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Old December 13, 2009, 09:58 PM   #13
GHF
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Join Date: June 4, 2007
Location: Orlando, FL
Posts: 84
Comment on the Shell Deflector

Quote:
Joat said

The shell deflector was added to the M16 (and reclassified as the M16A2) in the 1980s for left handed shooters.
I was in the Army from July 1967 to July 1970. I trained on an M-14 in basic, had a clerical MOS, and did not fire an M-16 until I reached Fort Lewis, Washington, in December 1968, when I took jungle training prior to shipping out to Vietnam.

The initial M-16 I trained with did toss the brass back in my chest, and given that I was wearing a hoodie, the rounds burned my neck. My muzzle control while tossing the brass out of my clothes was based on having been trained to handle shotguns and rifles in the Pennsylvania woods.

We were told that the Colt-built weapons tossed the brass a little more to the right, so if we got issued an M-16 when we got to Vietnam, we should try to get one of those.

While in Vietnam I was in service support and combat support (artillery) in administrative roles, and I carried for the first year an M-15 (a full auto M-14), and latter an M-79 Granade Launcher with a M-1911. I bought the M-1911 from somebody, since the one I should have been issued disappeared from the unit before I got there.

I extended my tour of duty for 6 months, and I was issued an M-16 while with the 1st Admin Company, 1st Calvary Division, for use while on guard duty at night. I took control of the M-60 Machine Gun while I was in those bunkers at night.

The unit I had spent the first year with in I Corps had a number of people who had been in the Tet Offensive the year before, and I had access to, and training on, the M-60. While in those bunkers, I was the only person who knew how to use the machine gun.

The people I did guard duty were not into thinking about getting invited to a gun fight. True, we were at Bien Hoa, not exactly on the front lines on the Cambodian border, but I made sure that if we were attacked at night I was ready. I always took the 0000 to 0300 shift, and had the M-60 ready to go. Never needed to fire it in anger. The people before and after me would unload and stick the gun in the corner.

When Jessica Lynch got involved with that shootout in Iraq, I knew what the mindset of the people in that unit was. I hope that since then, the Army is making sure that the rear area types understand that they can get invited to a gun fight, weither or not they want to be there.

Knowing that there are Left Side ejection AR-15s is a nice thing to know.
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