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| Me outside barracks-1457th ENG BN Graf Germany |
Back in the very early 1980's when I was still in high school, I had a very good friend named Rich who was in the Special Forces in the Utah Army National Guard. I really wanted to join the SF and the military was so desperate back in the post-Vietnam era that they actually let me tag along to drills. That is the first time I got my hands on an M-16. I learned to take it apart and then they actually let me fire about 30 rds. I remember two things: first, I was so unfamiliar with a military sight that I was a rotten shot, and second was the unique "kaCHANG!" sound of the recoil spring buffer in the stock that was right against my ear as I shot.
I didn't get hands on again with an M-16 until I joined the Utah Army National Guard in Dec of 1988. By then I was married with a daughter and any crazy ideas I had about chasing snakes around in swamps or jumping out of perfectly good aircraft were long gone so I became a Combat Engineer-12 Bravo. I was by this time a confirmed gun nut and a decent shot. I really loved playing around with weapons and being in the Army was like the proverbial kid in a candy store. It seemed that every vet could always recite the serial number of his rifle, and although no one ever had me do this I memorized mine. 4382262, it was a Vietnam era Colt M-16A1 with my rack number 010 painted in white stencil on the right side of the buttstock. It seemed to be in pretty good shape and served me well for several years.
In basic training at Ft. Leonard Wood in April of 1989 I really felt in my element when we got to our BRM (basic rifle marksmanship) training. About all I needed was a quick lesson on the principles of the military ring sight and I was good to go. For final qualification I hit 38 out of 40 targets and qualified expert. As I walked away I was mad at myself because one of the targets I had missed was an easy 150 meter target. I was also happy because the drill sergeant standing behind me had told me not to waste my ammo on the 300 meter target but I fired anyway and when he saw I had knocked it down let out a few expletives to let me know he was impressed! I ended up shooting better than anyone in my entire battalion and won an award for the "High BRM" it was my one and only claim to fame in basic.
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| Firing two rounds downrange in Grafenwohr, 1991 |
As the army transitioned into the M-16A2, they slowly updated our M-16A1's. The first thing I noticed was that our armorer had put on a new style buttstock, a few months later they put on the new A2 style handguards and then they just ended up issuing us M-16A2's. I am sure that I am the "lone wolf" on this, but I really disliked the new A2 sights and missed the A1 rear sight. Also I hated the 3 round burst, what a waste! and what fun is that?
I would love our yearly qualifying shoots, they would always issue us way too much ammo and we would have to shoot it all. So after qualifying, they would open up the range, well most of the guys weren't gun nuts and were only too happy to leave and go to chow or the PX or back to the barracks, but a few of us would run over and start loading magazines like mad. Once I shot close to a thousand rounds. It was great fun to explore the outside limits of the M-16 or put it on full auto and "rock and roll"!
Okay, so after a few years the fun of the M-16 started to wear off and I really started to hate it! well, not the actual weapon, but just all the games the army made us play. for instance, if we had our M-16, we could do nothing without it! It ended up, at times, feeling like a millstone around your neck. Say you wanted to go to Micky D's and pick up a burger for lunch, well, most civilians frown on you walking into their establishment with a machine gun, if you leave it in the truck and some miscreant walks off with it, lets just say Uncle Sam has ways to make such an errant soldier miserable. You are on the hook until the armorer takes it back from you. of course the wiseguy armorer knows the power he has over your life and loves to see you miserable. They refused to take any weapon that had any oil, dirt, or powder residue on it, so we would clean and clean and clean and then go stand in line to turn it in. The armorer would give the weapon a dubious look, insert a swab into some part and pull the swab out with dirt on it, hand it back and tell you to really clean it this time. an hour later we would repeat the farce and inserting the swab into another area he would again refuse the weapon. We would finally give up, hide our M-16's in a wall locker, pray no one would steal it and then turn it in just before final formation when we knew the two headed monkey's uncle of an armorer would have to accept it. It wasn't until years into my service that I became friends with Sam, our armorer that I found out his trick, HE USED A PRE-DIRTY SWAB!!!! Oh the fun he had with that!
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| Cleaning My M-16A1 In Grafenwohr Germany |
After I was out of the army for several years I really started to miss shooting an M-16 and decided to build up an AR-15A1 that mimicked my army rifle. I decided I really liked my M-16 best when it had the nostalgic triangle forestock and A2 buttstock so that is what I did. I got the upper from http://www.model1sales.com/ and bought a DPMS A2 lower from Vanwagenen Finance Co. (My all-time favorite gun store that is sadly closing) I made a stencil paint on my rack number and searched the internet until I found the proper sling (harder than I thought it would be) at http://whatacountry.com/ar-15-m16-slings.aspx
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| My AR-15A1 |
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