#Veterans

SIG SAUER has offered a service discount on many of their products for a number of years now. More than three dozen of their firearms models currently qualify for the Professional Program, including many P320 variants, some P365s, P226s, MCXs, and more. Special pricing on these guns can be accessed through SIG’s network of Master- and Elite-level dealers. Previously, in addition to actively serving law enforcement officers and other full-time first responders, the only US military personnel who qualified for the Professional program had to be actively serving or possessive of specific “retired” credentials. This policy excluded the vast majority of veterans who didn’t stay in the military long enough for this qualification, but this has now changed. SIG recently announced the expansion of their Professional Program to include all honorably discharged military vets. Get the details on this change in the press release copied below.

Every day we literally lose hundreds of veterans around the world from the Second World War. This makes sitting down and discussing an in-depth subject such as what B17 Flying Fortress’s were armed with against the German fighters that tried to shoot them down so much more valuable when we actually get to talk to one of the crew members on those heavy bombers in the European Theater of Operations. James Lee Hutchinson was a gunner turned radio operator on a B17G in 490th Bomb Group based in England during the war. He went on 20 combat missions by the time he was twenty years old and when the war ended in May 1945. In this episode he discusses the finer points of taking care of the seven M2 .50 BMG heavy machine guns mounted throughout the bomber, and how the crews would use the guns.

The overall point of the WW II Live Fire, apart from creating an episode for our Youtube Channel, was to gain information and knowledge about these small arms that were used in World War II in ways that we couldn’t have gathered from shooting them on a square range or individually. Something that I think we really need to focus more on from a researcher or historians outlook is that these weapon systems weren’t developed and used in isolation. Sure, the M1 is a fantastic rifle for CMP matches but in all honesty that was very far from John Garand’s mind when he worked on the design. These weapons were designed to used by units of men, working very closely with each other, to accomplish an objective of overcoming an enemy force. Reenactments accomplish this well, but they don’t simulate the treatment these firearms would have gone through in combat due to the presence of live ammunition and actually trying to hit an enemy target at a distance. Bear in mind that we didn’t stage a reenactment, we staged a recreation, because we were literally trying to recreate history. If you haven’t seen the episode yet, please give it a look and then continue to read the article because it will make much more sense.