Did Vietnam soldiers really ditch the M16 for the AK-47?
Did Vietnam soldiers really ditch the M16 for the AK-47?
Liam Scott
Connor Lewis
I would have.
Nathan Clark
Not really sure that it was as prolific as many make it out to be because of the mythology that surrounds every war. That being said the SOG teams were pretty lax with their kit standards. Some teams had their point man dressed as a VC or NVA. Other teams just said fuck it and armed themselves with enemy weapons so it they did make contact it would be more difficult for the enemy to identify and track them. I think RT Montana armed themselves with AKs and RPDs and dressed in black just to fuck with Charlie.
Dominic Smith
MACV-SOG had a habit of stealthily inserting explosive rounds into Vietcong supply caches. When the rounds were fired, they would explode violently inside the chamber, destroying the weapon, and injuring the user. The idea was to make the Vietcong believe that the China had given them faulty ammunition, fracturing the alliance. For this reason, American soldiers were given very firm instructions that they should never use AK's, although they weren't usually told the reason why.
Angel Anderson
No
Xavier Sanders
ive read something about anyone behind enemy lines using the enemies rifle as to not alert them from a different sounding bang. Other than that no I cant see why they would when resupply is delivering 5.56
William Ortiz
/thread.
Jordan Stewart
IIRC it was called Operation Eldest Son but due to the nature of it should have been called Operation 'Unfortunate, Son'
Cooper Turner
No.
Levi Ramirez
No, don't want to get wasted by friendlies who hear your fire.
Also exploding ammunition is not fun
Carson Young
>hey lets ditch my issue weapon and ammunition for a rifle in questionable condition where I will have to scavenge ammo and close the gab to loot bodies in a combat zone
no that did not happen
also this and this
Angel Hill
I knew a Navy Corpsman that said he did, simply because he saw how unreliable the M16 was at the time.
Robert Smith
Ya cause I heard once a guy pulled a ak out of the mud and shot it in the air and said now thats a real rifle
Cameron Reed
Operation 'It Ain't Me' also works
Adrian Gomez
Sure you can find a few instances of a GI or Marine salvaging guns off the battlefield or a supply cache (I have heard of someone who ran across a Thompson and used that). Those circumstances are the exception, and required an individual who was already in favor of their commanding officer. In general, a soldier uses the gun they are issued, even if it does not function.
Jason Jones
>in favor of their commanding officer
Shit, what I was told when an officer gave someone a bullshit order, the usual response was "Fuck you! What are you going to do? Send me to Veitnam?"
Asher Powell
Guess it was easy to be in favor of the officer then. Just don't piss him off and you are heads above the rest.
Brayden Howard
No.
t. father was in Vietnam during Mini-Tet
Samuel Thomas
>MACV-SOG had a habit of stealthily inserting explosive rounds into Vietcong supply caches.
GORED
Nathan Gonzalez
My dad deployed to Vietnam as an officer and he was told to instruct his men that under no circumstances should they pick up and fire enemy weapons.
That would explain a lot.
Liam Peterson
Gump
Matthew Brown
I'm sure it happened, every war had cases of some dudes using enemy guns, but considering how few photos there are of GI's using AK's I'd say it wasn't very likely.
The problem with Vietnam is it's the absolute peak of fuddlore, some old dude made a bullshit claim he pulled out his ass and no one ever bothered to do an actual fact check because "he's old so he knows what he's talking about." This led to Vietnam having absolute mountain ranges of pure, concentrated bullshit that people just accepted as verifiable fact to the point where pretty much half of what everyone knows about the war today is "a friend of a friend of a friends cousin" claims.