I was artillery and the howitzer was my primary weapon. That being said artillery was the last of the field units to get an M16. I got to nam in March of 69 and was issued an M14, a rifle I had training on. Then a few months into my tour we were issued M16’s, a rifle I had never fired or was trained to maintain.
I received my training from a comic book.
707F578D-7B79-441E-A5F1-CA8E243A1FB9.jpeg
It’s been a long time but I don’t remember the DI’s looking like this.
F8AEE02F-7D9C-4C7A-8A72-83CBFD9B9A37.jpeg
None of the M16’s we were issued were new. The infantry got the new rifles and we received theirs after being rebuilt. All of the rifles in my unit were different. Mixed uppers and lowers was the norm. I didn’t think much about it at the time however I later determined it was an XM16E3 if I remember right. It was actually an early Air Force rifle with no forward assist, a chrome bolt and barrel, none of the fences around the corral, 3-prong flash, finger grove pistol grip, no cleaning kit in the stock, and the stock was the darker more rounded shiny one.
Some of us had the older barrels that could only shoot 52 grain bullets and were issued 55 grain. The Army told us it was close enough.
Each howitzer had an M79 grenade launcher and the person on guard was given it for the night. Gotta love those mad minutes when you could light up the night with firepower. We usually had a twin-forty and quad-50 with us and most nights for a minute at random we would open up. Everything but the howitzers were fired and the 79 was my favorite. I could easily get off a dozen rounds during a mad minute.
I hated nam but loved it at the same time.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.