The Saga of the M16 in Vietnam (part 1) - Culver's Shooting Page

14's redeeming features. In retrospect, the cost of saving reputations and enhancing
corporate well being was high... too high. Mike and I both spent an extra year in grade and
Mike decided not to stay on in the Marine Corps even though he was a regular officer, and a
damned fine one at that! That was one of the larger tragedies, as Mike was one of the truly
good guys. Men of principle are more rare than the Hope Diamond in real life, and he was
one of those. After the decorations had settled on the scene in SE Asia, they decided to keep
me around and I was too stubborn to quit. The Corps, with what can only be described as a
rather macabre sense of humor, sent me to Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey,
California and made an Ordnance Engineer out of my somewhat "frayed" fanny. Life is often
rife with seemingly contradictory incidents. Most of these give truth to the statement of
George Burns in the movie, "Oh God" where he describes God as a comedian playing to an
audience that’s afraid to laugh! Amen...
In "Part 2" I’ll tell you what the problems REALLY were and why so many were fighting to
keep the lid on the situation. The real story is not one to give you great confidence in our
leadership or human nature. War and politics truly make strange bedfellows!
ROC
End Notes:
1 “Chopped Op-Con” literally meant detached from the operational control of the parent unit, in this case, the 9
th
Marine Amphibious Brigade, to another operational unit (usually a regiment in the Area of Operations [AO] of
whatever Divisional [1 st Marine Division or 3 rd Marine Division] area you were operating in).
2 In all fairness to Mr. Ito, he also sent me a match barrel for my .45 Government Model, and some great .45
Auto and Single Action Army tie tacks. He also sent me a whole XM177E2 (a sort of predecessor to the current
M4 Carbine), which was appropriated by the Battalion Commander as his personal weapon (I had asked Mr.
Ito if it was possible to buy the short barrel group and a collapsible stock to put on my M16 – he sent the whole
thing!). The last I heard, the rifle had been passed down from Battalion Commander to Battalion Commander as
a sort of badge of office. I never felt any rancor in losing my prize, I figure it went for a good cause. Mr. Ito was
truly a jewel among men!
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