
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 8, 1991                   TAG: 9102080772
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS                                LENGTH: Medium

SOME PILOTS BOUND FOR GULF BUY PISTOLS BEFORE LEAVING

Local gun dealers say they sold 9mm pistols to at least a dozen Langley Air Force Base pilots who were headed for Middle East duty, where carrying personal firearms would be a violation of regulations.

Air Force officials said they knew nothing about the purchases, reported Thursday by the Newport News Daily Press.

Sam Khoury, manager of Tidewater Gun & Tackle in Newport News, and Ed Juchem, manager of The Gunbox in Denbigh, told the newspaper they sold the pistols to the pilots.

Juchem said the pilots told him they were worried about getting ammunition overseas for the standard-issue .38-caliber revolvers. Khoury said he sold "about a dozen or so" 9mm pistols to Langley pilots; Juchem would not say how many he sold but described his customers as "mostly senior officers."

Capt. Kevin Baggett, a spokesman for the Tactical Air Command headquartered at Langley, said the .38 is the standard The gun dealers said most of the pilots bought the 9mm pistol made by Beretta, which sells for $600 to $700. pistol issued to fighter pilots but that the Air Force is changing over to a 9mm issue.

"Some units have them, some do not," Baggett said. "It's just amatter of getting it to them."

Ground troops do not use the .38, a six-shooter that must have each chamber reloaded individually. The 9mm pistol carries a 15-shot magazine and can be reloaded by pushing a new magazine into the firearm's handle.

Two F-15 squadrons of Langley's 1st Tactical Fighter Wing are deployed to the Middle East.

The gun dealers said most of the pilots bought the 9mm pistol made by Beretta, which sells for $600 to $700.

Military personnel are allowed to own personal firearms, but an Air Force regulation says personnel "are prohibited from bearing privately owned firearms while performing official military duties."

Capt. Barry Napp, an Army Training and Doctrine Command official who worked for the Central Command Headquarters in Saudi Arabia before returning home three weeks ago, said service personnel are told not to carry personal weapons. "But we don't check all 460,000 duffel bags coming over there," he said.

by CNB