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1972 M1 mortar rocket carrier


Garandy
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I doubt that these would be made specific to a branch of service. Mine does not have any markings to my knowledge that indicate it is a specific USMC item. It's provenance is that I brought it home with me from a field exercise in 1989. The mortar squad guys were giving them away as we were leaving the field in 6x trucks, and since we were riding back to the barracks and did not have to carry it back a bunch of us took one. I'll go drag it out and take pics.  

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Garandy

37 minutes ago, Garandy said:

So this could be USMC?

Here some pics of mine, its USMC provenance is that I brought it home from Camp Pendleton in 1989. But maybe there are some experts who can translate the numbers and tell us more? 

81mm case - 1.JPG

81mm case - 2.JPG

81mm case - 3.JPG

81mm case - 4.JPG

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9 hours ago, Garandy said:

Very nice my son was at Pendleton from 2008-2012 and my younger son at Lejuene from  2012-2016

Semper Fi to you and your boys!

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  • 2 months later...

Those C869 cannisters are from the early issue M800-series ammunition for the M252 81mm Mortar System.    We copied the Brit L16A2 81mm Mortar, and their ammo which had increased range over the Vietnam and 1970s era M300-series 81mm ammunition the US issued for the M29 and M29A1 81mm Mortar Systems since the late 1950s into 1960s.   I was in right at the change from M29A1 81mm Mortar during my first tour in Berlin Feb 89-90, then when I went back Oct 92-June 94 we had the M252 I-81 (Improved 81mm Mortar), and the whole Brigade had been reorganized from a partially mechanized Infantry  to Light Infantry/Motorized Infantry.  The early M252 800-series HE ammunition we got was made by the Brits, came shipped in a huge brown ammo can, the Vietnam to 1970s M300-series 81mm ammunition came 3 tootsie roll tubes in a wooden ammunition crate with rope handles.  The Brit M800-series ammunition gave us about 6500 meters range over 4921 meters for the M29A1 with M300-series ammo.  And the Brits introduced the M734 Multi-Option Point Detonating/Delay/Proximity Fuse for  the 81mm system, which give us added lethality for troops in open.

 

Those plastic cannisters got repurposed often as map cases to keep your rolled Topo Maps dry.    During my 10 years we only had the asphalt impregnated cardboard cannisters, which were then wrapped in cheesecloth, then dipped in parafin wax.  A pull tape was provided for quick access by 9/10 times that pull tape just tore out so you had to use the sawteeth on the M9 Bayonet to cut the waxed cheesecloth off the "tootsie roll" tube to get to the mortar round.  I kept a 2 bladed Coleman-Western Model 954 folding knife in my kit specifically for cutting away the waxed cheesecloth, the 954 came with a plain spearpoint blade and a serrated blade that made quick work of slicing open the wrapping instead of constantly fouling with wax like the M9 Bayonet did.

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i wonder how many ammo cans , and tubes are buried everywhere .  we dug holes and buried things when we were done so not to have the extra weight/bulk  to carry back and then spend time to turn in.

lol

 

semper fi

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