Survival Arts

"History of the M-16" worth seeing

I'd mentioned a few days ago that the History Channel would be airing a history of the M-16 weapon system that night. I just got around to watching it off my satellite system's PVR, and can recommend it.

This hour-long special starts with a backgrounder on problems with infantry weapons fielded in the Korean "police action", particularly in dealing with the Chinese human wave phenomenon. It was a bit of an eye-popper to see film footage of the spray-and-pray shooting on the part of the U.S. GIs, by the way, but the same thing could be seen in the way M-16s were misused in Vietnam, as evidenced in footage shown later in the program.

The bulk of the rest of the show is a fascinating discussion of the transition to the M-16 itself, centered primarily on the procurement politics of the period 1958-1963, as well as the scandal of weapon system failures during the 1966-1967 period in Vietnam.

As is typical of these History Channel "Modern Marvels" specials, there was a quick closing segment on new developments in the system, including what in my mind seems a goofy, overloaded carbine integral to the "Land Warrior" weapon system, which seems to be partially based on yet another set of soldier training misconceptions, and the Objective Individual Combat Weapon (OICW), another Frankengun based on similar precepts.

If the History Channel gets around to putting this special on DVD, do consider picking up a copy.