Leatherneck Magazine asks "What were your experiences like with your issue weapons?"

[DougC]

Oct 2021 issue of Leatherneck Magazine asks readers after their article "This is My Rifle: From the Hill Fights in Vietnam to Today: The History of the M16" the subject question. The article covers the development and problems with the rifle in Vietnam mainly caused by changing the gunpowder in the M193 cartridge and not testing it.

If you would like to share your experiences with the editor of Leatherneck Magazine send an email to 'leatherneck@mca-marines.org'.

Here is part of my email:

The 1960s to 1970s were transition decades in the Corps service rifles. My timeline was:

• M-14 for boot camp (1965)
• M-1 for Infantry Training Regiment (1965)
• .45 pistol as 106mm recoilless rifle gunner (1965-67)
• Stoner 63 rifle test battalion (3/6) annual rifle qualification
• M-14 for OCS/TBS (1967) and maybe twice firing M-16
• M-16 for Vietnam (1967-68) before and after chromium coatings and change to birdcage flash hider
• M-14 at 2d MarDiv (1969-70)
• M-14 at MCB, 29 Palms (1970-72)
• M-16 at 3d MarDiv (1972-73)
• M-14 at MCB, Camp Pendleton (1973-75)
• At last switch M-16 1st MarDiv (1975-79)

 

[Texasjack]

I've met several Vietnam vets (all Army) that have said that they used the M14 because the M16 had a bad rep when they served. One of them was a door gunner, so he didn't really "carry" the rifle. His primary was the M60 and the M14 was in case they got shot down. My neighbor was one of the advisors in the early years of the war and he carried an M1 carbine. It was light and he was working with ARVN troops that had been issued the M1 carbine, so he figured if he ran out of ammo he could get some from them. He also carried a .38 revolver that was a gift from some family friend instead of the 1911. A friend of mine - who was happy with his M16 - showed us pictures he took and you could also see the guys with him carrying an M60, an M79, and a BAR. Sadly, all his pictures were lost during the big flood. He started out with a shotgun, but after his platoon was involved in one ambush and he ended up out of ammo after a few seconds, he decided to trade it in on the M16.

I was in a shooting range a couple years ago and there were some brothers who worked there that had been in Afghanistan/Iraq as Marines. There was some sort of documentary running on the TV screen at the end of the room and they were showing footage from Vietnam. The soldiers in the video were raising their M16s over their heads to shoot over a wall on full automatic. The Marines - having totally different training these days - were shocked at how they were "wasting ammo".