Well, I hope the changes were an improvement. My brother trained on the M1A and was given an M16 in Vietnam. His line was, “The ‘M’ stands for Mattel.” I know there have been a ton of improvements since then but it still fires an anemic round. Until that changes it will always be a ‘mouse-gun.’
I’m with you...In basic we trained on M-14s, then M-16s (on automatic)...when, as a REMF, I got to Vietnam, I was given an M-14. Unfortunately it was housed in an ‘arsenal’ a few hundred yards down an open street. So I kept an M1 Carbine and Colt .45 in the hooch...never hardly saw the M14 (or an M16 for that matter). Never had a desire to own an M16...in part due to that ‘Mattel’ quality, same for Glocks.