The closet commandos

Press, 12 September 1987, Page 24

The closet commandos

Chris Reed, of the ‘Guardian,’ reports from Las Vegas on the fantasy soldiers of fortune

EVEN BY THE garish standards of Las Vegas, the figures strolling with the tourists along the casino-lined “strip” do stand out from the crowd. Camouflaged battle dress over black T-shirts and heavilylaced combat boots hardly seem appropriate attire for the 100degree heat. This would not upset the ersatz warriors attending the annual conference held by “Soldiers of Fortune” magazine, the “journal of professional adventurers.” Being noticed is a badge of honour for the legions of lonely and bored American men (98 per cent of the readership is male) who subscribe both to the periodical and its ethos, and part with hundreds of dollars to attend the four-day event. Most of them may be only closet commandos, at their bravest on a bar stool, but the Vegas trip is an adventure in itself. After all, it allows one to wear a uniform.

Dressing up has always been a military indulgence. Significantly, however, the fashion these days for those preoccupied with weaponry, warfare and warriorship, is not regimental but guerrillero. The fantasy mercenaries of "5.0. F. magazine see no glory as anonymous battalion soldiers. They, like their mythical hero, Rambo, are individuals against the world. Team spirit has no place in their war games, their best friend is their gun. At least it is reliable, and preferably automatic.

So perhaps is sex. “I do it automatically” says the legend on the skimpy vests of the heavily bosomed young women who drive the conventioneers to a sub-machine gun range where for SUS2S they compete for 10

seconds of target shooting. The girls are called Traynettes after their boss, Chuck Traynor, owner of the Survival Store in Las Vegas and erstwhile U.S. Marine, pornographic film producer and employee at London’s Raymond Revue Bar striptease emporium. The most prominently endowed member of Mr Traynor’s staff is known in the cheerful sexism of the conventioneers for her “twin 455." She models for posters cradling an automatic rifle and like Rambo, is naked to the waist. She shares a similar chest measurement. Unfortunately for the men’s commando image, there were more beer bellies than pectorals bulging among the 1000-odd who paid the SUSIOO registration fee in Las Vegas.

Lack of the mean and lean profile is compensated by the rich variety of "Camo” fashions available. Dozens proliferate, from the familiar “woodland” camouflage patterns of green and brown, to more exotic "Rhodesian” and German models, as well as grey and white “urban,” brown and tan “day desert,” South African (night) black and grey, and various types of “tiger stripe," Vietnamese being the favourite. Britons will be proud to learn that Savile Row’s sartorial supremacy continues with the most desirable and expensive outfit, the British forces’ allcotton DPM, or in the jargon of

Aidershot, “disrupted pattern, military” selling in Las Vegas at SUSISO. Although military pursuits, gun collections, and macabre fascination with violent death appear as particularly American phenomena, the tragedy of Hungerford has alerted Britain to the presence in our midst. British military activities and especially the Strategic Air Service are much admired by American combat cultists and the current issue of “5.0. F. magazine features two British items. One is an article on his Oman adventures by Major C. E. Parks, formerly of the Royal Horse Artillery. The other is a lovingly detailed critique of the British Army’s new, 5.56 mm SABO automatic gun, “arguably the best service rifle now available,” as the review by the "combat and survival staff’ reports. ("5.0.F.,” incidentally, must surely be the only publication in the world with a knife editor.) The horror of Hungerford was also brought into notice at the exposition hall. Among the 155 exhibitors offering for sale a fearsome collection of pistols, rifles, machine-guns, clubs, truncheons, knives, cattle prods, blow guns, swords, crossbows, and books with titles such as “How to 1 Kill” and “The complete guide to lock picking,” was Keng’s Firearms Speciality stall from Atlanta.

In attendance was Da Keng,

son of the proprietor. He is America’s sole importer for polytechnology, the People’s Republic of China manufacturer of what is known as the Chinese Kalashnikov or AK47. In China ft is called the “type 56 sub-machine-gun,” so numbered for the year it began production. It is the model that Michael Ryan used in Hungerford. Although Mr Keng only deals wholesale, he explained that the weapon was readily available in America for about SUS37S, with a magazine of 30 rounds of 7.62 millimetres, a rather large calibre by modem standards and one shared by several makes of machine-gun. In most U.S. states it can be yours after a fortnight’s wait for a check on suitability as a gun owner. Although a form to be filled in questions such background as mental illness or a criminal record, it is widely reported that few people are thoroughly checked by the authorities. In one documented case, for instance, an American reporter deliberately got blind drunk when he both ordered and collected his gun. Nobody even remarked on his condition.

The arguments for and against gun control in America are well rehearsed. Predictably, “5.0.F.”--is avidly on the gun lobby’s side. “ The editor and proprietor, Lieu-tenant-Colonel Bob . Brown, aged 55, a former A-Team leader in < Vietnam, known to his admirers

as Uncle Bob, is on the National Rifle Association’s board of directors and he strongly supports Americans’ right to “keep and bear arms.”

While expressing dismay at the Hungerford killings, he uses familiar arguments in favour of the personal availability of weaponry. “We must understand that an individual is responsible, not an inanimate object. Many such objects other than guns can be used to kill and any person wanting to do that would use something else if a gun was not available.”

But the part-time warriors following the commando cult — as well as the present and former servicemen and policemen who make up the more intelligent element — seem half in love with easeful death. “Kill ’em all, let God sort ’em out” is the movement’s unoffical motto and a brisk seller on T-shirts and weapons paraphernalia. Aside from the attempted guns-are-freedom rationale, these devotees of military mayhem know very well that their toys and totems represent sudden and violent death.

Typical is a “survivalist” called Earl Bozely. His’ gaunt face, black beret, and hawkish nose epitomises the machismo manhood they On his “camo” uniform he has h. shoulder patch displaying his adopted motto. Under a skull and dagger it says: "In death-there IS life.”' Mr Bozely explains: “You have to kill to live. That’s life. If you yank a plant from the ground and eat it, it dies and you survive. Tell that to a vegetarian." •

■- He marches off chuckling', well pleased with his little joke.