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Articles by Will Dabbs
The Accidental Outpost
Depending upon how you count them, there are between 193 and 195 recognized countries in the world today. The Vatican and Palestine are the two most ambiguous examples. Nowadays, nations go to war over the most trivial geographical infractions. However, the world was once a much more rollicking, less regimented space. This fetching lad is the esteemed Christopher Columbus. Depending upon your perspective, he was either a valiant explorer or a bloodthirsty imperialist.
War Stories: He Survived Omaha Beach
October 27th, 2026 6 minute read John looked like a character on Hee Haw, if a character on Hee Haw was not terribly silly. He carried himself like a grandfather. He was thin and always wore the same basic uniform — a pressed collared shirt buttoned at the neck and wrists, spotlessly clean bib overalls, and a ball cap. He had some chronic medical problems, so I saw him fairly frequently in my medical clinic. He also lived right down the road from me.
Garrett Trapnell: The Con Man Who Sparked 3 Hijackings
Estimated reading time: 11 minutes Garrett Trapnell was a career criminal, master manipulator, and convicted airplane hijacker whose influence inspired two women to attempt extraordinary prison rescues. What followed involved a .45-caliber pistol, a hijacked helicopter, another commandeered airliner, and one of the strangest crime stories of the 1970s. My dad was an all-American football player in college. Sadly, those genes seemed to have skipped me.
F4U Corsair Pilots Who Refused to Die
Estimated reading time: 11 minutes Two young Marine F4U Corsair pilots entered a savage Pacific dogfight and somehow survived the impossible. One met a Japanese Zero’s propeller. The other fell 2,000 feet without a working parachute. The F4U Corsair was one of the most graceful flying machines ever produced. The Japanese called it the “Whistling Death” due to the distinctive sound it made when the wind was roaring through the oil coolers in the wing roots. Wikipedia photo by Gary Wetzler.
The Curious Origins of K-Rations
Ancel Keys was a polymath who, among many other things, personally developed the US Army’s K-rations. Fair use. It is a soldier’s lot to gripe about his food. That has been the case since well before Hannibal’s hordes coaxed their elephants across the Alps. For literally millennia, those were pretty reasonable gripes. Then America happened. Ours is the best-equipped, most powerful military in all of human history.
Thompson Forced Reset Trigger Review: Is It Worth the Money?
The FRT-equipped M1 Thompson SBR runs almost as well as the expensive full-auto without all the hassle and at a much lower cost. (Photo by Will Dabbs) All real men covet a Thompson submachine gun of their own. The look, the history, the heft and those endless bursts of full-auto fire. Made famous in countless war movies and gangster flics, it’s those long bursts of full-auto fire that people associate with the Thompson. Tragically, an original Thompson submachine gun costs some $30,000 today.
Miracle at Truk: Operation Hailstone
October 17th, 2026 6 minute read The Japanese seized the Caroline Islands in Micronesia in 1914, and established a naval base on the island of Truk within it in 1939. As the primary anchorage for the Imperial Japanese Navy’s 4th Fleet, Truk was soon transformed into a fortress. Truk seemed the perfect spot. Offering a natural protected harbor with ready access to nearby deep water, Truk played home to dozens of Japanese warships and merchant vessels.
FN SCAR Buyer’s Guide 2026: 16S vs. 17S vs. 20S
Estimated reading time: 21 minutes The FN SCAR has grown from the 5.56 rifle reviewed here into a full family spanning fast-handling carbines and 20-inch precision rifles. For 2026, the question is no longer whether the SCAR is interesting. It is whether the 16S, 17S, or 20S makes enough sense to justify one very serious swipe of the credit card.
The Real Red October Heist You Never Heard Of
Estimated reading time: 11 minutes A young Italian officer stole a brand new submarine to drag his nation into war, then helped shape the frogmen who inspired modern special ops. It sounds like Clancy, but this actually happened. As is the case with all proper gun scribes, Tom Clancy is my hero. He pioneered the genre of the techno thriller and was a lyrically successful writer. However, Clancy actually got his start as an insurance salesman.
When the Wolfman’s Cousin Saved the World
Ancel Keys, the Wolfman's cousin. Back when I was a kid, folks used to die in their fifties of heart disease all the time. I recall coming to church and hearing friends’ parents lamenting the fact that Mr. Smith or Mr. Jones had been toiling away at work and just fell over dead from a heart attack. That still happens, but it’s not nearly as common. There are a lot of reasons for this. Curiously, our lifestyles are way worse today.
