VLVL2 (9.5): "Gates are Shut"

[Dave Monroe]

   "'Gates are shut,' DL reported, "figure a minute
'n' a half each with a bolt cutter, plus at least
three Huey Cobras in the air, FFAR's, grenade
launchers, Gatling guns, the works.'
   "They arrived at the mouth of an oversize freight
elevator, scrambled inside, and began to plunge
earpoppingly hellward, aged fluorescent bulbs buzzing
and flickering till the brakes caught just when it
seemed too late ...." (VL, Ch. 9, p. 191)


"Huey Cobras"

Bell AH-1 Huey Cobra

http://www.helis.com/60s/h_h1.php

http://www.history.navy.mil/planes/ah1.htm

http://tri.army.mil/LC/CS/csa/ah-1smod.htm

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/ah-1.htm

http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-air-support/vietnam/cobra.htm

http://www.histoiredumonde.net/20_eme_siecle/avions/us/ah1.html


"FFAR's"

p. 191 "FFAR" = Folding Fin Aircraft Rocket Launcher,
a rather nasty device attached to Apache helicopters
around about the time Pynchon was writing Vineland.

http://www.mindspring.com/~shadow88/chapter9.htm

And see as well, e.g., ...

http://www.ordnance.org/rockets.htm

http://tri.army.mil/LC/CS/csa/Kpm260.htm

http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Bunker/1658/ord/rockets.htm


"Gatling guns"

http://tri.army.mil/LC/CS/csa/aagatlin.htm

The Gatling gun is a machine gun that consists of
multiple barrels revolving around a central axis and
is capable of being fired at a rapid rate....

The gun is named for its inventor, Richard Jordan
Gatling, a physician. Gatling neatly divided his
sympathies during the Civil War. While trying to sell
machine guns to the Union, he was an active member of
the Order of American Knights, a secret group of
Confederate sympathizers and saboteurs.

[...]

The Gatling gun played an important role after the
Civil War, giving small numbers of U.S. troops
enormous advantages in firepower over the western
Indians. In newly colonized portions of Africa and
Asia, the Gatling gun provided the Europeans' margin
of victory over local forces.

A modern, helicopter-mounted version of the Gatling
gun, the Vulcan minigun, was widely used by the U.S.
Army in the Indochina war. The minigun, popularly
known as "Puff, the Magic Dragon" for the flames and
smoke emitted from its muzzle, fires at the staggering
rate of 6,000 rounds per minute, enough to decimate an
entire village in one burst. The minigun continues to
be used as a counterinsurgency weapon in Central
America....

http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/rcah/html/ah_035400_gatlinggun.htm


"the works"

http://tri.army.mil/LC/CS/csa/aa.htm

http://tri.army.mil/LC/CS/sma.htm#History

http://tri.army.mil/LC/CS/csa/uh1barmt.htm


"an oversize freight elevator"

Cf. ...

   "A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened
before, but there is nothing to compare it to now.
   "It is too late. The Evacuation still proceeds, but
it's all theatre. There are no lights inside the cars.
No light anywhere. Above him lift girders old as an
iron queen, and glass somewhere far above that would
let the light of day through. But it's night. He's
afraid of the way the glass will fall--soon--it will
be a spectacle: the fall of a crystal palace. But
coming down in total blackout, without one glint of
light, only great invisible crashing.
   "Inside the carriage, which is built on several
levels, he sits in velveteen darkness, with nothing to
smoke, feeling metal nearer and farther rub and
connect, steam escaping in puffs, a vibration in the
carriage's frame, a poising, an uneasiness ..." (GR,
Pt. I, p. 3)

http://www.english.ilstu.edu/351/hypertext97/hutley/pynchon/first.htm


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