Vets and their M16's

[DaveHH]

Because it was early, I lucked out and had a signal corps MOS. I was a telephone lineman when drafted so....If Ma Bell had an a$$ I would have dropped down on my knees and kissed it. I went from the 5th Inf Div to Vietnam may 1966 up in IICorps. We all had full automatic M14s, mine was brand new in the box H&R.
There were almost no M16 around. The inf maneuver battalions in the 1st Cav, 25th, 101st and later 4th were the people who had the 16s. The 1st Div down south was still using the M14 as was the Marine Corps. The only place I saw M16s was in these Inf units. The units that deployed with 16s had no problems with the jamming situation because they had trained extensively with them before deploying (1st Cav). The M16s I saw were all forward assist weapons. ARVN and Korean units were still using WW2 weapons. I qualified Expert with the M14 and liked it very much. It was used very little as my duties were almost always convoys and babysitting expensive stuff up into Pleiku or AnKhe by air. Funny thing, I now own an AR and wish I had an M14.