What Happened with the M16 in Vietnam?

I’m a Vietnam Vet. I served in the Marines in I CORPS. I did three tours over there. Finally, finally I have a sensible explanation of why the M16 had issues. I came close many times of being killed because the rifle jammed. Now I know why. Thank you for this video.

I got to Vietnam Aug 1970. By then, the bugs had been worked out. I found the rifle to be superb in every way. The one area that it seemed the AK-47 had an edge was the size of the cartridge. The bullet would go trhough telephone pole! .... It (AK-47) was reliable as hell from jump. But, I fell in love with the M-16. Now my nephew 50 years later, has an AR-15. The M-16 ws light , easy to carry, had the kit in the stock, and , in a pinch, you could fire it non-stop for hours and hours. I never had one single problem with it. To this day, tho, I crack up thinking how one cartridge is the tool to completely disassemble the rifle. Plus, since the ammo was a tad smaller, you could actually carry more rounds. I always found ways to carry 2 or 3 more magazines than the others. But, there was a special sound theAK made, and when you heard it, you knew shit was gonna get real ... cuz it seemed they NEVER go into a fight unless they had the advantage. And by 1970, we all knew it was corrosion and a lack of chroming. None of us had any illusions. But I came home and had to listen to the bulshit the civilians had been fed. I loved that rifle then and love it now. It got wet, muddy, hundreds of rounds sometimes between cleanings... never a single problem. I always felt sorry for the poor saps the army sent into combat with a POS that rifle was at first.....through NO fault of the rifle itself. The freakin army .... sigh...

As a Marine I had qualified with the M~14 and had never even heard of the M~16 let alone seen one until I arrived in Vietnam in October, 1967. I loved the fact that it was fully automatic, light weight and had a simple manual of arms. I immediately heard of the problems and how much the weapon was hated by the grunts. I witnessed failure to extract but only occasionally. The problem was apparently corrected in late ‘67 and by ‘68 we saw no further problems.

Some comments: I was issued my first AR-15 (we did NOT call them M-16's at the time) in either December 1963 or early 1964. They replaced our M-2 Carbines. I was on a 5th Special Forces Group A-Detachment in III Corp at a place called BuDop. The rifles were delivered by a full bird Colonel flying around in a fancy Caribou aircraft. Only Caribou I ever saw with a couple of rows of passenger seats forward in cargo bay. Wish I could remember his name. As I remember he was from R&D at Ft. Belvoir and split his time between Belvoir and Vietnam. The original rifles were Colt Armalite rifles, steel mags, NO forward assist and I don't REMEMBER a dust cover. Ammo was specific with a specific propellant specified by Colt. We DID clean our rifles, unlike a lot of the draftee types that came later. I am told that most of the problems came when Congress decided to buy a different propellant from Dupont in Delaware. There are those who suggest that this was a political decision. Using the prescribed ammo and keeping them clean, they performed well for us. And yes, we got shot at and we shot back! We did not fully load mags, probably because most of our 700 strong Steing Montagnards were armed with M-3's and Thompson's and it was believed that problems occurred due to fully loaded mags in those weapons and we wanted to play it safe.

I was with First Recon, A-3, at Chu Lai. We were issued the M16 sometime in early 1967, if memory serves. During my first patrol carrying the M16 we stopped on a hillside. We were being followed. I was the last man in the group, when I opened up the M 16 jammed almost immediately and I couldn't extract the shell casing. Two Marines flanked me and took on the fight. After extraction I got my old M 14 back. The M14 never failed. Thanks for explaining the problems with the M 16.

I have watched a lot of documentaries about the Vietnam war. A lot of them stated the problems with the rifle but never really truly stated what was wrong with the rifle so I thank you for your detailed description of the failures

From what I can see all the problems with the M16 revolve entirely around massive corruption and what can only be called psychopathic greed within Ordnance Corps. Reminds me of the Mk 14 torpedo.

I was a sophomore in high school in 1965 when I started hearing problems about the m16. I read and saved as many newspaper and magazine articles as I could find, and did my jr & senior theme papers on this very subject. At that time I did not know about the change in the powder nor did I know of the lack of chrome plating. I did know the cyclic rates were too high causing cook off's which would render the gun out of service. The lack of cleaning kits and lube was also made known. Fifty some years later I learn of the powder being switched causing the high cyclic rates (no mention of cook off's though which I thought strange), the lack of chrome plating and a cleaning kit and some parts changes/upgrades. This was criminal. To this day we still have the forward assist which I have used on several occasions and it will only get you deeper into trouble. If you bolt does not go fully into battery forget the forward assist and extract the round. We should always give our men and women the best.

My rifle in Desert Storm was a M16-A1. I remember thinking I'm glad I had full auto and not the 3 round burst. That might be the last war the M16-A1 saw not that I was the only one with it.

I was a combat cameraman in Vietnam filming Med Evacs from the I-Corps area out to USS Tripoli. A Med Evac helicopter landed on the ship's flight deck and as the wounded were being lowered on the elevator to the triage area, a Gunny Sargent began slamming his M-16 on the deck destroying it and cursing it. Every M-16 in his unit had jammed leaving the sniper with an M-14 as the only marine with a functioning weapon... Obviously, my motion picture footage of that event was conveniently lost...

