Yesterday's Weapons Forums

In northern I Corps, Viet Nam, the PFs & RFs carried Garands and BARs. (Those were basically like national guard or village militia.)

I sure would have liked to trade my Mighty Mattel for a BAR!!! It almost took 2 Vietnamese to hump a BAR. There were a lot of M1 and M2 carbines, too. We must have given them boatloads of ammo because the standard unloading drill for the M2 carbine was to point it skyward and hold the trigger back. What a waste!

In my bunker we had a 1919A4 MG ad I really liked the slower cyclic rate. It was a little harder to clean than an M60 but that was okay.

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Slava Ukraini!!

We qualified with M-14s at Camp LeJeune in '68 but at the last minute before going to Viet Nam, we qualified with the Mighty Mattel and were issued same. I clearly recall an old Gunny Sgt bitterly complaining that the ( adjectives omitted) thing was useless for bayonetting someone. True!

I still prefer the M16 to an AK. SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

....nope- no Garands here ....in Boot(72) we were issued 03A3's ...once onboard ship we obviously didnt need anything,but the Marine Detachment aboard the Saratoga was carrying M-14's

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....Naj puška govori!....
.............deplorable typical "bitter clinger"....

we carried garands in navy bootcamp in san diego when I went through in 1987, but they were just drill fixtures. they'd even "fixed" them so the bolts wouldn't cycle, I guess so nobody got garand thumb playing with them.
we were still using m-14's and .45's on board ship as late as dec 1995.

y'all have a good day, Keith

I just got to carry a heavy old sword in navy boot. On the Sub we had M-14's then prolly around 88 or so we switched to the M-16. So to qualify, we came to the surface, filled a garbage bag with air, floated it & shot it

Minute of plastic?

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It's 5 o'clock and it's watermelon time.....................
because you can't drink beer & load rockets - TXPete

When I was in AP school in 1959 all we qualified with was the .45 and the carbine. When I got to Cheyenne we had .45s and M2 carbines and M3 grease guns while I was in missile site security. They had some BARs but I never got to fire one as we didn't have a range officer that day. Got transfered to base police and all I had was a .45. When my son was in the marines and assigned to the Ike he mentioned M14s in late 80s.

Rad

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Used the M1 Garand for rifle drills and marching exercises, while in ROTC (68 - 70). Used the M14 in basic training (68) at Uncle Sam's school for wayward boys (Fort Benning). Used the M14, M3 grease gun, and 1911 at Fort Meade (71 -73). Got to shoot a couple mags full with the Mattie Mattel special while at Fort Meade. Those were the days!

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The Red General

"We must train and classify the whole of our male citizens, and make military instruction a regular part of collegiate education. We can never be safe till this is done." --Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1813.

M16 here then A-1 and A-2 when I retired.2nd ACR we had M-3 grease guns but only the tankers got issued them...also lots of worn out 1911's .when I was RDF they had the M-14's but issued only to the snipers.in 1982 we had one slot(7/17 cav) to go to benning to sniper school but the old mans jeep driver got the slot .that sucked as he couldn't hit a cow in the ass with a shovel if he had to and washed out(he should have joined the navy ).I wanted to go real bad it just didn't happen. .

pete

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Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming - WOW - What a Ride

in looking up some M14 info for someone i find the first rifles were shipped by SA and H&R in 1960 , so im guessing although orders were placed in 1958 & 59 , none were issued till into 1960 , so everyone had an M1 before that point ,

OK.....different story here.
Started Royal Military School in 81 (1981....not 1881 ).
Our "personal weapon" was the Belgian FAL, but we were trained on all other small caliber weapons such as the UZI, MAG, .50 and the Browning High Power.
Some signal units and our MP's still used the M1 carbine at that time.
I once was able to check the weapons of some of our reserve units.
They were equiped with M1 carbines, Garands and Bren machineguns.
I'm talking late 80's here.
In the 90's everything changed.
Our UZI's and FAL's were replaced by the Diemaco C7(A1) and C8(A1) and the Browning pistol was replaced by the Glock 17.
Not all, but lots of Belgian MAG machine guns were replaced by the Minimi machine gun.
I'm sure glad we kept most of our MAG's.
Last units that changed to the Diemaco were our MP units.
They replaced their M1 carbines in the late 90's.

Met vriendelijke groet,

Martin

nothing quite like the belgian FAL

Sweet looking rifle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming - WOW - What a Ride

Great looking rifle Michael.
Except for the muzzle brake and the butt stock it looks exactly like the Dutch version.

Met vriendelijke groet,

Martin

when I was in the ARMY CLASS OF 61, I carried an M1 RIFLE then became a BAR MAN. the VIETMINESE TROUPS carried M1, CARBINES because the GARAND was to heavy for there small frame. that is what I was told.?

We used the M14’s in JrROTC 73-4 LA Calif for regular drill,also individual drill plus Choreography Drill team competition’s,issued,used & qualified with M-16 at Fort Polk 76.

fun that this got resurrected after all these years , i have missed tx pete so much , i appreciate that new folks are realizing we have had so many great discussions over the decades , thank you ,

After basic we were issued 1911s and grease guns on the german border ... I wasn't issued a beretta until the gulf war ...my tank was issued a m16 ... but I wasn't....even with the 10th mountain I carried only a pistol ...

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Never get off the tank ... say I delta 66 actual