M14 issued as SA instead of Selective?

[2AD_Vet]

I just watched the training film located at U.S. RIFLE, CALIBER 7.62MM, M14 (U.S. Training Film) and it was very informative.

One thing it seemed to be stating towards the end of the film was that the round style selective fire knob was acutally not a selective knob, but a lockout of the selective fire feature and rifles setup with the round knob were only able to be used in SA mode.

If I understand the film correctly, it was only issued as selective fire to certain squad members - I assume they must have been designated support fire teams?

Did I understand this correctly? Was the majority of the M14s in use by squads setup as SA instead of selective fire?

Information

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[browningautorifle]

That was my impression also. They only issued the selector to certain individuals.

[Former Cav]

when I was in and the M-14 was still issued to us, (6/65 to 11/67... then we got the mattey mattel M-16 after Nov 67 in my armored cav squadron !) I seem to recall one man per squad was issued the M-14 E-2. This had the wood stock, with the pistol grip (wood) and a front fold down grip on the forearm which had a sling attachment. If you slung up really tight, and you REALLY concentrated on hitting a full sized torso type target at 100 yards, you MIGHT get TWO rounds on target before it climbed to high. This was in OFFHAND (standing) with the sling wrapped tight. Needless to say, the E-2 was "select fire" you could turn it to full auto or semi auto.
It also did NOT have the buttplate compartment as did the regular M-14 (and M1 Garands) did.
One of our men in that 12 man squad had the M-60 (7.62 NATO) machine gun.
We were organized where we had 3 M48A3 tanks and 7 M113 APC's per platoon.
Example: A-10 was plt leaders track (2nd or 1st Lt Plt Leader), A-11 and A-12 were "recon" tracks, A-13 and A-14 were Infantry tracks (and one of these had a 90 mm recoiless on it as well), A-15 was the Plt Sgt's Tank. A-16 and A-17 were tanks,
A-18 was and infantry track, A-19 was a mortar track. Each APC had a minimum of One M-2 FIFTY caliber on the commanders cupola (which was TOE, that is authorized equip). There may have been one or two more 50's or one or two M-60's mounted on the top sides behind the commanders cupola.
The tanks had the Ma Duece in front of the TC's cupola (mounted externally...NOT internally as on the M-60 TANKS). A 90 MM main gun with HEAT (high explosive anti tank), HE (High Explosive used on troops or bunkers), HEP (high explosive plastic (used on enemy armor, or bunkers), APDS (armor piercing discarding sabot..command was SABOT pronounced as SayBo sometimes), WP (white phosphurous..this would start the foilage on fire as well as troops), Cannister (this was like a giant shotgun shell, had about 1500 I think roughly .38 caliber slugs -flat points in it use for anti-troops), and BeeHive (had 6 or 8000 steel darts that were like a finishing nail with fins on them).
There was also a "co-axially" mounted M-73 machine gun (7.62 NATO) mounted in the turret co-axially with the main gun. It had a 7000 round banana box and ONE BELT of ammo that was 7000 rounds long. Problem was, the rounds would always work backwards or forwards in the links from vibrations of operating the tank and you'd have a "stopppage". The gun was crammed in on the left side between the main gun and the turret so you had very little room to clear it. It was usually fired until it stopped and then you'd use other stuff.
The above was TOE (authorized). Sometimes you'd have an additional 50 or Coax mounted in front of the loaders hatch. When a downed tank or apc was hit and turned into ordinance it was typical that the "armaments" (read 50's and 7.62's) would be declared a combat loss and mounted on other vehicles to increase our firepower.
Each tank had a 4 man crew but we usually operated with 3 men, Driver, Loader/Gunner became one, and Tank Commander. Each Plt was supposed to have 3 twelve men squads that I recall divided up among the APC's. There were 3 line platoons, and one HQ plt that had the cooks, mechanics, VTR's and etc in it.
A little off topic but might be of interest to some of you.
A Trp, 3rd Sqdn, 4th Cav, 25th Inf Div. Nov 67 to Aug 24, 68!!
Bob

[browningautorifle]

I did 35 years in the Canadian army-infantry and I always like to hear how the other guys do theirs. And as for the M14's that was about what we thought...about as easy to keep on target on auto as the FN C1's. C2's also.

[Dave Waits]

I carried a TRW in the First Southest-Asian Wargames and it was SA-only. No Happy-switch. I traded a guy DEROSing the M16 I was issued for it. I just traded another new guy when I DEROSed and turned the 16 in as a Battlefield pickup because mine was destroyed. I saw quite a few 14s over there but none with a Selector-switch.

[RobSmith]

My understanding is that FA M14's were only issued as per the CO's direct orders and while all M14's had the of being turned into FA, actually adding the "happy switch" could only be done by qualified armorers. Also there are mention in period manuals that all "National Match" M14's were semi-auto only. I suspect that the number of M14's which ever had the switch added was very small overall. If you take a look at period pictures, almost all of them have the round knob instead of the selector.

[musketshooter]

M14s issued to us during the Cuban Crisis were all semi auto only. We tried to get the selector switches but none were available. NM M14s had the switch axle welded on the inside so it could not be turned even if the cap was removed.

[Bill Hollinger]

My buddy Jerry Crisman was in VN in 1966 1968 and he told me his M14 was select fire. He was then issued an "AR15" which were all very quickly taken back and then were issued M16s.

[browningautorifle]

Weren't the first M16's marked AR15 Bill?

[Bill Hollinger]

As far as I know they were. I know Jerry called the first one he got an AR15 and they only had them a couple of days and were reissued their M14s. He said within a week or so they got what he called M16s.