Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: ScorpCH on December 04, 2006, 05:03:31 PM
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if you have ever heard someone refer to the p38 as a can opener wth its 4 nose mounted browning .50 caliber guns and the 20mm hispano, then they are right!! the p38 is a can opener!
here a sight that proves it!!
http://www.georgia-outfitters.com/page52.shtml
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I've always wondered how that little piece of hinged metal got the same name as twin-engined fighter and semi-automatic pistol...
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Originally posted by Treize69
I've always wondered how that little piece of hinged metal got the same name as twin-engined fighter and semi-automatic pistol...
The reason is kind of ambiguous, some say it took exactly 38 pinctures around a ration can to open it. Other say it was because it performed with the speed of a P-38 fighter.
I Vietnam it was called a John Wayne by some because of it's ruggedness and dependability. A larger version was called the P-51.
The truly amazing thing about the P-38 opener is that it only took 30 days to design it at the U.S. Army Subsistence Research Laboratory in Chicago, 1942.
That's gotta be some kind of record.
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I still have my grandfather's P-38, he never lost it from "issue".
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The P-38 initially got it's name from the number of twists required to open a c-rations can. Oddly, the larger version used to open a #10 can required "51" twists and was named the P-51 :) Now who says the military lacks a sense of humor.
[I see Flatbar posted while I was compiling mine]
Also, my "spam can" of 450 rounds of 1950s Bulgarian 7.62 X54r surplus ammo came with its own similar, but much larger can opener -- I'll just nickname it the Lagg-7 :)
Charon
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Perk the P-38?
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Still got several P-38's. Used to collect em like lighters on weekend long drunks, dont ever want to be with out em. Course you could get a new one every time you got your issue of rations. Good god thats been a long time ago. We called em John Waynes too. Sure beats the hell out of slicing a digit with your bayonet trying to get a can open. Somebody just made me real grateful I survived my youth. Guess where I found my P-38's. In a box with my tags and medals. Thats strangely appropriate. :lol
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My father still has one on his key chain. Vintage 1962.
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Ahhh... nothing like the government to have to put a number on everything. In my business, film and video, if you are on location and need a clothes pin to hold a gel on a light you ask for a "C47" Story is it got the name when some company was itemizing expendables for a government job and that's the number the clothes pins got.
Of course in the grip and lighting world they got all sorts of fun names for gear... gobos, hi-hats, lollipops, stingers the list goes on and on. To learn the trade you have to learn a new language.
Big Mickey
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Originally posted by Big Mickey
Ahhh... nothing like the government to have to put a number on everything.
Opener, Can, Hand, Folding, Type 1. 1-Each. Part #19388288-38. MILSPEC 8888322388-237-P-834, Series.
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lol
memories
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why do people underestimate the p38 can opener? The 109 and 190 openers took much more effort. :D
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Originally posted by Muskie6
My father still has one on his key chain. Vintage 1962.
My first one is still on my keychain. 1975.:aok