Was the M16 hated by US troops during the Vietnam War?

I was a soldier in the infantry in Vietnam, and I didn’t hate my weapon, the M16. But, depending on which part of the country you were in, it required a lot of TLC.

I was in the Mekong Delta exactly 50 years ago this month, and the M16 did not take kindly to being submerged in dirty, silty water, and we were fording streams and bodies of water on a daily basis. Keep it clean and it fired like a champ, but three days out in the boonies that might be hard to do.

The enemy AK’s were famous for withstanding all kinds of mistreatment. I never found a cleaning kit among those we killed or captured.

There was only one time my M16 failed me: we had spent the morning fording muddy streams, keeping our weapons held high out of the water. But at late afternoon we came upon the enemy by surprise, I emptied my first magazine without a problem, but when I replaced the empty with a new one, it instantly jammed.

The extra magazines had been in a bandolier around my waist and were covered with silt from the stream crossings. Fortunately, enemy contact was quickly broken or I would have been without a weapon, muddy ammo and the M16 did not do well together.

Here I am with my not-hated M16. Note the canvas sling has been replaced with a boot lace. Those wide canvas slings would get wet with swamp water, stink to high heaven and never dry out.

Source: Harry Hawblitzel (Quora)

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