Dick...Congratulations on an OUTSTANDING story. First person accounts such as yours are invaluable in protecting us from the purveyors of "revisionist history" In addition to being an excellent work, the first part of your M16 article brought back a flood of memories. With your permission and your patience, I will share some of them.

     In the Summer of '67, while you and your rifle company were trying your best to make the little black rifle work, I was a PLC candidate at Quantico. We were becoming vaguely aware of the problems through back channel scuttlebutt. (Our GySgt had been at Hill 881) Curiously, nothing official was ever said by the Schools Command Staff about the M16, in fact, I don't recall it even being mentioned in any of the classroom lectures or field exercises. It probably would have been politically incorrect to do so. Most of us just humped our M14s up and down the infamous "Hill Trail" and took for granted that we would carry one when we got overseas. However, in the rack next to mine was one squared away Marine, Candidate Lee Kinney. Kinney had 7 years enlisted time, most of which were with Force Recon. It was rumored that he could run 50 feet straight in the air. And, since most of us were just sniveling college boy weenies, you can imagine the immense respect and awe which we felt for Kinney. When he spoke, it was like the words were coming from the burning bush.

     Accordingly, when Kinney told us that the M16 was NFG, we listened and we believed. He also told us that he had been part of an evaluation team for the Stoner 63 system which you mentioned in your narrative. The Stoner, he said, was what the Corps really wanted, but would never be allowed to have. When we innocently asked "Why not?", he just smiled at our naivete and informed us that such decisions are made by politicians who are being wined and dined by high dollar lobbyists, not by the grunts whose lives will depend on them. He prophesied that we would command Marines who would carry the NFG M16.

     His prophecy proved correct. Unfortunately, I heard later that Kinney had lost both legs to a booby trap leading his platoon somewhere around Quang Tri.

     When I arrived in country in late 1969 I was assigned to HMM-263 flying the CH-46 out of Marble Mountain Air Facility. And, as you mentioned, the 46, mostly the "A" models, had its share of problems. By the time I was flying the "D" models, most of the major problems had been corrected, but not before more than just a few good men had been killed. In the air wing, the 46 was known as "the widow maker", the "green weenie" and other less printable epithets. The CH-34 drivers said the best use for a 46 was to roll it over on its side and turn it into a 4-hole crapper. The story we heard was that McNamara had directed the Marines to purchase the 46 which was built by Boeing-Vertol, even though the Corps'evaluators had recommended another Sikorsky model to replace the 34. Seems that McNamara felt that Sikorsky had more than its share of military contracts already ongoing and wanted to spread the wealth around a bit in spite of what the men who actually flew the machines wanted. While the story may well be more than just a little apocryphal in origin, it seemed quite in character for a man who arrogantly believed that everything in life could be reduced to a mathematical equation.

     Anyway, after checking into the squadron and being issued my personal sidearm, (a S&W 5-shot Airweight and a very funny story goes with it!) I, as a wide-eyed FNG, began to notice the plethora of unauthorized weapons carried by my fellow helicopter pilots. There were M16s, M2 Carbines with the barrels and stocks cutdown, pump shotguns, Thompsons, and even one very cute little 9mm submachine gun the owner called a "Swedish K". (An even funnier story goes with the Swedish K) An outgoing pilot offered to sell me a folding stock AK for $50 and I almost bought it until a salty old Gunny told me that if I ever had to use the thing, I would draw fire from every friendly in a 300 meter radius. Just as you related, the AKs have a distinctive sound. I did accept a beautiful M2 Carbine, complete with 3 banana clips of ammo. It didn't take me long to figure out that was unsat, cause by this time, there wasn't any more .30 Carbine ammo available. Also, believe it or not, I discovered it had no gas piston. It just wasn't there.

     So, within a month or two, I had an M16 which we picked up on medevac. It was pretty banged up with a cracked handguard and a broken forward assist, but I took it over to the Group armory and had it patched up. (Another funny story about a 9mm Polish Radom pistol hanging on the wall at the Group armory.) On missions I stuffed it and 4 or 5 magazines behind my armored seat and never really gave it much thought since I usually had enough to worry about just flying the aircraft. Not much thought that is, until early one afternoon after routinely extracting a recon team I found myself with a broken helicopter sitting in the middle of a sand bar on a river running through the mountains about 10 miles SW of a place called Thoung Duc. It was not a happy situation.

     The recon team leader who was really P.O.ed, told me we were surrounded by NVA. I believe his exact words were "These mountains are crawling with gooners." Of course, that was after he had used some extremely colorful, and I must say, rather profane language to describe the air wing in general. The team leader said we were sure to get probed and for the first time it looked like I might have to actually use that M16. As I contemplated this, all the horror stories I had heard about the M16 came upon me in a rush. I suddenly realized I didn't even know if the thing would work...I had never actually fired it. In fact, I had never even qualified with a rifle. The pucker factor was increasing exponentially!!!

     However, for some unknown reason, we were not probed and a reaction team arrived on scene a mere 5 hours later. (A not so funny story goes with that.) Safely back at Marble Mountain, I soberly, more or less anyway, reflected on the day's events and began to talk to my associates. I learned that most of them had never fired their motley assortment of weapons either. Somewhat indignantly, I went to see the XO and strongly suggested some sort of weapons familiarization be set up. Good idea, he said...Take care of it.

     I found myself in a lieutenants' most common position, i.e., open mouth, insert foot. Actually, it wasn't that bad. I talked to the squadron armory about furnishing some weapons and ammo, loaded up a six-by and took a gaggle of eager marksmen over to an area on the beach that had been set aside as an unofficial range. For the first 20 minutes or so we filled sandbags with beach sand and piled them up to use as targets. When the fam firing began I shot my M16, my medevac liberated .45, (the S&W Airweight was left back at the hootch) a M79 "Blooper", a Thompson with no butt stock, and a M60. It was great fun and a good time was had by all. I ran 4 mags through the M16, shooting both full and semi auto at the sand bags which were piled up about 40 yards away. I was pleasantly surprised when there were no jams or failure of any kind. The M16 performed as advertised. However, I was unpleasantly shocked to see how the 55gr bullet was stopped cold by the sandbags. And I mean dead cold. I can clearly recall a tracer impacting a sand bag, dropping onto the sand below and just laying there glowing. On the other hand, the 7.62mm bullets from the M60 tore into the sand bags with a vengeance and shredded them up quite effectively. To this day I have been unable to reconcile what I personally saw with all the fantastic claims about the effectiveness of the M16's bullet. For over 30 years I have read the reports about how great the bullet performs, especially the new heavier one, even the older one and that absurdity about how it tumbled end over end to wreak havoc and destruction upon its victim. I still picture them thudding up against a sand bag and flopping lifelessly down on the sand. I know what the experts say, but I also know what I saw. I carried the M16 behind the armored seat for the rest of my tour because logistically at least, it seemed like the best available option. Luckily, I never had to use it.

     Who knows...maybe McNamara and his bottom line philosophy were responsible for the M16 as well as some of his more notorious projects. After all, you can buy 2-3 M16 rounds for what you would spend on one M14 round and profit does seem to be the prime motivation. But that's another story. My apologies if I have rambled. Like Dick, and I'm sure many of you, my memories of that time usually stay bottled up and when I occasionally pull the cork from the bottle, it's sometimes hard to stop the flow.