It’s 1966, the height of the Vietnam War, when Lance Corporal Richard Pittman and the
rest of his platoon stumble into a living hell.
It’s an ambush; nobody could’ve seen this attack coming, and with no way to plan for
it, it’s quickly turning from a fight to a massacre.
Pittman and his fellow surviving troops are hopelessly pinned down, with no avenue for
escape.
The radios squawk with desperate requests for reinforcements, but it seems like those
prayers are falling on deaf ears.
Then, something heavy lands in front of the Lance Corporal, dropped by one of his fallen
comrades.
It’s easily over twenty pounds, much heavier than the rifle in his hands that feels like
a flimsy cap gun by comparison.
Pittman hurls his current firearm to the ground, making a mad dash forward to grab the bulkier
weapon.
An act that completely shirks his own safety in favor of the remnants of his platoon.
He hoists the bulky weapon off the ground with all of his strength, and squeezes the
trigger.
Bullets spew from the barrel at a rate fast enough to send over five hundred rounds toward
a target in a single minute.
As he feels the immense kick of the recoil sending the weapon’s stock shuddering back,
connecting with his own body, Pittman realizes why the rest of the boys took to calling it
‘the Pig.’
Mere minutes and a hail of bullets later, two of the enemy’s machine gun posts had
been destroyed single-handedly by Pittman and the Pig he was now carrying.
No time for celebrations, however, as before long, the explosions of mortar fire rock the
area around him, and the Lance Corporal is forced to haul all twenty-three pounds of
the weapon in his hands as he makes a break for cover.
Nearby, some of his fellow Marines are wounded, and he races over to them… only to be met
with an oncoming attack of around forty enemy soldiers charging at their position.
Taking up the Pig again, Pittman opens fire.
The machine gun chews through the belt that feeds bullets into it, raining empty casings
as it sprays at wave after wave of oncoming attackers.
But before long, the Pig is running on empty, and Lance Corporal Pittman is forced to drop
the heavy weapon.
Grabbing a firearm from one of his comrades and clearing the area with a grenade, Lance
Corporal Pittman kept up the fight while dragging the wounded troops to a position with better
cover.
Pittman near-single-handedly thwarted an enemy attack that day and was awarded the Medal
of Honor for saving the lives of his platoon.
But he didn’t exactly do it alone; Lance Corporal Pittman had a little helping hand
from a weapon that has seen plenty of action over the previous sixty-six years.
Nicknamed for its bulky size and appetite for eating up ammunition, this not-so-little
piggy has served with almost every branch of the United States military, and to this
day, is still used by the armed forces of multiple countries around the world.
Say hello to the M60 Machine Gun.
The M60 may have started to see action when it was first deployed in 1957, but it actually
began its life much earlier in the late 1940s.
In the wake of the Second World War and a victory for the Allied Forces over Nazi Germany,
the US Army was looking into ways to incorporate weapons that were similar to certain weapons
that the German army had used during World War II.
Many of these offered troops flexibility in how their weapons were used on the battlefield,
and it was this that the Allies – especially the US – sought to incorporate into their
own new weapons.
Most notably, the FG-42 automatic rifle and MG-42 general-purpose machine gun were two
pre-existing German weapons that directly influenced the design of the M60.
Although the use of light machine guns on the battlefield hadn’t been a recent innovation
– having been used since the introduction of the Danish Madsen in the early 1900s – the
M60 was intended to be a crew-served weapon.
This means that it, and other weapons systems like it, would be operated by a crew of two
or more individual soldiers.
Each member of the crew would perform tasks that enabled the weapon itself to run at maximum
operational efficiency.
In the case of the M60, the crew operating it would consist of three members.
First and foremost, there would be the gunner, as you can imagine, the person responsible
for aiming and firing the weapon.
They would also be responsible for carrying the M60 and, depending on their level of stamina,
between two hundred and a thousand rounds of ammo.
Alongside them would be the assistant gunner, whose job was to carry spare ammunition and
a spare barrel.
The M60’s barrel could be quickly changed out in the event of a jam or overheating.
The assistant would also reload the M60 once it ran empty and spot targets for the gunner.
Then thirdly, the remaining member of the crew was to be the ammunition bearer.
They would also be responsible for bringing additional ammo of their own, along with a
tripod, should the M60 need to be mounted for stability.
However, one of the key elements of the M60’s design was that it was also intended to be
fired accurately from the shoulder – at least, at short range.
