17 year old, 5'8" tall, 140 lbs, thick eye glasses, first time away from home.
I was assigned to carry a BAR w/ bipod, sling, magazine pouches. My back stayed sore, but I didn't have any problem sleeping at night.

How I did it, I do not know. Now I would have a problem carrying one magazine. I have not aged well.

Nope, It was Kirby. Another poster had it correct.

That rifle is the Browning Automatic Rifle Model 1918A2. It has the later style forearm, plastic buttstock with the A2 style buttplate and the trigger group with the magazine guide that is either cast or machined as one piece.
An excellent resource on the development and use of the BAR is "Rock In A Hard Place" by James A. Ballou. It is an absolute must have for a BAR owner or anybody interested in the BAR.
I've had an interest in the BAR since I was 12 and was allowed to shoot one at a weapons display at Wheelus Air Force Base in Tripoli, Libya. I've owned several over the years and they have all been NESA produced 1918A2s. My current one came out of the estate of Col. Rex Applegate and to my knowledge has never been refinished. I also bought one of the OAW 1918A3 SLR rifles and although it is more accurate than the original NESA, it just isn't as fun to shoot.
Mandatory picture: OAW 1918A3 SLR on top and NESA 1918A2 below it.

Yeah, I remember him repeatedly demanding a “clip”?

My uncle carried the BAR through almost his entire time in the service. He was 17th Airborne. He saw a lot of ground combat, and made his only parachute job as part of Operation Varsity where they jumped the Rhine.
He told me several things about the BAR. He said they picked the smallest man capable of handling it, as they were the smallest target for the enemy. On patrol, there would be 1 or more men out in front. He would be the next man, in front of the main column. If the point men came under fire, he had to lay down cover fire for everyone. The original belt he was issued had a metal cup on the side for the buttstock to be held during walking fire. He said he and most others removed the cup. Only fools would stand upright during a firefight, and the cup made noise and got hooked on things. He had a handful of medals and had three purple hearts among them, each with a "cluster"?? to indicate more than one injury. The BAR also saved his life at the war's end. That is another story that was once classified. Let's just say he killed a bunch of our Russian allies while on duty, they were not supposed to be there, and up to no good, and he did NOT tell his story until the mid 1980's.

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Good Shootin!!

Range I go to had one in the rack. It was new semi-auto civilian repop. Still a traffic stopper. Beautiful piece but kind of heavy and expensive compared to an M1A or AR-10.

Given the disposable cash I would still love to own one just to... I don't know... own one!

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you can keep your gun. Period.