Vietnam Era

[AZretired]

Went though Army BCT in 1972 at Ft Dix and yes we learned close order drill and Manual of Arms with the M16.

 

[rayb]

Weapons qualification & close order drill.

Yes to both at Ft Bliss in 1966. Good amount of time with the M-14's, cleaning, operation, inspections, firing. Threw one hand grenade IIRC. Same with close order drill, plenty of that too.

Got more of the same in AIT Ft Leonard Wood aka"Litle Korea", plus some demolitions training for us engineers.

M-16's didn't come until pre-Vietnam deployment training at Ft Hood.

rayb

 

[turbo38gn]

I remember bits and pieces of Jan 72 ... Great Lakes Basic with the Seabees .. close order drilling for sure. My buddy even learned how to use the butt of his 03 on the chest of one of the Chicago bad boy gang members that had been taunting us for weeks. After the nastiest winter I ever experienced, it was 5-6 weeks of Marine style boot camp in Gulfport, Ms... That was fun, our Viet Nam vet Marine DI started us off with some physical games, I ended up winning, turns out that made me our Platoon Commander. More fun, marching around base singing all those marching songs.. you know, the ones where we sing about, " this is our rifle, this is our gun, this ones for fighting and this ones for fun." Apparently the base commanders wife didn't care for our singing so we had to make a few changes.. As for shooting.. I'm pretty sure we trained with 16's, for some reason, I believe they had the 3 shot fun switch .. forget what you call it exactly. We qualified with that, but when we had some overnight jungle training, the bad guys had some 14's. We were ambushing some bad guys in the middle of the night and all hell broke loose, when I gave my boyz the shoot em password, "feel that ------ breeze.. one of the bad boyz stuck his 14 in the bushes and unloaded on my buddy.. it was ugly... but we won.. Wow ... that was a fun trip down memory lane..

 

[ContinentalOp]

My dad served in the Navy during the Vietnam War. From what I remember, he described doing manual of arms and close order drill with a M1 Garand during boot camp. I don't have specific dates, though.

 

[Roadtrash]

Well at Fort Jackson back in "65 we did close order drill, manual of arms and all the other stuff and all with the M14. We did get a day to familiarize ourselves with the M16 then back to the M14. I really liked that rifle, sure wish I had one now.

 

[rwsmith]

I'll bet at least.....

I went in in late '75 and we were the last rifle company in the Navy. 16 and 64 count manual at arms along with drill with an '03. They were inoperable.

I'll bet that they at least had the bolts in them.

 

[LTC]

U.S.A.F. Basic May, 1966. As others have noted very limited drill and zero manual of arms. One day at the range out of 30 days of basic training. Ten to sight in and sixty to qualify with. I did earn my Expert Ribbon that day.

I think they only gave us enough drill to get us to the mess hall and PT as a group as opposed to a mob.

LTC

 

[LostintheOzone]

I will bet that if you handedany Marine from that era an M14 he could still do a fair manual of arms. It wasn't beat into them as much as mistakes PTed out of them

We were on the same base as Marine recruits. They just had a separate area and we didn't go in there. Those Marines did love to apply *corrective training measures* tho. They had what we called the 40/20 company. Two runners and some poor recruit that couldn't apply himself. The recruit had two buckets on a shovel. He filled them at one side of the base and he ran to the other side and dumped them. Then he ran back and did it again. They made it a point to run these guys by our company from time to time.

I did my share of *extra PT* also. I was a hard case. I truly wanted to take our company adjutant apart and would have if the situation had been different. I think that was part of the training. Needless to say I was in very good shape coming out of boot camp.

 

[two-bit cowboy]

... and some poor recruit that couldn't apply himself. The recruit had two buckets on a shovel. He filled them at one side of the base and he ran to the other side and dumped them. Then he ran back and did it again.

I came across one of those guys. He was proudly wearing his "cover," and I asked him what he did in the Corps. I thought he said he was a pilot so I asked what he flew.

He said, "No, no, you don't understand. I piled it here, and then they told me to do it again and pile it there. See, I was a pile it."

 

[NAM68]

M14 Drills

1966 Fort Knox Kentucky Basic Training marching backwards yes backwards up Misery and Agony hill.with M14. Vietnam M16.and Colt 1911.45.

 

[Mike G 0351]

Marines did plenty of Manual of Arms on the parade deck and in the squad bay..

 

[caduceus]

NTC San Diego 1969 Springfield rifles. Besides manual at arms and marching Chief enjoyed seeing how long you could hold that rifle in front of you for some nefarious transgression. I was 17. I grew 2 in and gained 15 lbs muscle from exercises with that rifle. Fun times

 

[nachogrande]

MOA WAS DROPPED.

It was retired following Bill Murrays stunning (that's the fact Jack) rendition in the movie stripes.

 

[Robspeire]

Great Lakes in 70 & close order drill.
Boatswain Mate on DD. I was given a Thompson for my boarding party piece. We were towing a couple of 55 gal drums slowly while in the Med for target practice. I put the Thompson on full auto for my 2nd go around.
Needless to say it was going up & over . Luckily it did not have a drum.
Gunners mate was pissed grabbed the Thompson. Walked away & returned with a BAR . Told me to play Sgt. Rock with it. That was one heavy & awesome piece.
BTW from then on I was called OTTOMATIC.