Originally Posted by Dennis The B

...duty, I was assigned to the 3rd Naval Construction Brigade PR Staff Drill Team. Our issue "dress" rifles were 03-A3 rifles, chrome-plated. The difference in your rifle and ours was that the sight blade was filed all the way down. No one wanted to catch a sight blade in the hand or wrist. We also had bayonets fixed, even using tape to insure that a broken bayonet stud wouldn't cause it to come off.

In high school, our drill team also had chrome-plated 03-A3's. I always thought they were fairly common among drill teams, except for the USMC (they've always used M1's).

That's a great find, and seeing it brings back some great service memories.