"CRAZY QUESTION"

"CRAZY QUESTION"

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How many bullets were fired in the Vietnam war?

Discounting artillery (Navy 16", 8", 6", 5", mortars, 40mm/Army & Marines 106mm, 90mm, 57mm recoilless rifles, 40mm Dusters & 40mm grenade launchers (M79 & M203), mortars, 175mm, 8", 155mm, and 105mm). Discounting 20mm jet & airplane cannons.

Discounting allied & enemy forces. "AN ESTIMATED 5 BILLION BULLETS FIRED IN VIETNAM" .30 caliber carbine, .30 caliber (30-06) M1 Garand, .30 caliber Browning machine gun, .50 caliber Browning machine gun (B52 tail gunners fired quad fifties downing two NVAF MiG21s in 1972), M60 machine guns (.308 caliber/7.62mm NATO), .223 caliber (5.56mm NATO), .45 caliber (M3 Grease guns & Thompson submachineguns), .38 revolver (carried by many US airmen in Vietnam). Note: US Armored Cavalry/Mechanized Infantry/Tank Battalions carried and expended about 1/2 million rounds per battalion every 30 to 60 days. Which would be about 6 million rounds expended or destroyed per year per battalion; there were 23 such battalions in South Vietnam. Straight grunt battalions (Straight leg units/regular infantry) carried far less ammunition; each M16 bandoleer consisted of 7 twenty round magazines & the average grunt packed 5 to 7 such bandoleers But they were almost always loaded with only 18 rounds instead of 20 to prevent jamming, therefore each bandoleer contained roughly 126 M16 rounds (7 bandoleers consisted of about 882 rounds, so 10 men carried about 8,820 cartridges). Helicopter door gunners added to the formula.