https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...uOXSpng1-1.jpg
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That looks like a MAC-V (Military Assistance Command - Vietnam) patch on his chest. Also, looks like an early wooden handguard on the M-14.
I think that is a regimental distinctive patch and not a MACV patch.
I think patch was recondo qualification, the soldier was parachute qualified.
We used that photo in the 2011 four-part GCA Journal series on the development of the M14 by Frank Iannamico. It shows the new rifle and the weapons it was intended to replace. Note the wooden hand guard and stock w/o flipper.
But the M14 and short lived M15 were not able to replace those weapons, the M3 & M3A1 even remained longer in general service
Very true, and it didn't even replace the squad automatic, one of the big talking points. Lay it at the doorstep of Robert Strange McNamara, the whiz kid from Ford. Theoretical solutions to practical problems... any grunt could have told you it wouldn't work that way.
I don't think McNamara had anything to do with the M14 other than to replace it with the M16 which was plenty of disaster in its own right.