M-16: A Bureaucratic Horror Story

Lived through it. Someone should have gone to jail instead of being able to hide behind the bureaucratic shield.

Bureaucracy caused a manufacturer of an inferior product to get a multi-million dollar contract, sent an inferior product to the front lines, and cost Soldier's lives?

I just can't believe it. That could NEVER happen.

I arrived in Vietnam in Feb68, after the ammo problem was resolved and the government was issuing troops M16A1s with chrome-lined chambers, so we didn't have the jamming problems. But we'd heard all about it and I personally didn't trust the weapon. We had to keep them scrupulously clean, which involved an hour or more each day, which was a pain during which I was essentially unarmed. I talked to guys that had been in the Battle of Hue - the first urban combat the Marine Corps had seen since the Korean War - and they had been in close combat with M16A1, which sometimes had the stock break off when a butt stroke was administered. Later, when I got into the Combined Action Platoons where weapons accountability wasn't strict, I traded my made-by-Mattel M16A1 for a nice M14 with a selector switch and a bipod. Worked great with a minimum of fuss, was accurate, and the heavier .30 cal bullet punched through brush and bamboo, unlike the .22 bullet of the '16, which deflected easily. Later, I also thought the M14 was a superior drill rifle than the M16A1. Much later, when the time came to get a self-defense rifle, I preferred the Ruger Mini-30 and the AK-47 to the AR series of rifles. I guess the prejudice I gained against them has stuck with me.