What Was Your Introductory Rifle In the Military? When & Where?

Icpiper said:
Coyote Blue, wasn't it a little while later that the 4th of the 68th received M551 Sheridans?
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IIRC, the first M551's were received in the late summer or autumn ,1966.
And I think you are right about Somalia. They almost took us along to the D.R. in April,1965. I was on the runway at Pope AFB,3 times in 3 days.

But the brass finally decided against any APC's or M60'S.We lost 23 men there in a few weeks.I still think we could have been useful. We'll never know.
 
Started basic at Ft. Jackson, SC; Company B, 5th Tng. Bn. in late January, 1959. Rifle was an M1 made by Winchester.

Like a good WV hillbilly, i scored Expert. :D
 
M-16A2 Parris Island. May 2006. First time I ever held a gun of any type. This is when I realized my love for firearms and my addiction began. Unfortunately the VA does not recognize this as a disability claim....
 
I was in Canada on an Exercise with the Pat's and some Brits and got to shoot their version of the Sterling 9mm submachinegun, but I missed out on the FAL :( But hey, the Sterling was fun just the same :D
 
RTC Orlando, 1982.

Whats a rifle? :D

We carried M1 Garands (inoperable), but we only shot pistols, 1911A1s on the range, and that was 5 whole rounds.
 
T65/86 as a guest of the ROCMC. I didn't shoot it though. I just had do do D&C with the thing a few hours a week for a few months, in what I thought at the time was absurdly hot weather and absurdly acidic rain. Most of the time I had a wooden/bamboo fake actually.
Then the USMC let me carry around an M240 for a day and shoot the M9 and M4 on fancy simulators.
Then the Fuerza de Infantería de Marina introduced me to the same weapons, but from the other end, which wasn't so bad. They followed up with the M2 and that wasn't so good. Of course, I'm just guessing from cyclic rate, pitch, and size of resulting holes in concrete. That was in much hotter weather and even more acidic rain.

I have to say all of my military introductions to firearms were less than satisfactory. On the plus side I didn't have to maintain any of those firearms in the acidic rain. That would have been a real inconvenience.
 
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I did all my training at Ft Polk Louisiana in 1968.

The first rifle we qualified with was the M14, the second rifle we qualified with was the M16, we also had to qualify with Uncle Sam's handgun, the famed 1911A1.

We were also schooled and trained with various machine guns including the Ma-Deuce, my favorite.

Arrived in country in August of 1968 in an area known as Hell's Half Acre.

Best Regards
Bob Hunter
www.huntercustoms.com
 
Well I haven't joined yet, but I'm in the process right now of joining the National Guard. I've been told I'll be training with mainly the M16A2, although it is possible I could be using an M4 for some of the training at Fort Benning, Georgia.
 
Arrived in country in August of 1968 in an area known as Hell's Half Acre.
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I assume you mean Vietnam. Curious about where you were in '68. I arrived in the fall of '69 - came back to US in fall of '70. Google "Hell's Half Acre" - many hits but none listed for Vietnam; not at all surprising.
 
High school Army ROTC, 1972 : M14

USMC Recruit Depot, San Diego, 1976 : first rifle - M16A1. first pistol : M1911A1

While on delayed entry - after enlisting but before being shipped to boot camp - my recruiter took a group of us out to shoot with a local USMC Reserve unit. The first gun I fired was the M2 50 cal BMG.
 
M16A2 2011, Lackland AFB Texas, that thing was such a piece of junk, I'm surprised I passed my CATM training at all with the thing. Jammed every 3 or 4 rounds I swear.

That said though, it was still fun despite all the headaches
 
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