This was a feature that, during the weapon’s development, was carried over from the pre-existing
M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle, or the ‘BAR.’
Given the size, weight, and bulk of the M60, it could also be fitted with an integral bipod,
which are two ‘legs’ at the front of the weapon that can fold under the barrel and,
when extended, can bear some of the weight and help to stabilize the machine gun.
Now, the question you might be pondering is if the US Army had access to existing weapons
that their M60 was derived from, why go to all that trouble to manufacture their own
version in the first place?
Well, it largely came from a requirement all the way from the United States Congress.
This gave preference to weapon designs that had come from American arms manufacturers,
primarily so that the US couldn’t incur licensing fees for the use of foreign-designed
and manufactured arms – like the aforementioned MG-42.
Additionally, Congress also wanted their military to be seen supporting US firms, so the decision
to develop and adopt the M60 largely came about due to it being an all-American light
machine gun.
The M60 was first introduced and deployed in 1957, and incorporated various features
of the earlier weapons that inspired its design.
Perhaps its most distinctive feature was that it was a belt-fed machine gun that incorporated
disintegrating links.
Now, don’t worry if those words all sound a bit too confusingly technical.
We’ll explain what we mean.
A belt-fed weapon, or one that uses an ammunition belt, is any firearm that is fed ammo cartridges
that are strung together.
This is typically seen in a lot of rapid-firing automatic weapons, with the ammunition belt
either feeding into the weapon freely, or packed into a belt container that allows for
more portability.
The reason this is done, as was the case with the M60, is to minimize the impact that the
weight of the ammunition had on the operational efficiency of the weapon.
After all, carrying around one of these is enough hard work, especially without the other
two members of the crew present.
No soldier armed with an M60 wants to be weighed down by the bullets.
The belt-fed ammunition of the M60 also allowed the machine gun to have a higher rate of continuous
fire without the need to frequently change magazines.
The specific ammunition fired by the M60 was 7.62 x 51mm NATO cartridges, bullets that
were commonly used in larger rifles.
These cartridges would be strung together in a belt of what were known as M13 links.
This is a designation given to a particular type of ammunition belt, sometimes referred
to by the US military as ‘disintegrating links.’
These were specifically designed to bind 7.62 x 51mm NATO cartridges together, and so the
M60 was designed with this in mind.
Whereas some older designs of links connected cartridges to each other at the neck, the
links holding the M60’s ammunition were intended to disintegrate after firing each
shot.
Well, not literally turning to dust, but coming apart in a way that meant there was no excess
weight of an empty ammo belt to carry.
Each round fed into the M60 would be contained in one of these links.
A semi-circular loop holds the main body of the cartridge casing, while two small arms
connect to similar loops that hold the next round in the belt.
As the trigger of an M60 is pulled, and the weapon is fired, the cartridge is pushed out
of the links as the bolt of the machine gun goes forward.
Within the internal mechanism of the M60 is what’s known as a feeding pawl, which pulls
the belt to the right, bringing the next round into place, ready to be fired.
Meanwhile, the expended bullet casing is ejected out of the right side of the weapon.
Thanks to the design of the disintegrating belt, the now-loose link that held the previous
round comes apart and is also ejected along with the empty casing.
By the time the M60 saw its first-ever deployments, the United States was already well into the
second year of the Vietnam War.
Many of their units were issued M60 machine guns, and these new weapons would often play
decisive roles in the fighting.
Before long, M60s were mounted on vehicles of every kind, the whole US military arsenal
had been kitted out with these shiny belt-fed killing machines.
Everything from choppers to tanks, trucks, and even boats had an M60 fitted on it, as
the light machine gun was used in every conceivable way it could be.
M60s were set up on tripods in fortifications to defend areas from attack, while US troops
wore belts of its ammunition draped over their shoulders in order to carry the heavy ammo
and keep their hands free to use and operate the weapon.
Soldiers came to appreciate how well the M60 handled, along with the mechanical simplicity
of its design, which made it easy to maintain and repair in case of damage.
The newly deployed machine gun saw its widest-ever use among the US infantry during the Vietnam
War.
However, it was far from a game-changer for the US, whose forces would ultimately be forced
to evacuate from Vietnam in 1973.
Despite the effectiveness of the weapon in combat, the M60 – along with a lot of other
American weapons – wasn’t well suited for the tropical climate and harsh conditions
of Vietnam.
