The M16

It was said the M16 was designed not to kill, but only to wound. The “theory” was that a wounded soldier would require at least two men to take him off the battlefield and that this would overwhelm the enemy’s medical services with wounded as well as affect morale. It is safe to say that morale is affected a lot more when troops are killed.

The hard-used AK-47s proved superior and it was fully realized that the use of ball powder in M16s was the problem. The Army refused to admit this and rather than changing the powder decided to design a heavier recoil buffer – making the rifle accommodate inadequate ammunition rather than improving the ammunition.

As soon as the ordnance team arrived, they made it clear that they were already well informed (meaning they’d already made up their minds) concerning our problem and had decided (without so much as a question to us) that we as a Battalion were responsible for a bad rap being given to a marvelous little rifle! The lads in the rear had decided that we were simply not keeping our rifles clean, and if we weren’t such inattentive and unmotivated “oafs” being led by incompetents, we wouldn’t have such a problem. Needless to say, the hackles stood up on the back of our necks.