FP-5 Flamingo: Ukraine’s 1,900-Mile Pink Hammer
Estimated reading time: 12 minutes The FP-5 Flamingo is a roughly 13,000-pound pink cruise missile carrying a 2,540-pound warhead out to extraordinary distances. Its origin story involves Ukrainian startups, worn-out jet engines, international misdirection, and one of the strangest weapons to emerge from the war. The Fire Point FP-5 Flamingo long-range cruise missile is bringing the fight to the Russians now four years into the bloody Ukraine war. Fire Point photo.
Doctor Death - American Handgunner
This is a pretty typical guillotine automatic beheading device. It’s honestly pretty pathetic that, as a species, we have to make stuff like this. Wikipedia photo by Christian Ries. Mary, Queen of Scots, was late to her own execution. A famously Catholic regent, the well-known diva was condemned by her cousin Elizabeth I, the reigning queen of England. The Protestant Elizabeth had been surreptitiously reading Mary’s encoded mail.
Picking the Arsenal of a 1920s Professional Adventurer
We explore the possibilities from pistols, hunting rifles and automatic weapons as we build a fictional arsenal of a 1920s adventurer. (Photos by Will Dabbs and Rock Island Auction) Editor's Note: Every shooter has played some version of this game. If you could step back in time and build the perfect battery of firearms for a specific era, what would you choose? Not what was common. Not what was affordable. What was the very best, or perhaps most interesting available?
He Cut Out an Appendix 120 Feet Underwater
Estimated reading time: 12 minutes At 22, Navy medic Johnny Lipes faced an impossible choice aboard the submerged USS Seadragon: improvise an appendectomy with kitchen utensils and raw ether, or watch a crewmate die. This is Johnny Lipes. When he was a 22-year-old Pharmacist’s Mate aboard the USS Seadragon in 1942, he performed a most amazing feat of personal bravery. I’ve been churning out these Monday morning GunsAmerica columns for years now. I am sincerely grateful that you keep reading them.
The Father of Modern Shipping
Malcom McLean looked at the world in a fresh new way and became fabulously successful as a result. Wikipedia photo by Maersk Lines. How many times have you looked at some common object in everyday use and lamented the fact that you didn’t think of that first? We’ve all been there. In my mind at least, I’m never more than one good inspiration away from becoming the next Elon Musk. There are lots of reasons why this will never happen. I’m a fair to middling word monkey.
The M14 Rifle: Exploring its Strengths and Weaknesses
The M14 rifle was the standard service arm when American forces were first committed to action in Vietnam. (Will Dabbs photo) Published: By Will Dabbs, MD I used to work with a dear friend who served as a Navy SEAL in Vietnam in 1970. Any time things got slow at work, I just hit him up for a story. That guy never failed to disappoint. His standard loadout on operations was an M14 rifle, a slide-action 12-gauge shotgun he had acquired in a poker game, an M1911A1 .45 pistol, and a backup .38 revolver.
The BAR Squad Auto: Exploring Its Strengths and Weaknesses
The Browning Automatic Rifle helped transform modern infantry tactics and while well-liked by the troops, it had its strengths and weaknesses we explore here.(Will Dabbs photo) 13 September 1918 was a Friday…Friday the 13th. This was the day Blackjack Pershing had chosen to push the 79th Infantry Division into action against the Germans as part of the Meuse-Argonne offensive. Up and down the extensive Allied trench system, young men fiddled nervously with their weapons.
Super Safety Review: The Best AR-15 Forced Reset Trigger?
The Super Safety Forced Reset Trigger consists of three parts that transform a standard semi-auto AR-15 into a sort-of machine gun analog. For the time being, in most but not all states the design remains firmly within the bounds of legality. (Photo by Will Dabbs) Can a $120 collection of steel parts deliver something approaching the experience of a transferable machine gun worth more than $30,000?
Shipping Hacks - American Handgunner
Reg Spiers was a quite competent javelin thrower who didn’t quite make the cut for the Olympics. Social media photo. I daresay most all of us have a weakness for gun stuff. Little makes a good day a great day faster than glancing out the front window to spot the Brown Truck of Happiness pulling up the drive with some gun-related widget in tow.
The Doctor Who Earned the Victoria Cross Twice
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes Shot three times and still refusing to quit, Dr. Arthur Martin-Leake became one of only three men ever to earn the Victoria Cross twice. His story makes most definitions of courage seem inadequate. This is Arthur Martin-Leake. He was utterly fearless in combat. Public domain. There is kind of a weird dichotomy in my world.
