24 May 2023 Garand Picture of the Day - 1968 Democratic convention

[fjruple]

I was commissioned in the PA National Guard shortly after Kent State. I remember discussions about issuing M16 to National Guard as they were becoming available as the Vietnam War was starting to winch down. The senior leadership had visions of Kent State with FA M16 rifles. Probably the reason we keep the M1 Rifles long after the M14 and then the M16 was adopted. Civil Disturbances (Riot Control) requires a lot of training and discipline of the leadership and troops involved. Most of the troops in the National Guard at the time were no different than the protesters they were against as they managed to get into the Guard to avoid going to Vietnam. When I conducted training of my platoon. I strongly emphasis that the protesters were your follow citizens that you interact on a day to day basis, they are your, brother, sister, mother, and next door neighbor but just doing something stupid at the time and if you do something stupid too you will have to live with that the rest of life.

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