see the wax seal between the wooden handle and the tin-can body was cracked and that likely explained why the one he threw in my direction failed to detonate.<\/p>\n

\"entrenching\n<\/picture>
The entrenching tool shows the name of \u201cKhai\u201d carved into the wooden handle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He had other bits and pieces of well-used Chinese-style web gear including a little round oiler\/solvent bottle with Chinese markings and an entrenching tool on which he\u2019d etched KHAI. That matched the name on some letters he had wrapped in plastic in his pack. An ARVN trooper with the S-2 Scouts said it was likely his name but also said it could be Vietnamese for \u201cvictorious warrior.\u201d Not so much, I guessed looking down at the skinny little man with three bullet holes in his torso.<\/p>\n

Hard-Earned<\/h2>\n

As the survivor of the close encounter with Khai, I was entitled to claim his weapon that I was lucky he did not try to use. Nobody else seemed to want it and I wasn\u2019t so sure about humping the extra weight. It was a bolt-action rifle and probably something I could claim and bring back to the States\u2026assuming I survived that long\u2026but certainly no great prize in the war souvenir-claiming race. Regs strictly forbade leaving country with one of the ubiquitous AK-47s, so what most of us coveted was a semi-auto SKS carbine or one of the Tokarev or Makarov pistols that we occasionally encountered.<\/p>\n

[Be sure to read Dr. Will Dabb\u2019s article on the Chinese Type 56<\/a> when you are done with this one.]<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Chinese\n<\/picture>
Like the Russian M44, the Chinese Type 53 rifle had a fold-out, cruciform-style bayonet and hooded front sight.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

War story cred was reduced when you showed off a dinky Chinese Type 53 bolt action rifle, despite the wicked-looking cruciform folding bayonet. What the hell, I thought as I unloaded the rifle and strapped it to my pack. Maybe some souvenir-hungry dude in the rear would buy it from me. I\u2019m glad I never sold it.<\/p>\n

\"Communist\n<\/picture>
Among the Communist arms seized in Operation Urgent Fury were these Soviet-made Mosin-Nagant M44 rifles. Image:\u00a0PH2 D. Wuicik\/U.S. Navy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Years later digging through some of my salvaged wartime gear, I found Khai\u2019s rifle in a footlocker. That tripped my intellectual trigger and I began to do some research. Hard to believe given the tricked-out, space-age, plastic and polymer shoulder weapons that dominate battlefields today, Khai\u2019s rifle is a still-viable descendent of a basic design that stretches back in ordnance history some 130 years. And you can still encounter variants of the basic Mosin-Nagant design blasting away in one direction or another to this day. <\/p>\n

The Source<\/h2>\n

Credit Russian Imperial Army General Sergei Mosin and Belgian engineer Leon Nagan and their brilliant, simple, reliable design for that. It\u2019s a classic example of what ain\u2019t broke doesn\u2019t need fixing. So Khai\u2019s rifle is a late-production descendant of a Russian design. It was manufactured in China in the 1960s at the Jianshe Arsenal No. 26, also known as State Factory 296, located in southwest China near the confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing Rivers. That\u2019s affirmed by the marking on the chamber-end of the barrel. Virtually all the Chinese-produced Type 53\u2019s bearing that mark were shipped to Vietnam so that computes.<\/p>\n

\"Polish\n<\/picture>
A Polish soldier sits in the back of a BTR-152 with a Mosin-Nagant M44 carbine during military exercises in the 1950s. The Chinese Type 53 was based on this rifle. Image:\u00a0Polish National Digital Archives<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It fires the standard 7.62\u00d754 Rimmed cartridge from a five-round internal magazine. I\u2019ve still got the leather pouch and a section of the webbing ammo belt that he used to carry that ammo. The weapon weighs in at just under nine pounds with a distinctive forward balance due to the folding bayonet.<\/p>\n

\"Dale\n<\/picture>
The bayonet on the Type 53 rifle gave the gun a muzzle-heavy balance. The bayonet was relatively easy for soldiers to deploy and fold.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The markings and numbers on the carbine all match in serial and location on the Type 53 I brought home from Vietnam. Khai received weapon number A8767 which is marked on stock, barrel and magazine floorplate. The stock is wood, likely beech, and was originally laminated to protect against foul weather. Most of that lamination is long since eroded, but the stock is still sturdy and feels comfortable in the shoulder.<\/p>\n

\"Chinese\n<\/picture>
China has a great deal of experience with Mosin-Nagant rifles. Here, Chinese troops armed with Mosins march to meet Japanese invaders at Jinzhou in 1931. Image:\u00a0Polish National Digital Archives<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Naturally, I picked up some 7.62x54R ammo and fired a few rounds. Recoil was surprisingly mild, more of a push than a jolt, but the muzzle flash was massive. No telling how Khai coped with it, but I avoided flash-blindness by staying focused on the hooded front sight. It\u2019s drift adjustable for windage and the post itself can be manipulated for elevation changes. Khai\u2019s rifle, like all its arsenal mates from China, is a straightforward bolt action with a 90-degree throw that goes from three o\u2019clock when cocked to 12 o\u2019clock when rotated to unlock, extract and eject a fired cartridge case.<\/p>\n

\"Dale\n<\/picture>
The author with his Chinese Type 53 rifle. He found the rifle\u2019s action to be smooth and fast while the recoil was modest when shot. A trained rifleman could easily work through the magazine\u2019s five rounds quickly.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After all the years and rough handling in a harsh environment, that action is still butter-smooth. Had Khai decided to engage with his Type 53 rather than a rain-saturated grenade, he could have burned through five rounds in a hurry. But when I picked it up, the Type 53 was safetied. To place the weapon in that condition, he would have pulled back on the rear of the bolt and rotated it counterclockwise to rest on a little ledge. Had he decided to engage with small arms fire on that day in 1967, he would have pulled back on the rear of the bolt knob and rotated it back into the vertical position. Fortunately for me, he didn\u2019t do that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

Khai\u2019s Type 53 carbine rests quietly in my gun safe these days, only disturbed when I want to chase a few ghosts and take it to the range. I clean it thoroughly after firing it and imagine him doing the same many years ago. It gives new meaning for me to the old Rifleman\u2019s Creed. \u201cThis is my rifle. There are many others like it, but this one is mine.\u201d One of these days in honor of my old enemy, I\u2019ll have that translated to Vietnamese. <\/p>\n

\"Dye\n<\/picture>
The Type 53 chambers the 7.62x54R round. Similar in power to the .30-06 Sprg. cartridge, the communist load makes quite a fireball from a shorter-barreled gun like this one.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Note from author: A salute here before I go to Dr. Will Dabbs whose excellent article on a bring-back SKS<\/a> on this site inspired me to write about Khai and his rifle.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: Be sure to check out The Armory Life Forum, where you can comment about our daily articles, as well as just talk guns and gear. Click the \u201cGo To Forum Thread\u201d link below to jump in!<\/em><\/p>\n

Join the Discussion<\/span><\/h5>\n

Go to forum thread<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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