The Enterprise, Alabama, Boll Weevil Monument
There is this peculiar artificiality intrinsic to modern life. Inundated as we are with modern conveniences, one might be forgiven for believing that chickens are born shrink-wrapped in Styrofoam trays, that tuna fish are hatched in cans, and that corn springs forth from the ground in tasty flakes covered in sugar. In reality, a simply breathtaking amount of industrial processing stands between the raw material and what we all cram into our pie holes.
The Real Nazi Gold Heist Behind Kelly’s Heroes
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes A real WWII gold grab with OSS shadows and missing bars reads like Kelly’s Heroes with receipts. The chaos was real, the loot was massive, and the ending still stings. Second only to Aliens, Kelley’s Heroes is my favorite movie. Featuring an ensemble cast led by Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland, and Don Rickles, Kelley’s Heroes is equal parts comedy, caper movie, action film, and subtle antiwar commentary.
Gilligan’s Island Professor Was a B-25 War Hero
Estimated reading time: 13 minutes Before Russell Johnson became the cerebral Professor on Gilligan’s Island, he flew 44 combat missions in B25 Mitchell bombers and survived being shot down in the Pacific. His real life was considerably more dangerous than anything that ever happened on that uncharted island. The eclectic castaways on Gilligan’s Island became an iconic part of vintage Americana.
Sd.Kfz. 2 Kettenkrad: Germany’s Halftrack Motorcycle
September 5th, 2026 6 minute read The argument can be made that the Germans make the world’s best engineers. By way of evidence I would submit the StG44 assault rifle, the Me 262 jet fighter, and the Panther tank. While, in each case, the exigencies of around-the-clock bombing certainly took a toll on these revolutionary weapon systems, one cannot help but be impressed with the sheer mechanical elegance of the things.
Before GunBroker and the Internet, There Was Shotgun News
The Hardballer Longslide was a recurrent theme in 1980s-vintage Shotgun News ads. (Will Dabbs) I came of age in the 1970s in the American Deep South. Little boys of my era claimed closer kinship to their pets than their parents. We were fairly feral. When not actively enslaved in the local schoolhouse, we roamed free and unfettered. My bicycle was my ticket to liberty.
Herschel Grynszpan: The Shot That Shook Nazi Germany
Estimated reading time: 12 minutes Herschel Grynszpan was seventeen when he walked into the German embassy in Paris with a tiny handgun. Five shots later, the Nazis had the excuse they wanted to unleash Kristallnacht. This brooding young man murdered a Nazi official when he was only seventeen years old and inadvertently kicked off the Holocaust. Bundesarchiv. Antisemitism is as old as humanity. I struggle to comprehend it myself.
First Look: Springfield Armory Kuna Tri-Lug
August 25th, 2026 7 minute read Editor’s Note: This Springfield Armory Kuna Tri-Lug article is based on the hands on testing conducted with the pistol provided to the author by the company. All opinions are based on the author’s experiences with that firearm. The new Springfield Armory Tri-Lug Kuna adds a new layer of versatility to this already-superb 9mm tactical pistol.
Smedley Butler: The Marine Who Won Two Medals of Honor
Estimated reading time: 11 minutes Major General Smedley Butler collected two Medals of Honor, fought across the globe, battled corruption at home, and later claimed powerful businessmen wanted him at the center of an American coup. American movie icon John Wayne likely would not have been nearly so successful had he gone by his given name of Marion. Public domain. My name is Willis. I honestly would have preferred William, but I didn’t pick it. Mine is a family name.
War Stories: Ambushing a Viet Cong Ambush
August 20th, 2026 6 minute read George lived about a block from where I grew up. A Vietnam veteran and avid hunter, he came back from the war and opened a gunsmith shop attached to his home. Every morning, he simply walked from his kitchen out onto his driveway and into his shop. He spent his days working on customer’s firearms and then wrapped up in time for supper. His precious wife taught me sixth grade.
James Bond Guns: How the Walther PPK Became 007’s Iconic Pistol
More than any other firearm, the Walther PPK is inextricably associated with one particular fictional character. Thanks to Ian Fleming’s super spy James Bond, even people who aren’t into guns recognize the PPK. In a manner of speaking, it was actually Commander Bond who drove the extraordinary success of the trim little Walther pocket pistol.
Springfield Armory 1911 DS Prodigy 3.5 AOS Review
The 1911 is America’s handgun. The argument can be made that if you don’t love the 1911 you might not love your momma. John Moses Browning’s sensuous lines and serious manly architecture helped free the world from tyranny. That’s a fairly compelling pedigree. But even after 115 years, there’s still room for improvement. The Springfield Armory 1911 DS Prodigy 3.5” AOS addresses three of the original 1911 design’s biggest shortcomings all at once: size, capacity, and modern optics capability.
