American Sniper - Boekje Pienter

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suddenly, it’s black and you feel like you’re in the middle of swirling
mineshaft, or maybe the rinse cycle in a bizarre washing machine that
uses sand instead of water.
I remember being in an airplane hangar, and even though the
doors were closed, the amount of dust in the air was unbelievable. The
sand was a fine grit that you never wanted to get in your eyes, because
it would never come out. We quickly learned to wear goggles to protect
them; sunglasses wouldn’t do.
60 GUNNER
Being a new guy, I was the 60 gunner.
As I’m sure many of you know, “60” refers to the M-60 generalpurpose
machine gun, a belt-fed weapon that has served the U.S. military
in a number of versions for several decades.
The M-60 was developed in the 1950s. It fires 7.62-mm bullets;
the design is so flexible that it can be used as the basis for a coaxial
machine gun in armored vehicles and helicopters, and a light, mancarried
squad-level weapon. It was a workhorse in the Vietnam War,
where grunts called it “the Pig” and occasionally cursed over the hot
barrel, which required an asbestos glove to change after firing a few
hundred rounds—not particularly convenient in combat.
The Navy made substantial improvements to the weapon over the
years, and it remains a potent gun. The newest version is so improved,
in fact, that it rates a different designation: the Navy calls it an Mk-43
Mod 0. (Some contend it should be considered a completely separate
weapon; I’m not going to wade into that debate.) It’s comparatively
light—in the area of twenty-three pounds—and has a relatively short