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To: Buffalo Head
The man-sized silhouettes were at Camp Pendleton while I went through infantry training and staging battalion on my way to Vietnam. We still used M1s and BARS in training in late '65 because the Marine Corps had mountains of .30-'06 still available. I used an M-14 throughout my tour and a half in Vietnam. Less controllable than the BAR, which I would have preferred, but effective.

The M-16A1 sucked. Stupid thing jammed too often and I saw way too many VC hit and keep going - and way too many dead Marines with broken-down M-16s by them. All of the hype surrounding that thing's supposed terminal ballistics was just that, hype. My M-14 always functioned, no matter what and when I hit somebody, they stayed right where they were. When I got hit, there was a fight over who got to take my rifle.

Before accusing a fellow veteran of BS, consider asking for refining data first. we have enough know-it-all critics without doing it to each other.

49 posted on 09/30/2012 7:27:57 PM PDT by Chainmail (A simple rule of life: if you can be blamed, you're responsible.)
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To: Chainmail

My Father always liked the BAR. His sergeant shot down an FW-190 with one.

Their outfit, combat engineers were working in a quarry and had several people doing lookout while they worked. I am sure it was mostly luck but he did it.

When the outfit was disbanded in November 1945 each soldier was given a short history of the outfits adventures. They were on a large piece of paper, maybe 5X5 feet and written on both sides. They consisted of maps with comments and hand drawn pictures of their adventures.

Sure enough, there is one of the guy shooting down the plane. although I think they drew a Messerschmidt. instead of the correct plane.


50 posted on 09/30/2012 7:55:58 PM PDT by yarddog
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