The had not been properly trained how to maintain them, and many believed the rifle didn’t need cleaning at all, never mind the fact that cleaning supplies for soldiers were in short supply. Soldiers were not maintaining their rifles. To address these concerns, a technical assistance team was dispatched to Vietnam to assess soldiers’ use of the rifle.
I need it for my rifles are getting a lot of guys killed because they jam so easily. If you can, please send me a bore rod and a 1 1/4 inch or so paint brush. I pack as many grenades as I can plus bayonet and K bar (jungle knife) so I’ll have something to fight with. Out of 40 rounds I’ve fired, my rifle jammed about 10 times. Half of us don’t have cleaning rods to unjam them. One soldier’s letter home to his parents in Idaho contained the following: Soldiers began to lose confidence in their fancy new rifles. Reports began coming out of Vietnam in 1966 that the M16 was encountering problems. Yes the M16 was failing in Vietnam, but for reasons some may not know. By opinion poll, the experimentation troops favor the because of its demonstrated characteristics of lightness in weight, reliability, balance and grip, and freedom from recoil and climb on full automatic.
With a total combat weight per man equivalent to that planned for riflemen armed with the M-14, a squad consisting of from 5-7 men armed with the would have better hit distribution and greater hit capability than the present eleven-man M-14 squad. In fact, a report from 1959 comparing the ArmaLite to the M14 lead to these findings:Ī. The rifle itself was much lighter, and the weight savings between rifle and ammunition meant that soldiers could carry almost three times as much ammo as with the M14. The smaller lighter 5.56 (.223) caliber meant the rifle could be better controlled in automatic fire. The M16 offered a number of advantages, primarily attributable to its lower weight. The M16 was shipped to soldiers in Vietnam to replace the standard issue M14. ArmaLite sold its rights to the rifle in 1959 to Colt Firearms.
It fired the same caliber as the M14, a 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge.
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