SEALs Say Handgun Order Was Bark Up...

SEALs Say Handgun Order Was Bark Up Wrong Tree

If glasnost sours and the superpowers start throwing punches, figure on the Navy’s SEAL teams, based in Coronado, to be in the thick of things.

The Sea, Air and Land commandos are an elite strike force schooled in clandestine operations and trained in the deadly techniques of underwater demolition and hand-to-hand combat.

Now, however, the SEALs are engaged in an even more ferocious battle: inter-service rivalry over a Pentagon plan to have all branches of the armed services use the same handgun, the M-9 Beretta.

With the Army in the lead, the Pentagon decided in 1984 to phase out the .45-caliber Colt in favor of the Beretta, which was thought to be more accurate and less in need of maintenance. The Italian corporation expanded its Maryland plant to fill the $75-million order for 316,000 guns.

Smith & Wesson fought back with lawsuits, political pressure and public relations. A congressional committee held hearings and ordered another round of competition before a second contract for 142,000 guns is awarded.

Meanwhile, complaints about the Beretta started to be heard--the loudest of them coming from the SEALs. Five cases of slides flying back in the face of the shooters were reported--four SEALs and one Marine.

A $13-million modification of the Berettas in use was ordered, despite misgivings from the Army that the SEAL problem may have come from uncommonly heavy use. A SEAL may fire 1,000 or more rounds a year, but the service-wide average is less than 100.

“We think it would have made more sense to retrofit only those guns in heavy use where the problem was likely to occur, but that’s not what the decision was,” said Army Col. Dick Williams.

The modification notwithstanding, the SEALs have purchased a load of Sig Sauer handguns, which lost out to Beretta in the original competition. And they have asked the chief of naval operations to demand that a special handgun be designed for SEALs.

At SEAL headquarters in Coronado (the commandos have a smaller base in Little Creek, Va.), all inquiries were referred to Navy officials in Washington. Demanding anonymity, those officials show little sign of compromise.

“We want a gun where we have no apprehension that it’ll blow up in your face,” said one. “Until we get that, we won’t be satisfied.”

Know Him by His Badge

One theory says that lawyers for Richard T. Silberman will attempt to suppress the prosecution’s evidence by claiming the FBI has run amok with a new wiretaping law, and, if that fails, will argue that Silberman was entrapped by agents-provocateurs.

A foreshadowing of the latter stratagem may have appeared in an analysis of the Silberman case by political consultant and weekly newspaper editor Larry Remer:

“Based on the revelations thus far, it’s obvious that any time a group of people gathers with a suitcase of thousands of dollars, whomever declares over and over again that this is Colombian drug money is obviously the FBI agent. For many, the flashback to the ‘60s meetings to plan demonstrations is eerie.

“All those people who urged bombing the Bank of America or other violence invariably also turned out to be FBI agents.”

No Ticket to Ride

Update: The 22-year-old Kuwaiti citizen who delights in high-speed joy riding through Coronado does not have diplomatic immunity, the U. S. State Department says.

Police Chief Jerry Boyd has spread the word to his traffic officers and to South Bay judges: “If he’s caught speeding, he’ll get a ticket. If he’s caught reckless driving, he’ll be arrested.”

Four His Eyes Only

Steve Garvey continues to take a pounding for his wayward paternity, particularly from San Francisco Examiner columnist Bill Mandel, who calls Garvey “the first Nixon-

Reagan-Disney ballplayer.”

“Wasn’t it great when Cindy left Steve for Marvin Hamlisch?” writes Mandel. “It was a guys-with-glasses pay-back for Diane Keaton leaving Woody Allen for Warren Beatty.”

Yes, Mandel wears glasses.