Sten vs PPSh-41: Which WWII Subgun Was Better?
The British 9mm Sten gun (top) and the Soviet 7.62x25mm PPSh-41 represented two very different routes to a common destination during desperate times. (Photo by Will Dabbs) After the fall of Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands and France the United Kingdom essentially stood alone. The German Army had defeated a numerically superior foe to seize France in a short 43 days.
The Last Operational Tiger Tank of World War II
Estimated reading time: 13 minutes Berlin was collapsing, the Reich was finished, and Georg Diers still had one terrifying steel monster left to fight with. This is the brutal, strange, and curiously compelling story of Germany’s last operational Tiger tank and the man who rode it into the end of the world. This is me dressed as a Waffen SS trooper. It’s a costume. I don’t wear it to church or anything. My willingness to do this is kind of what sets me apart from my peers in the gun writing world.
The Tank Museum: Go Ahead and Touch the Tiger
August 15th, 2026 7 minute read The Tank Museum isn’t on the way to anywhere. Located one mile north of the village of Wool in Dorset in southwest England, The Tank Museum is collocated with the British Army Armor School in Bovington. Nobody gets to The Tank Museum by accident. It’s in the middle of no place. The number of armored vehicles at The Tank Museum (both on display in the museum and in the “overflow area” in the Vehicle Conservation Centre) is stunning.
Ray Davis: The CIA Glock Shooting That Rocked Pakistan
Estimated reading time: 14 minutes A CIA contractor, a 9mm Glock, two dead gunmen, and an international crisis turned Lahore into something that sounded straight out of Jason Bourne. The difference was that Ray Davis was real, and real life got substantially messier. Jason Bourne is the everyman CIA operator. Incredibly capable yet traumatically deprived of his memory, Bourne’s action-packed voyage of discovery has entertained us for decades. Moviestillsdb.com photo.
Canik Prime Radian Review: Custom-Level Control, Straight from the Box
Affiliate Links: We review and recommend gear we love. If you buy through our links, we may earn a small commission from our retail partners at no extra cost to you. The Canik Prime Radian takes the American-made METE MC9 Prime platform and adds some of Radian Weapons’ best-known performance upgrades. The resulting 9mm carry pistol includes a RAMJET barrel, AFTERBURNER compensator and aluminum backstrap and magwell, all installed at the factory.
James Ward Crawled Onto a Burning Bomber at 13,000 Feet
Estimated reading time: 12 minutes A burning Vickers Wellington was coming apart over Holland when Sergeant James Ward did something almost impossible. He crawled outside the bomber at 13,000 feet and went after the fire himself. RAF Sergeant Pilot James Allen Ward was fearless on a whole new scale. Public domain. Between 3 and 6% of the general population suffers from acrophobia. That’s the doctor word for fear of heights.
War Stories: Five Shermans Shot Out From Under Him
August 1st, 2026 7 minute read I used to love working at the VA hospital. Just like everything Uncle Sam does, the Veterans Administration is bloated, inefficient, and frustrating. However, back when I worked there as a physician we still had a proper crop of World War II veterans who needed inpatient care. That was Candyland for a history nerd like me. The M4 Sherman was one of the most effective tanks of the war. However, it was still a terribly dangerous place to be in a serious scrap.
The UT Tower Sniper Attack That Changed Policing
Estimated reading time: 13 minutes Charles Whitman’s UT Tower sniper attack was a nightmare collision of mental illness, firearms, courage, and chaos. The bloody 93 minutes that followed helped push American law enforcement into the modern tactical age. This is Charles J. Whitman. He murdered 17 people in cold blood for reasons nobody ever quite understood. Public domain. We are all fascinated with psychopathology. It’s like watching a car wreck. You cannot take your eyes off of it.
The Corpse Hidden Inside The Six Million Dollar Man
Estimated reading time: 13 minutes A dead Old West train robber, a 1970s TV show, a busted fun house mannequin, and one very real bullet wound all collided in one of the strangest showbiz afterlives ever. Elmer McCurdy was a lousy criminal, but as a corpse, the man had range. The Six Million Dollar Man was a super-strong cyborg astronaut crime fighter played to perfection by Lee Majors. When I was a kid, I wanted to be that guy in the worst way. Public domain.
