Modernizing the Marine Rifle Squad

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Z, like you said, I was also trained on the 14, then the M1 in ITR and infantry school. I wasn't given an M16 until I arrived in the Nam, I had never seen one before and forget about any training. I was trained on the job. Mine was a good one though and I never had many flaws. Mine had the 3 prongs in the front, my guess is it was an early model.

As for not being in combat, you didn't miss anything. Next time I'm going to be in the rear with the gear and not drop off 35-40 pounds. And the Corpsmen were wrong, the damn jungle rot never did go away.

[Zulu 36]

Z, like you said, I was also trained on the 14, then the M1 in ITR and infantry school. I wasn't given an M16 until I arrived in the Nam, I had never seen one before and forget about any training. I was trained on the job. Mine was a good one though and I never had many flaws. Mine had the 3 prongs in the front, my guess is it was an early model.

As for not being in combat, you didn't miss anything. Next time I'm going to be in the rear with the gear and not drop off 35-40 pounds. And the Corpsmen were wrong, the damn jungle rot never did go away.

Russ, Well, I did get shot at, rocketed and mortared enough to last me. I was just too busy driving a truck to shoot back. My A-drivers did that. And my jungle rot hasn't gone away either.

One of my many jobs was teaching people in my unit how to maintain and shoot the M16. They were almost all M14 people and nary an M14 to be had in our armory. We did have a bunch of M3 greaseguns for the pilots. M1911 pistols, mostly for SNCOs and non-flying officers, plus S&W M10 .38 spcl revolvers for the pilots when they flew. We had some 12ga shotguns too for flightline guard duty. I got to learn how to use and maintain all of those other guns too. It was squadron policy for everyone, including pilots, to come to the armory every week and clean their weapons under supervision. Normally supervised by me and a couple of other junior Marines who knew the M16.

The three-pronged flash suppressors were on the M-16s and early M-16A1s. I had a three-prong on my A1 in Vietnam. They were replaced shortly after Vietnam was over by the basket-type still seen now. The three-prongers got bent too easily (gee, maybe by GIs and Marines using them to snap the wires on C-Rat cases?? Which they did very well.)

Now, this may be odd, but when I enlisted in the Air National Guard in 1979, I was issued an AR-15, full-auto, with no-forward assist, and a three-prong suppressor. I had the chamber, bolt, and barrel chromed like an M-16A1 (a retro-fit job). Everyone else in my unit either had an AR-15 or an M-16, all retrofitted to M-16A1 standard except for the forward assist. When the M-16A2 came out, we replaced the flash suppressor with an M-16A2 model, and all of the furniture with M-16A2 stuff. So at a glance, it looked like we had an M-16A2. I will say that rifle was a reliable and good shooter. Not long before Desert Storm, all flight sergeants were issued CAR-16s (the daddy of the M4). Mine was also a good shooter and reliable. The Air Guard was the red-headed step child of the Air Force and the Marine Corps had much more modern gear than we had. However, our full-time guy became a master of the use of the supply system (and we had a wing commander who liked us) and by Desert Storm we were right up there (except for guns). We were the first Air Guard unit in the country to get Kevlar helmets when they first came out.

I went to my old Guard unit's reunion last year. Now they have all the same stuff issued to active duty AF security forces units.

[FistFu68]

How’s about a new Super Flame Thrower? Chit can them LAWS saw bad Chit happen Bunker bustin back in the day a very mobile 106 recoilless rifle and my dream Grunt Co backUp an Auto Load ONTOS w/them BadA$$ rounds them M1 Tanks are using !! Aye Aye Semper Fi

[Mongoose]

Someone asked a Navy FMF Corpsman what his weapon of choice in Nam was......he replied ......a Marine Grunt.

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I'm not knocking the Doc's it's just that I always hear how they did their job in the midst of constant danger. And, they did, it's just that they did it embedded with US! I always hear it like we were just with them to a slight degree, as an afterthought.