Vietnam 69-71. I remember when the CAR-15's started showing up. Very seldom seen in actual combat units, almost always carried by some staff weenie wearing starched & pressed camouflage jungle fatigues, or tiger stripes, and boonie hats (other items we had a hard time getting in the combat units, but all the rear echelon HQ units had plenty for themselves).

The CAR-15's had a reputation for malfunctions. As I recall the gas operating systems were not optimized for the shorter barreled carbines. At least that was the general consensus, but since we weren't allowed to play with them we really had nothing to base those opinions on. They looked cool, they looked combat, so the big shots wanted to sport around and show them off (today's adolescents would say they looked "tactical").

Having trained on the M14, then being issued the M16 in Vietnam, I was not overly impressed with the M16. Sure, it was much lighter than the M14, and the ammo weighed much less, so they were great for carrying on long patrols. But for actual shooting I always preferred the M14 and the 7.62NATO round.

Those of us who were around during the 1960's remember Matel toys, and their commercials proclaiming "You can tell it's Matel, it's swell!". That was repeated quite a bit by troops getting their first experience with the new plastic-stocked M16's. Always wondered how the M16 would stand up to use in close combat, especially after a couple of horizontal or vertical buttstrokes using that plastic buttstock mounted on an aluminum tube attached to the aluminum receiver. Glad I never had to take that test!