The recoilless rifle was six feet long and weighed over a hundred pounds. It often required three or four Marines to carry it across the battlefields during the Korean War. Lugging it was dangerous, but it was necessary, because that rifle, which the soldiers nicknamed “reckless,” could fire a 75mm shell thousands of yards with surgical-like precision. It was one of the U.S. Marine Corps’ finest munitions. But the commander of the Recoilless Rifle Platoon, Eric Pedersen, knew there had to be a better way to use it on the battlefield in Korea.
If you’ve opened this story you probably are interested in the Kentucky Derby but might not know a whole lot about horse racing or the Triple Crown. That’s OK – we’re here to help. The Kentucky Derby is the most-watched horse race of the year in the United States and is widely considered one of the most important sporting events in the country, having grown to become much more than just a horse race since Aristides won the first edition in 1875.
