Ebook240 pages6 hours
Misfire: The Tragic Failure of the M16 in Vietnam
By Bob Orkand and Lyman Duryea
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
()
About this ebook
The M16 rifle is one of the world’s most famous firearms, iconic as the American weapon of the Vietnam War—and, indeed, as the U.S. military’s standard service rifle until only a few years ago. But the story of the M16 in Vietnam is anything but a success story. In the early years of the war, the U.S. military had a problem: its primary infantry rifle, the M14, couldn’t stand up to the enemy’s AK-47s. The search was on for a replacement that was lighter weight, more durable, and more lethal than the M14. After tests (some of which the new rifle had failed) and debates (more than a few rooted in the army brass’s resistance to change), Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ordered the adoption of the M16, which was rushed through production and rushed to Vietnam, reaching troops’ hands in early 1965.
Problems appeared immediately. Soldiers were often not adequately trained to maintain the new rifle (in fact some were told the new rifle was “self-cleaning”), nor were they always given cleaning supplies or instructions. The harsh jungle climate corroded the rifle’s chamber, exacerbated by the manufacturer’s decision against chrome-plating the chamber. The ammunition that accompanied the rifles sent to Vietnam was incompatible with the M16 and was the principal cause of the failure to extract malfunctions. The result was the M16 often jammed, making the rifle “about as effective as a muzzleloader,” in the words of one officer. Men were killed in combat because they couldn’t return fire until the malfunction was cleared. Congress investigated and the rifle and its ammunition were incrementally modified, greatly improving its reliability over the next few years. Troop training was also improved. But the damage to the M16’s reputation could not be undone, and many soldiers remained deeply skeptical of their rifle through the war’s end.
Misfire combines insider knowledge of U.S. Army weapons development with firsthand combat experience in Vietnam to tell the story of the M16 in Vietnam. Even as it details the behind-the-scenes development, tests, and debates that brought this rifle into service, the book also describes men and M16s in action on the battlefield, never losing sight of the soldiers who carried M16s in the jungles of Vietnam and all too often suffered the consequences of decisions they had nothing to do with.
Problems appeared immediately. Soldiers were often not adequately trained to maintain the new rifle (in fact some were told the new rifle was “self-cleaning”), nor were they always given cleaning supplies or instructions. The harsh jungle climate corroded the rifle’s chamber, exacerbated by the manufacturer’s decision against chrome-plating the chamber. The ammunition that accompanied the rifles sent to Vietnam was incompatible with the M16 and was the principal cause of the failure to extract malfunctions. The result was the M16 often jammed, making the rifle “about as effective as a muzzleloader,” in the words of one officer. Men were killed in combat because they couldn’t return fire until the malfunction was cleared. Congress investigated and the rifle and its ammunition were incrementally modified, greatly improving its reliability over the next few years. Troop training was also improved. But the damage to the M16’s reputation could not be undone, and many soldiers remained deeply skeptical of their rifle through the war’s end.
Misfire combines insider knowledge of U.S. Army weapons development with firsthand combat experience in Vietnam to tell the story of the M16 in Vietnam. Even as it details the behind-the-scenes development, tests, and debates that brought this rifle into service, the book also describes men and M16s in action on the battlefield, never losing sight of the soldiers who carried M16s in the jungles of Vietnam and all too often suffered the consequences of decisions they had nothing to do with.
Related to Misfire
Related ebooks
Tours of Duty: The Best Vietnam War Stories from the Men Who Served Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHere There are Tigers: The Secret Air War in Laos and North Vietnam, 1968-69 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Marine Corps Tank Battles in the Middle East Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRocky Boyer's War: An Unvarnished History of the Air Blitz that Won the War in the Southwest Pacific Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings1000 Yard Stare: A Marine's Eye View of the Vietnam War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Going Downtown: The US Air Force over Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, 1961–75 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMortars in World War II Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWaves of Hate: Naval Atrocities of the Second World War Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5To Kill Nations: American Strategy in the Air-Atomic Age and the Rise of Mutually Assured Destruction Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Reasons in Writing: A Commando's View of the Falklands War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gamewardens of Vietnam (2nd Edition) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Recollections of Rifleman Bowlby Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSledgehammer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flying in Walking Out: Memories of War and Escape Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFire From the Sky: Surviving the Kamikaze Threat Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Only War We've Got Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Troop Leader: A Tank Commander's Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Voices of the Foreign Legion: The History of the World's Most Famous Fighting Corps Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5100 Hours to Suez Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings24hr Trench: A Day in the Life of a Frontline Tommy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAt Close Quarters: PT Boats in the United States Navy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grey Wolves: The U-Boat War 1939?1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrosshairs on the Kill Zone: American Combat Snipers, Vietnam through Operation Iraqi Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not All of Us Were Brave Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFallujah Awakens: Marines, Sheikhs, and the Battle Against al Qaeda Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThrough the Wheat Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Gasoline To Patton: A Different War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Action in the East Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOn Hallowed Ground: The Last Battle for Pork Chop Hill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Business in Great Waters: The U-Boat Wars, 1916–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Wars & Military For You
Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sun Tzu's The Art of War: Bilingual Edition Complete Chinese and English Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Daily Creativity Journal Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Making of the Atomic Bomb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Art of War: The Definitive Interpretation of Sun Tzu's Classic Book of Strategy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unacknowledged: An Expose of the World's Greatest Secret Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Art of War & Other Classics of Eastern Philosophy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/577 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine, Told by the Nation’s Own Journalists Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mein Kampf: The Original, Accurate, and Complete English Translation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World--and Why Their Differences Matter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unit 731: Testimony Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The God Delusion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Misfire
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Misfire - Bob Orkand
Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1