We hadn't really been in Afghanistan long enough at the time to learn enough.
At the start of the war I agree…but it was years into the Iraq war and still no armored vehicles.
“still look back at that amazing Jeep as being such a perfect vehicle”
…and let us not forget that it was designed by the long-defunct American Bantam company!
The military correctly deduced that American Bantam would not be able to produce the quantity needed by our troops, so the manufacturing was done by both Willys and Ford, but American Bantam was the original source of that design. Of course, it was the Willys motor that ultimately powered these little wonders, as American Bantam had only a tiny Austin engine to offer.
IIRC, American Bantam was given a contract to manufacture the little trailers that were pulled by some Jeeps.
Mike, I agree. We should have learned what we needed in vehicles and responded much, much faster. It’s unacceptable when the troops in the field have to retrofit their own vehicles with whatever junk they can weld on.
They’ve been retrofitting since the beginning of warfare. In WW2, the waist gunners in bombers typically lined the floor of their position with extra flak jackets.
The most Rube Goldberg effort that I saw 50 years ago was strapping 105mm recoilless rifles on motorized mules…
They've been retrofitting since the beginning of warfare. In WW2, the waist gunners in bombers typically lined the floor of their position with extra flak jackets.
It was wrong then…as it is now. I heard horror stories of older guys in Nam with the first batch of M-16’s that were extremely prone to jamming. Some abandoned the gun altogether and found old M-14’s. I was lucky to have the later M-16’s that didn’t have this problem.
Yeah they told us stories about them blowing up in your face if you weren’t meticulous in the cleaning. I actually qualified on the old M-14. First weekend on the job and everyone had to go out to the range and qualify. None of us new guys had ever seen one before but I must have gotten one that was already zeroed in pretty good. Oh to be young again.
I carried a .30 carbine until forced to take an M-16.
First rifle or gun of any kind I ever shot was the M-16. Later the 45 and the M-60. I fired a shotgun a couple times since the Army…and that’s about it.
The M-16s issued in the mid '60s were renowned for jamming. The ones I trained on (we had to qualify on the range and learn to field strip and rebuild them) had allegedly been retrofitted. The improvement was mainly to return to a chrome-lined barrel (which was in the original design, but dropped in the subsequent revision) to prevent corrosion and jamming. The jamming stopped and the rifles became reliable. Corrosion and contamination was a big, big problem in jungle warfare. Fortunately for me, I was never in a position to have to use it other than on the firing range in basic training. I wasn’t a combat troop. I have undying great respect for those that were. And for those who served and/or serve in any capacity in the military in any era.
In the 21 months that I spent in the Marine Corps from 1968 'till 1970 I developed a very poor opinion of American political leaders and the Pentagon. The corruption was so inherrent that even a drafted grunt from Mississippi couldn’t help but recognize it. And BTW, going COMMANDO wasn’t a fashion trend.