"Like a Kid in a Candy Store"

I left Barstow for good in the summer of '67, took a couple of weeks leave in San Jose, said goodbye to everybody and headed for Camp Pendleton for the 2nd time in my Marine Corps hitch, to begin combat training, and from there, Vietnam.

I won't go into tactics, because you never know when it might be needed again. No need to give away any "trade secrets".

We spent a lot of time in the field, and were subject to a lot of fake booby-traps (so you'd now what to look for), and we were often ambushed by combat-vet Marines, who played the roles of..........(let's not "offend" anybody now)................"International personnel of Asian persuasion, representing the North Vietnamese Army."

"Luke" for short.

They made training as realistic as they could, both day and night, without killing anybody. In 'Nam, we'd see things that weren't in any training manual, or ever WOULD be.

One of the highlights for me, were all of the different weapons we trained with. We even trained on a few from World War II and the Korean War, because some of that stuff was still being USED in Vietnam, so we had to be familiar with ALL of them. I got to shoot everything from the 45 automatic to the flame thrower! I was like a kid in a candy store!

From the days of my first cap pistol, I have safely and responsibly enjoyed a professional and personal relationship with firearms. In some circles among the limp-wristed, owning a gun makes you some kind of dangerous, radical degenerate, the "terrorist of tomorrow."

It would appear to be "ok" to drink or smoke yourself to death, DRUG yourself to death (and get OTHERS addicted), get the KIDS hooked on all this crap, drive drunk and wipe out an entire school bus, "text" at 80 mph on the freeway, spread AIDS around.........

............but to own a GUN, or even WANT to?....."OH YOU SICK, TWISTED, DEPRAVED DEGENERATE YOU!........"

Well, I enjoyed shooting a Garand or a '14 at Pendleton 43 years ago, and 43 years later, I STILL enjoy shooting my OWN Garand & M-14 today out at Cinder Butte (weather permitting). I don't shoot holes in stop signs, I pick up all my empty brass and targets, and since Vietnam------I have yet to draw any blood except for a few deer, an elk, and a few coyotes and jack-rabbits.

I brought that up just now, only to establish that I make no apologies, excuses or explanations of my love of collecting and shooting. And yes, it REALLY manifested itself in the Marine Corps..........but that's ok too. If NOBODY was willing to do it, we wouldn't be reading this, nor have to freedom to "speak our piece in" response.

Back at Pendleton, there was a "bonus' of sorts, for my having to wait an extra year............

About halfway through our training, we're all in platoon formation in front of the barracks, and the Platoon Sergeant dismisses the first 3 squads, leaving just the 4th squad remaining. I was in that 4th squad. He starts walking along from right to left with some OTHER sergeant we'd never seen, who was holding a clipboard. He points to each of us as he passes, "Machineguns---mortars----rockets.................machineguns---mortars---rockets......"

Once again, the "high-tech" selective Marine Corps process of suiting the right guy with the right job............Once again, the old time-tested------"You, you and you."

I was the 6th dude in line, so along with numbers 3,9 and 12, WE were going to "rocket school" and our primary jobs in 'Nam would be as bazookamen.............oh, you still carried a rifle, went on patrols and ambushes, but if something hardened had to be taken out, YOU were the guy with the "Stovepipe", as we called it.

Rocket school consisted of a few hours of indoor classroom training, a couple of films, and then "hands on," for teardown and field repair. We spent the next few days on the rocket range, shooting dummy rockets at derelict tanks. On the last day, we got to shoot some live ordinance at junk cars they must have gotten from wrecking yards or someplace. Impressive!

We used 2 different launchers, the old M-20 from the Korean era, which fired a 9 pound 90mm rocket, and the new smaller 1-shot "disposable" 66mm LAAW rocket launcher. (LAAW stood for "Light Anti-tank Assault Weapon."). We would use BOTH in 'Nam.

But my last week or so before they shipped us out, put a real "sour note on my sheet music."

We were taken out to one of the ranges and "introduced" to this new "magic wonder" that was replacing our M-14's.

The M-16 was a very strange looking weapon. Mostly aluminum alloy with a plastic stock that was actually made by the Mattell Toy Company------------FACT. They went to great lengths to show us all how to tear the gun apart if you had a jam, or any other malfunction. There seemed to be more emphasis on correcting malfunctions, than there was on shooting the thing. That bothered me.

When we shot it, you could barely feel any recoil..........the bullet was only 5.56mm......(.223 Remington).........basically just a high-speed jacketed TWENTY-TWO!

That REALLY bothered me! In the states, we'd been trained on good reliable THIRTY caliber rifles, and just a couple weeks away from deploying, we're seeing this.......this THING.......and to make matters WORSE, there'd been rumors floating around that they were ALREADY having problems with this new "wonder weapon" now that it was being "tested" in the slime and humidity of Vietnam---------which the Colt company could never have duplicated back HERE.

The M-16 was tested under ideal conditions back here, and though good lobbying with the help of Robert McNamara, this new concept got sold to DOD.

The selling points were the lower cost ($101.00 apiece compared to $168.00 for an M-14)..........and the "BIG SCAM" was the WEIGHT. The '16 was considerably lighter than a '14, which "should appeal" to the troops, who were already "loaded down" with other equipment. The 5.56 ammo was smaller as well, so the troops could carry MORE ammo than they could before." These had been the main "selling points."

First off, the little 5.56 seriously lacked the range and knockdown power of the bigger 308 it was "replacing", but more critically than THAT..........it doesn't matter how much MORE ammo you can carry if the gun is prone to JAMMING. And unlike it's counterpart, the AK-47, you can't just "kick the bolt open" on an M-16 to clear an obstruction--------you've got to tear that thing DOWN......right now......with AK rounds whizzing by you while you're trying to "clear the problem."

"Luke's" gun didn't jam. It was purposely designed with loose combat tolerances to ALLOW for the water, mud, slime and other crap a combat rifle has to live in. So was the M-1 and the M-14.

The M-16 was designed by Eugene Stoner, who was NOT a gun designer, but a space-age-thinking man.....he thought he could use new materials, "modern technology" and make himself a ton of money.........which he did.

He never even had them chromeplate the chambers..........an absolute MUST for corrosion prevention from powder-fowling!

Well, the families of dead G.I.'s "made" a few bucks too. Everytime a troop was killed over there, his family was given $10,000 in G.I. Insurance. A lot of G.I.'s were killed when their M-16s decided not to work anymore, and while they frantically started taking their guns apart to clear the problem, our old buddy "Luke" would jump up with his well-worn AK-47 (that NEVER jammed), and took care of "business."

More about that after we get to 'Nam, where we're headed to next on this blog.

All of a sudden, I wasn't quite as anxious as I HAD been at one time, because we weren't being allowed to take our M-14's with us. We would be "issued rifles" when we got to DaNang.

THAT worried me the most.