Tale of a Heroic Sailor: Ensign Stannus' M1911A1
Forgotten Weapons
•
10m
Robert "Dickie" Stannus was , in technical terms, a total stud. So much so that he was awarded an inscribed M1911A1 directly by Colt as a prize for being the top sailor in his Naval Academy class. He got the privilege of choosing what ship he would be assigned to, and chose the USS Bear, an assault transport. On its 1959 cruise from Yokosuka for exercises, it encountered Typhoon Ellen, one of the strongest recorded storms of the century. When one of the Bexar's Marines was washed overboard, Stannus dove into the surging waves to save the man - and did so successfully. As the Marine was being hauled back on board, though, the ship took a roll and Stannus was drowned beneath the hull.
Stannus' Naval Academy memorial page:
https://usnamemorialhall.org/index.php/ROBERT_D._STANNUS,_ENS,_USN
Up Next in Forgotten Weapons
-
The Bosnian Full-Auto SKS with AK Mags
During the Balkan Wars, a great many oddball guns were built and used. One of them was a Bosnian conversion of the Yugoslav M59/66 SKS to have a select-fire trigger and to use modified detachable AK magazines. These are extremely rare today, as only a few of them (probably a dozen at most) came i...
-
HK43: The 5.56mm "Paramilitary" Rifle
Before the H&K 90 series of rifles - the civilian semiautomatic versions - existed, there was the 40-series; the paramilitary rifles. Originally intended for German reservist purchase, the HK41 and HK43 were G3 and HK33 rifles made in semiautomatic only configuration. In the early 1970s, these w...
-
Snipers Before Infantry: the Danish m...
The Danes adopted the M1 Garand after World War Two, and continued using it as their standard service rifle all the way until 1975 - and alongside it they used the M1D as a sniper or DMR rifle. The Danish Home Guard decided to upgrade those M1D rifles in the 1960s, however, and looked to H&K for ...
