Eugene Stoner: The Man Behind The Gun
BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 5 months ago
If you don’t do anything else today, watch this video entirely. It’s well worth your time. There is also information presented by Stoner that doesn’t fit the narrative, so it’s a good history lesson.
Do you think it would have been fun to have worked with him? I do.
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On May 22, 2019 at 10:42 am, ragman said:
Thanks for posting this. Mr Stoner reminded of some men I would occasionally come in contact with in my aviation career. Somewhat reserved but a brilliant innovator. Definitely worth the 31 minutes.
On May 22, 2019 at 10:42 am, Mary said:
Though defensive violence will always be a ‘sad necessity’ in the eyes of men of principle, it would be still more unfortunate if wrongdoers should dominate just men. – St. Augustine.
On May 22, 2019 at 12:06 pm, ExpatNJ said:
Stoner is in the same esteemed company as Kelly Johnson (father of the SR-71 Blackbird ‘Spy Plane’), Kalashnikov (with whom it once had an official ‘photo-op’ with), Thomas Edison, and many other similar inventors.
Each man had vision, technical excellence, and could lead others. More importantly, they used their perspiration to realize their inspiration. All such good qualities which seem rather rare in today’s world.
On May 22, 2019 at 12:09 pm, ExpatNJ said:
“with whom HE once had an official ‘photo-op’ with”. Apologies to Stoner and all.
On May 22, 2019 at 12:30 pm, Fred said:
Wow, I did not expect to like this vid. The blasphemes against current convention and even against the new regime are endless, heh, which isn’t even the intent of the documentarian, it’s just they way men and America were. I remember men like him, it was a better world. The details are excellent, you can’t just listen as you’ll miss museum pieces and drawings and pictures and other details that are truly historic and fascinating. The level of detail!!! Very very interesting indeed.
I’ve seen nearly endless explanations of the design problems and dumb soldiers and military incompetence surrounding the early deployment(s) of his design but to hear first hand the 3 specific and simultaneous problems that culminated in early failures was unknown data to me. And General (William Childs) Westmoreland, apparently, was able to see through those problems to the long term usability of the weapon. Again, interesting.
Oh, and did you catch that millennials? He worked his backside off on his own time and gave those design(s) to the company for which he worked for a shot at making it to the top.
On May 22, 2019 at 3:21 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
Eugene Stoner was, in his own way, every bit as much a firearms design genius as any of the other 19th/20th-century titans of the art. It is wonderful history being able to hear and see him discuss the problems, decisions and give-and-take involved in doing his job. He isn’t the first visionary to be derailed by less-enlightened people, nor will he be the last. The Stoner 63 weapons system was years ahead of its time. Favored by U.S. Navy SEALs in Vietnam, it would still make an outstanding weapons platform today, in the early 21st-century.
On May 22, 2019 at 9:38 pm, JoeFour said:
Great video! Would not have seen it without this post … thank you Captain Smith!
On May 23, 2019 at 7:01 am, Matt Bracken said:
Fabulous documentary, best use of video-watching time I’ve spent in a long, long time! Terrific insights into engineering vs designing.
On May 26, 2019 at 9:08 pm, billrla said:
Thank you for the opportunity to learn something about Mr. Stoner and his way of thinking.