The Pig, as its nickname partially suggests, was a heavy beast.
Combine having to carry a combined nearly thirty pounds of weaponry and ammo while in
the blistering jungle heat and intense humidity, and you’re looking at a back-breaking task
for even the toughest soldier.
The environment of Vietnam also caused a lot of M60 machine guns to break.
The weapon itself being designed to be carried by a single soldier meant that it had to be
relatively lightweight – at least when compared to heavier artillery.
But this lightweight construction meant the M60 was prone to malfunction, as critical
parts like the bolt and operating rod could wear away with continued use or become damaged
in the kind of minor accidents you’re likely to see in an active warzone.
Jams were not uncommon too, especially when the M60s got dirty, and if spent bullet cartridges
or the disintegrating links of the ammunition belt ever failed to eject from the chamber,
then soldiers would require extra time to fix it and feed the belt back into their M60
– which wasn’t exactly the most ideal situation to be in if an enemy soldier was
running at you.
The M60 also featured a swinging lever that jutted out of its main body, and if this ever
snagged on a soldier’s gear, it could detach the barrel and cause that crucial component
to come away.
It was for many of these reasons that Marine units didn’t initially use the M60, instead
preferring to stick to their older BARs instead.
However, the US Navy SEALs, the renowned special operations force, were known to have a certain
fondness for the machine gun.
During the Vietnam War, they even utilized their own custom versions of the M60 machine
gun, which sported shorter barrels and belts that fed into the weapons from backpacks full
of ammunition, allowing for hundreds of rounds’ worth of uninterrupted fire without the need
to reload.
These weren’t the only variants of the M60 to exist either.
One of the first variants that was developed and issued to troops was the M60E1.
This differed slightly from the original M60 when it came to the placement of the bipod
– the two legs that could be used to stabilize the weapon during continuous fire.
On the M60, the bipod was located underneath the barrel, which could provide the necessary
support, but also ran the risk of getting in the way when the weapon’s barrel needed
changing.
The M60 operator’s manual recommended that soldiers perform a barrel change every ten
minutes, and during an engagement, a few seconds where that action is interrupted by the bipod
being in the way could have made a crucial difference.
So, the M60E1’s bipod was moved to the gun’s gas tube, making these quick changes slightly
easier.
Later versions included the M60E3, which instead had its bipod mounted on the weapon’s receiver,
came with an ambidextrous safety switch, and was overall five pounds lighter than previous
iterations of the M60.
However, this lighter frame and the M60E3’s skinnier barrel meant this version was more
prone to overheating and breaking.
Eventually, while there is still some continued usage of them today, the M60 would come to
be replaced in the US Army by a pair of newer light machine guns.
One of these is the M240 machine gun, first introduced in the 1970s.
Comparably, this weapon was heavier than its predecessor, however, thanks to its improved
design, it was considerably more reliable.
The other was the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, or SAW, which was much lighter.
The M249 SAW combined the high rate of fire of weapons like the M60 with the lightweight
portability and accuracy of a rifle.
However, while most of the US Army and US Marine Corps started to use these newer weapons,
the M60s day wasn’t quite done.
The Navy SEALs had embraced the M60 since the Vietnam War, and the weapon’s final
iteration, the M60E4, saw a lot of usage among their ranks, becoming the most reliable model
of the machine gun.
This was in part due to the improvements that the M60E4 had over the original, including
a selection of long and short barrel options for different ranged encounters.
The M60E4 was also much lighter than both the M60 and the newer M240 machine guns, with
an overall weight of around twenty-one pounds.
Add to that the fact that the gun’s barrels were lined with stellite, which improved the
weapon’s resistance to overheating and stopped it from wearing out as easily.
It also came with rails for attaching optics, and as well as being lighter and smaller than
the new M240s.
It was also reported to work more reliably in salt water, perfect for the SEALs who are
known to conduct amphibious operations.
Given that they are often sent on raiding missions and missions where it’s essential
for them to travel as light as possible, that makes the M60E4 far better suited for the
type of operations the Navy SEALs are deployed on.
Although, for the most part, the Pig has been put back in the barn by a lot of the US military,
surpassed by more improved, modern weaponry, the M60 is still seeing some use among the
Coast Guard, the Navy – and, in particular, the SEALs – over sixty years after it was
first deployed during the Vietnam War.
Not bad for a sixty-year-old machine gun, right?
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