cowboy wrote on 08/23/12 at 21:25:40:i don't believe those guys are snipers. out in the open, to many shots. they are reg. army. you guys should read a book called american sniper by nayy seal chris kyle. over 160 kills. heck of a read.
In this situation the team chose to bring the 50 so they could reach out and touch someone farther out. Given the mission assigned, team members choose their weapons based upon their expected needs and they have every type weapon there is to choose from.
The hardware has changed over time of course with new and improved stuff available now, but the basics of how they operate their missions is still the same. I spent the last 6 months of a tour in Vietnam flying full time (UH-1H Huey) for the Special Op's group in northern S Vietnam. (all across the DMZ, Khe Sanh, Laos and into North Vietnam) When prepping for a mission they would open up their armory and say "pick what you want to carry today". The variety was amazing and made for a heck of a lot of fun. I favored a sawed off M-1 with carved piston grip and dual 30 round clips tapped together for a quick flip reload. The mini grenades (golf ball size) were a favorite as well. I could load my lower flightsuit pant leg pockets with 8-10 in each. They were tiny but had a similar kill radius as a standard grenade.
We took out heavy teams on occasion who carried a 5.56 mini-gun mounted on a double layer 3/4" treated plywood and 2 truck batteries to spin the barrel up.
My call sign was "Lancer27"http://www.thelancers.org/ 
* My daily ride 
(I ran across this on a forum while looking for maps; this happened just a couple of months after I finished my tour in Dec '71 and went back to THE REAL WORLD as it was termed. This was part of our operating area)Fran Lawrence says:
4/7/2009 at 1:42 pm
Also, March 29-30 1972 at Quang Tri, was the first time that SAMs and regular AAA weapons were used. The NVA introduced the Soviet-built SA-7 (Strella) heat-seeking, shoulder-fired missile, for use against low and slow-flying Allied aircraft. It was deadly, and numerous Allied aircraft losses were attributed to the weapon.
Air cavalry units with the primary mission of supporting South Vietnamese Army forces were the only active Army combat units in Vietnam throughout 1972. Both the 11th CAG and the 12th CAG, (Combat Aviation Group), were there until at least Feb. 1973.
Many of these men fought, supplied logistical lift and provided medevacs in support of the ARVN troops in the biggest battle of Vietnam, ‘The Easter Offensive’ or ‘The Spring Offensive’. ‘The Easter Offensive’ began and ended in ‘The Second Battle of Quang Tri’. Some of these men died there.
Until USAF fire power could be transported back from Saigon, (sent there from the ‘drawdown’), 1st Calvary, Combat Aviation Groups held down the fort with help from the Marines that where still there. There were still some Navy offshore that helped too later with firepower. The Army of the Republic of Vietnam, backed by the United States Army, shelled more than 80,000 tons of ordnance, the destructive capacity equivalent to almost six Hiroshima-size atomic bombs.
When the massive firepower was first unleashed, unsuspecting NVA soldiers reporting for duty were in the city at the time and Quang Tri was referred to as ‘Hamburger City’ by some that saw the aftermath.
As well, leading out of the city was still ‘The Highway of Horrors’ from when South Vietnam had earlier lost its Quang Tri Province on May 1st, 1972 and the NVA cut down masses of panic civilians, war refugees, who were fleeing the city and got stuck at Truong Phuoc Bridge because of the traffic jam after an enemy artillery shell heavily damaged the bridge. Chaos occurred when enemy artillery began a rain of many hundreds shells from their 130mm guns on the refugees. A moment later, Communist foot soldiers attacked the crowd with infantry weapons that included mortars and grenade launchers.
When ‘The Second Battle of Quang Tri’ was over, (Sept. 16, 1972 the city was taken back. On Oct. 22, 1972 Quang Tri Province firebases were secured), not one building remained standing. The intense bombing, combined with U.S. use of the Agent Orange defoliant, turned the land into a virtual moonscape.
This all took place during ‘Operation Ceasefire’ when we were standing down and turning over the bases to the ARVN.
Americans still have little knowledge of this time in Vietnam and the part that brave American troops, including U.S. Army Air Calvary, Combat Aviation Groups, took in it.
As well, the brave nurses and doctors, many that volunteered, during this horrific time.
Camp Evans: Our home base; you can see the beach in the upper right...got there to swim a few times...a really nice break 
Major northern city, Quang Tri on the right; red line at top left is DMZ's souther line; larger bold black names are US Fire Bases; our normal daily job as an Assault Helicopter Co. was to support the Fire Bases with troops and supplies, with larger combat assaults thrown in here and there. The Huey is a pick-up-truck with M60 (7.62)machine guns on both sides for defense. 
Khe Sanh...site of 2 very large and costly battles; I got there just in time for the 2nd one.
In the upper right is the ROCKPILE; a mountain of solid rock jutting up from the surrounding terrain. The peak of that rock is where I inserted the special ops team with the minigun. When we picked them up later in the midst of an all out assault on the team there was brain matter splattered all over the minigun. It's the kind of thing that sticks with you forever. 
The Rockpile 
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