Customer Tales Vol 2 - The Door Gunner

Customer Tales II

The Door Gunner

On social media we often hear the term “Door Gunner”.

It conjures scene of a Huey Helicopter flying over Vietnam, quite possibly accompanied by the sound track of “Paint it Black” by the ‘Stones or “Fortunate son” by CCR.

An exciting scene as Hollywood would have us believe, that is if you are not a Vietnamese on the ground.

This customer needed modifications made to his rig in order to accommodate the larger size of his Magazines for his rifle. When I asked him what it was for, without skipping a beat, he said “I am the door gunner”.

I think I spewed a bit of coffee over my keyboard when he said that.

Obviously he now had my attention and I gave the logical answer, “What!” I am not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to laws and was intrigued. His explanation was simple. He was part of an Anti-Poaching operation somewhere south of the Zambesi.

It was explained to me that their ‘çopter had often been fired upon by poachers. Such a situation is most unnerving to say the least and at best gets one an exhilarating helicopter flight.

I was relieved to hear that in non-war situations normal morality and laws still applied, it is still illegal to simply gun someone down from out of a side door of a chopper.

On getting fired upon he would then reply with “7.62x51”Loudspeak!

As an aside: I am in the fortunate position to still have a good friend who has been in no less than 3 helicopter crash landings. The one time it was a caused by doppie that was inhaled by the helicopter jet turbine intake. Needless to say he got a sound thrashing from the pilot once on the ground and the blades stopped topped spinning. Shooting from the air in a helli is a complicated business

Here is a tip that was shared with me for when you hit the ground hard in a helicopter: Do not get out until the blades have all stopped moving. If all you can see is flames, you might have to decide otherwise. If the pilot is moering you, you caused the hard landing.

But I digress; Still, the fact that civilians are having to act as door gunners, is indicative of the rot that permeates our broader society. Let’s hope that no one has to be killed to protect our endangered wild life. A bloke who puts himself in harm’s way both physically and legally to protect what is his, does say something about his commitment to protecting his own.

Well we certainly hope that our customers Stay Safe. Africa is not for sissies and the good guys are going to need gear and TheQuarterMaster is ready to do just that: Supply the Good Guys with Good Gear.