3 Jul 20 M14 Picture of the Day

[Mark in Rochester]

"River Watch: Corporal Stephen C. Randall, 19 (College Park, Georgia), keeps a watch on the Cau Do river south of Da Nang when his unit, the 3d Amphibian Tractor Battalion, 1st Marine Division threw an armored cordon down stream to prevent the escape of Viet Cong, December 12-14. The corporal is a tank commander and has been in Vietnam since June 1966 (official USMC photo by Lance Corporal William G. Norman)."

Information

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[RCS]

That Browning Model 1919 could be a US Navy conversion to use 7,62 NATO called the Mk 21 Mod 0. These were used on
the river patrol boats

[fjruple]

Probably not a MK21 Mod O as it was still under development in early 1967. The US Navy and Marines were initially stuck with the M1919A4 as all production contracts were going directly to the US Army and had to wait until other contractors could come on line and production caught up with demand. I had the pleasure of speaking to Ron Henry who was the Program Manager of the MK21 Mod O several years back even in his advanced age he remembered quite a bit about his project. Only about 1,100 guns were converted to the MK21 Mod O. These guns are rare unicorns to say the least as none of the US museums has any and some of the museums were not aware of their existence. I am only aware of one MK21 Mod O registered and in existence in the US, it was built from the scrap guns that were destroyed at Crane. The rest were given to the South Vietnamese Navy when the PBR were transferred to them.
The gun in the picture is a M1919A4 as you can barely make out the cloth belt on the left side of the gun. Also in the background are M1/M1A1 ammunition boxes which would have the .30 Caliber ammunition. If the gun was a MK21 Mod O there would have been the more modern M19A1 ammunition boxes. But the user of the MK21 Mod O would have to repack the ammunition belt in reverse as the MK21 Mod O feeds with the M13 links facing down. Additionally the M1919A4 in the picture is missing its front sight. Probably shooting the gun based on observation instead of aimed fire.

--Edit -- As a side note, two MK21 Mod O guns and along with technical packages were shipped to the Australian military for evaluation in Project A460. Does anyone know if these guns were returned? I don't have any points of contact with the Australian military to find out. If these two guns still exist they could be the only ones (unicorns) left that have not monkeyed with.