Vern Humphrey
Member
I carried an M1 my first tour -- after my issue M2 Carbine got wrapped around a tree. My second tour I bullied my battalion commander into getting me two M14 sniper rifles (this was before the M21 was standardized.)I just have to respond. Poor marksmanship was never the issue. Everyone in combat zones had to qualify with the weapons they were issued and many were great shots. I was not only expert but was also trained with the quick kill. Our weapons and soldiers were far more accurate than our enemies. Some of you armchair experts are opinion that war movies are realistic. That That John Wayne can shoot from the hip and mow down hundreds of enemy clearly visible. When I was there weren't many mass battles. Most of the time the enemy would shoot at you from the brush and take off or shoot rockets and mortars from concealed positions. You returned suppressive fire blind. The bullets weren't wasted but they made the enemy break contact and run. I can't speak for other wars or other experiences. Just my own. The high rate of fire for the M-16 was more effective than the slow fire of the more powerful M-14. I used both. Anyway. I liked the M-14 a lot. But I never got a chance to shoot at anything I could see at 600 yards. I did use an M-60 for suppressive fire and it was very good.
The technique I used -- and which I taught my troops -- was to "work" a target. Shoot at and around suspected locations.
I would have my sergeants put out the cardboard wrappers from C-Ration cases in the brush, deployed like an enemy squad and not visible from the firing line. I would have the troops lie down (initially one man at a time) and stretch a piece of engineer tape between two bamboo poles and ask the man "can the enemy be above this tape?" We would lower the tape until he said "stop." Then we would start at the ground and slowly raise another tape.
When we finished, we'd have a very narrow box -- and everyone agreed the enemy could not be above or below that box (try it sometimes, and see just how narrow that box is.) Then the shooter would space a couple of magazines-full into that box and we'd check the targets. The results were usually pretty good.
With further training we worked on fire control and so on.