Had an uncle that was drafted at the end of WWII. He ended up as an MP in West Germany someplace.
They were issued extremely worn 1911s that were in dire need of refurbishing. Those 1911s were a problem during qualification at the range.
It was time for total replacement or modernization. The 9mm was the NATO round and uniformity was the word of the day. Berretta won out over Colt SSP, S&W 459, Walther P88, Steyr GB, and the HKP7. If Glock had been around in 1971, it might have made real history then.
In Basic I was issued a M1. When cleaning out the cosmoline, I discovered there was no rifling left in the barrel; it was like a mirror. On the range when firing, I notice progressively spurts of dust walking down the berm. Every time I fired, the sight would drop down sever clicks. The platoon sergeant said, “Oh, that don’t matter. You got your buddies pulling targets. You’ll be alright.” When pulling targets. I noticed there was a lot of keyholing. We had all been issued worn-out junk.