M-14

When I was drafted into the Army in 1965, I had to qualify with the standard weapon at the time. It was the M-14 rifle. It was a big old rifle, weighed over 11 pounds and shot a big round, the 7.62 x 51mm NATO standard. It held a twenty round magazine and could be fired single shot or semi-automatic. On automatic, it could fire 700 rounds per minute so that was not too practical with a 20 round clip. This baby had been designed after the Korean War and was manufactured through 1964.

At that same time, our infantry troops were being trained on a new weapon, the M-16 rifle. It weighs only 8 1/2 pounds and fires a smaller 5.56 x 45mm round at a high muzzle velocity. Sadly, it was not always reliable in the jungles of Vietnam. It had to be kept very clean and its smaller shell does not have the stopping power to put a man down with every hit.

Our troops were up against an army which was equipped by Russia and Red China. The Russians had designed and manufactured an infantry weapon called the AK-47. It fires a 7.62 x 39mm round, weighs only about 9 pounds and uses a thirty round magazine. It was a very reliable weapon, easy to handle and easy to clean. To this day, it is the worldwide standard for individual firearms. Every terrorist you ever see has one slung over a shoulder (Even Michelle Obama had one in the New Yorker). Some say that if we had their rifles and they had our rifles, we would have won the War in Vietnam. How sad!