Yesterday's Weapons Forums

OK I want to know This is not a trick question and there is no right or Wrong How many actually carried the M1 Garand while they were in the service?? If you saw it in Nam; Where did you see it??

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.

OK I'm gonna say the same thing here as I said across the street.I'll wait a few days until a few answer this post about the middle of next week I'll tell you all a story about how a young soldier saw the demise of the M1 Garand, the birth of the M14, it's demise, and the entrance and permanent fixture known as the mattel toy aka M16

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

....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

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?

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

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!

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

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 ,

+1

I recall yards carrying Garands, as part of a aviation unit I was issued a M14 but I carried a M2 carbine.... and a pair of M60's.

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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

Met vriendelijke groet,

Martin