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sling is a product of his vast experience using weaponry in combat as well as his intricate understanding of the way a firearm works. “My dad gave me a bolt action single-shot .22 rifle when I was a little kid, and I was hooked. Firearms are very fascinating mechanical objects in terms of how they function; how they’re designed. They’re one of the most fascinating machines that man has ever
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made,” says Vickers, who enlisted in the Army right out of high school and served four years before leaving to earn his associate’s degree in mechanical engineering so he could expand the depth of his knowledge on how machines work. Then he re-upped, eventually making the elite Delta Force special operations unit. During Vickers’ time with Delta he was involved with Operation Just Cause in Panama in 1989 as well as Desert Storm in the early 1990s. A highlight of Vickers’ time with Delta was Operation Acid Gambit, the rescue of Kurt Muse, an American civilian living in Panama who was being held captive as a possible CIA operative. The operation went as planned, right up until the helicopter Muse was in crashed. Luckily there were no lives lost and everyone made it out. Defeat could have overpowered “the jaws of victory pretty easily,” he says, recalling his team’s last-minute scramble to get all those aboard the downed Little Bird to safety. Vickers retired at age 40, and for a time bounced from job to job, unsure of how to make a life outside the service.
VICKERS IN ACTION TO LEARN ABOUT TACTICAL FIREARMS FROM THE BEST, HEAD TO VICKERSTACTICAL.COM FOR CLASS SCHEDULES AND INFORMATION. THE VICKERS TACTICAL YOUTUBE CHANNEL HAS OVER 270,000 SUBSCRIBERS. ON IT, HE SHOWS FANS THE LATEST IN TACTICAL INNOVATION, GIVES TRAINING TIPS, FIREARMS DEMONSTRATIONS, AND SO MUCH MORE. HEAD TO YOUTUBE.COM/ VICKERSTACTICALINC TO SEE HIM IN ACTION.
Photos courtesy of Larry Vickers
Left: Larry Vickers as a U.S. Army 1st SFOD-Delta Top right: Vicker's with his prized design - the HK416. Bottom right: Vickers in his younger Delta Force days.