I arrived in Vietnam in April, '69. I was a scout/sniper with the 3rd Marines sniper platoon.On my first op I carried the Remington 700 sniper rifle. I learned from that that I wanted nothing to do with a bolt action rifle that held 5 rounds loaded one round at a time because most of the fights were at night. After that I carried an M-14 until the 3rd Marines were pulled out in September. I loved my M-14 because I trusted it. I was transferred to the 5th Marine sniper platoon. I wanted another M-14 but they said they didn't have any magazines so I was issued an M-16. It would not fire two times in a row without hitting the forward assist. And I cleaned it within an inch of it's life. I used a toothbrush on the locking lugs, a chamber brush and a bore brush, lots of patches in the bore and chamber. I disassembled the mags and cleaned them. No luck. Finally I got an M-14 to finish my tour. I've never figured out why my M-16 wouldn't work. (It was the original M-16 with the three pronged flash suppressor.) Maybe you have some idea what the problem was with my M-16. PS. My opinion of the AR has gone way up after watching a number of your videos.

It's a shame that youtube would remove a video with serious historical context for their own political agenda.

Viet Nam 1969 173rd. Airborne. Issued M16A1 with tear drop forward assist, chrome chamber but not bore, black carrier and bolt, trapdoor butt plate and no cleaning kit. Several of us shared a kit and used copious amounts of LSA. Rifle never failed me... ever. Smoked a lot from excess oil. It saved my life.

I was in the Marine Corps from April 74 to April 78 and of course issued the M16 from duty station to duty station . I was stationed at Camp Pendleton , Okinawa and 29 Stumps , therefore 3 different M16's . I had no issues with the 16 , you just had to keep it clean as with all weapons . It was a very accurate rifle especially at 500 meters during qualification . The 5.56 was a pretty mean round with nasty characteristics . To make a long story short the M16A1 was a hell of good rifle in my opinon .

Sir, I don,t know your name but I can tell you I was a Vietnam veteran and I was raised on a farm in Louisiana and if we didn't,t hunt at times we didn't, eat. I used an early m16 & had some problems, but I was issued a second one from the armored in 1968 ,and believe it or not with the cleaning kilt never , l repeat never had a problem with it, but I cleaned it religiously. Thank you for your program. Kudos!!!

As a US Army veteran 1969-1972 I DI appreciate this. February 1969 we were the first cycle through Fort Gordon to get the M16’s. No bolt assist. I only had 2 times where I had to eject a round that undoubtably did not seat all the way. It was raining, just below freezing and red clay and sand everywhere. I loved the way it shot. Country boy from Mississippi that had been hunting since he was 6 years old with a weapon like that and how could I not fire expert? Joined the NG 1974-1983 and fired the A1 with not a whisper of a problem. I spent 3 years in tanks where I fired the 45, M-60 and 50 cal. I had heard of problems in Nam and was told LBJ wanted them real bed because Lady Bird had a good size interest in Colt. Still don’t know that for sure. I am going the get a few of these books and make sure my friends that went to Nam see this.👍🇺🇸🤙😃

I received my M-16 in April 1967. I never had a problem with it. I kept it as clean a possible. Thanks for a informative program.

I fell in love with this gun as a kid. I had a fit to get a Mattel toy M16 around 1968 or 1969. When we played army the kids with the M16 were superior. As soon as I was old enough I bought a real AR 15, I own 3 today. Great video!

Thank you so much for all your channel's content. In Vietnam I was issued an XM16E1. I was very pleased to shed the M14 for something more realistic in Vietnam's environment. But, I was also made aware of some of the problems of the "16", which no one really understood at that time. Fortunately, being raised with some kind of firearm in my hands almost daily, I knew about cleanliness and reliability. So, fortunately, I was pretty well served by my rifle. My first cleaning kit was homemade from a 3-foot length of brass brazing rod, a toothbrush and a shaving brush. Later we got proper kits. Sometime after the Tet Offensive I was handed an XM177E2 (629) for a short time. I cannot put into words how much confidence (real or imagined) that carbine gave me. In the 1980s, after the service I opened a small gunsmith shop and in short time was building AR-15 rifles with mil surplus parts from the various distributors - all pre-ban. Needless to say, over the past 35-years or so, I have become intimately familiar with the fit and function details if that superb platform. Despite how much I've learned about the AR-15 family, I have had only a passing knowledge of the history of the rifle, Mr. Stoner's team and particularly all the stuff that happened at Colt. I have been binge-watching your channel and currently very interested in the JFK series. I have your Armorer's book which sits by the workbench which I use to explain things to customers. I want to thank you for all you do for the serious fans of the AR-15 platform. Have a great 2022 and glad to see that you're healthy again and shed the tree-cutting body armor.

I served two tours in Vietnam. 2nd tour 69-70 I initially carried an AK-47. Later in 1970 USARV and MACV prohibited American and allied forces from using the AK because is had a very sharp report ( sound of fire). Because it had a individual report as that of our enemy it was forbidden because the report drew fire from friendly forces. So my last few months as the company commander Bravo 125th Signal Battalion, I carried the M-16 and the M1911A1. My driver carried theThumper M-79 grenade rifle and the M-1911A1.