FLynes
Member
Hi everyone,
A while back I posted my intro and wrote of my first deployment in Kosovo in 1999. Our unit captured a Serbian base in Urosevac and found a bunch of weapons, mainly soviet, but among the lot were five K98’s, all of them with the Totenkopf stamped on the barrels and preserved in cosmolene (or whatever sticky mess they used at the time). I was only able to find one pic (the first one posted), but some eagle-eyed member should be able to figure out exactly what specific K98 model the one I’m firing is. The stocks on all five were much much lighter than the pic shows. The picture quality sucks, compared to today's standards, but keep in mind the pictures posted are scanned from 25 year-old 35mm prints. If digital cameras existed back then, I sure couldn't afford one on E-5 pay.
The other pics are of the soviet weapons. There were RPK-74's, but I haven't scanned all of my deployment pics.. We also found five Thompson submachine guns still in cosmolene and with War Department serial numbers, which we were able to trace back to the 101st Airborne’s jump during Overlord. If they're going to be in any of the pics, it would be the first one with me firing the Mauser...I do remember they were all the way at the end of the line, on my right. All of the 7.62mm weapons were loaded with straight tracer rounds, because that was all we found; we set fire to the area we were using as a range five times that day. There are more 35mm pics, but they still need to be scanned.
I really wish I had been more interested in collecting, than I was shooting, back then. Detailed pics would have been nice. When I PCSd in ‘01, the K98’s and the Thompsons were hanging on the walls of 2/10th SFG(A) battalion headquarters at Ft. Carson, so presumably they're still there, unless they grew legs and walked.
Enjoy.
A while back I posted my intro and wrote of my first deployment in Kosovo in 1999. Our unit captured a Serbian base in Urosevac and found a bunch of weapons, mainly soviet, but among the lot were five K98’s, all of them with the Totenkopf stamped on the barrels and preserved in cosmolene (or whatever sticky mess they used at the time). I was only able to find one pic (the first one posted), but some eagle-eyed member should be able to figure out exactly what specific K98 model the one I’m firing is. The stocks on all five were much much lighter than the pic shows. The picture quality sucks, compared to today's standards, but keep in mind the pictures posted are scanned from 25 year-old 35mm prints. If digital cameras existed back then, I sure couldn't afford one on E-5 pay.
The other pics are of the soviet weapons. There were RPK-74's, but I haven't scanned all of my deployment pics.. We also found five Thompson submachine guns still in cosmolene and with War Department serial numbers, which we were able to trace back to the 101st Airborne’s jump during Overlord. If they're going to be in any of the pics, it would be the first one with me firing the Mauser...I do remember they were all the way at the end of the line, on my right. All of the 7.62mm weapons were loaded with straight tracer rounds, because that was all we found; we set fire to the area we were using as a range five times that day. There are more 35mm pics, but they still need to be scanned.
I really wish I had been more interested in collecting, than I was shooting, back then. Detailed pics would have been nice. When I PCSd in ‘01, the K98’s and the Thompsons were hanging on the walls of 2/10th SFG(A) battalion headquarters at Ft. Carson, so presumably they're still there, unless they grew legs and walked.
Enjoy.