The Ensign Who Drove USS Aylwin Through Hell
Estimated reading time: 12 minutes Pearl Harbor dropped a half-crewed destroyer into bloody chaos, and a young Ensign with just eight months of active-duty experience answered by taking command, getting USS Aylwin into the fight, and driving her out to sea. Stanley Caplan was no comic-book superhero. He was something rarer, a very young American officer who performed magnificently when the world caught fire. Second Lieutenants are typically very enthusiastic. Lord knows I was.
Operation Anthropoid: Killing the Butcher of Prague
July 11th, 2026 7 minute read Who was the most horrible person in all of human history? Some might claim their mother-in-law. I’m personally crazy about mine. However, I’d like to dig a bit deeper than that today. Reinhard Heydrich, tallest man on the right, along with Heinrich Himmler and other Nazi officials. Image: Public Domain Tragically, the competition for that particularly dark superlative is fierce. I would say that human beings are animals, but that unfairly disparages animals.
Evolution of the M1 Carbine: From M1 to M3 Carbine
The M1 carbine evolved through a variety of forms over the course of its long and successful service life with the US military. (Photo by Will Dabbs) Before the M4 carbine went to war in the Middle East, before American grunts began humping the boonies in Vietnam with the M16, before all of that anodized aluminum and Space Age black plastic, there was the M1 carbine.
Vasa Warship: The Giant That Sank on Day One
Estimated reading time: 13 minutes The Vasa was built to project Swedish power, terrify rivals, and dominate the sea. Instead, this lavish 1628 warship barely made it off the dock before tipping over and turning into one of naval history’s most spectacular disasters. We’ve been doing these GunsAmerica history pieces together for years now. If you’ve followed these history articles for very long, you come to appreciate that there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to any of them.
Gary Wetzel: The One-Armed M60 Stand in Vietnam
Estimated reading time: 12 minutes Shot down in a hostile landing zone, blasted apart, and stabbed through the leg, Gary Wetzel still fought his way back to an M60 machine gun. What happened next earned him the Medal of Honor and made his Vietnam story almost impossible to believe. This is Gary Wetzel after he was shot, stabbed, and blown up in Vietnam. This guy is a freaking beast. Gary Wetzel was born in 1947 in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1965, he was an 18-year-old soldier working in ordnance.
Canik Prime Radian First Look
News • INSIDER Meet Canik’s latest collaboration. Teaming up with Radian Weapons, the new hard-edged Prime Radian is designed to raise the bar for EDC performance. By Will Dabbs, M.D. The new Canik Prime Radian represents the fusion of Canik’s rugged, reliable tactical pistol platform with the sort of radical upgrades for which Radian Weapons has become well-known. On paper, the result looks greater than the sum of its parts.
Fabrizio Quattrocchi: How an Italian Dies
Estimated reading time: 11 minutes Forced to dig his own grave in Iraq, Fabrizio Quattrocchi answered his killers with one final act of raw defiance. This is a hard look at death, faith, courage, and the Italian who refused to die quietly. This is Fabrizio Quattrocchi. When forced to face his own death at age 35, Quattrocchi showed us all how it’s done. Instagram photo. Today, we are going to talk about some pretty dark stuff. Death rightfully makes people uncomfortable.
War Stories: Bill the Tommygunner
June 16th, 2026 7 minute read Bill was a happy, jovial man. He was a patient of mine for many years. He always came to the clinic in the company of his sweet wife, who clearly adored him. Bill looked like a professional grandfather. He was also my friend. Bill was a gifted woodworker. He loved football, golf, and dancing with his wife. Within 15 minutes of meeting him, you knew where he stood with Jesus. Bill was a man of powerful faith. He loved people, and people loved him.
George Cairns: One Arm, One Sword, One Last Stand
Estimated reading time: 11 minutes A Japanese sword took LT George Cairns’ arm on a Burmese hilltop. He seized that same blade, kept fighting, and earned a place among Britain’s most savage Victoria Cross legends. George Cairns might not look like much in this moldy old period photograph, but he was a wild man in a fight. Mankind has been consumed with war since our very beginnings. Ever since Cain knocked his brother Abel’s brains out with a rock, we have been a species of scrappers.
M41A Pulse Rifle: The Ultimate Aliens Gun
June 11th, 2026 7 minute read Private Dwayne Hicks sat in an expansive classroom alongside the rest of his platoon of newly minted boots. Each Marine had a well-used Pulse Rifle sitting on the table in front of them. The weapons were clean enough to be used as surgical implements and smelled vaguely of CLP. The Armat Battlefield Systems M41A Pulse Rifle is the standard-issue combat weapon for the United States Colonial Marines in the Aliens universe.
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