https://youtu.be/iN_W2UJutss

RVN 69-70. Semper Fi.

Thank you for your service, standing up against the evil empire that is communism.
Does that video seem familiar?

It does, pretty sure it was one of the "training aids" we saw.

I was in just after... I remember the comic book with the blond & big rack..

The early M-16s are remembered by tyhe USMC and SF combat veterans. The dirty W-Western powder left
residue in the chamber and bgas ports.
It was a terrible weapon until Colt figured it oiut and changed ammunition.

Colt/W-W should have TESTED the rifles with repeated hard usage. I carried a 1911, a 2inch Smith, Randall knife, and Car 15 with MACVSOG.
We had to have reliable weapons along the HCM Trail in Laos.
We still drespise the State of California because of
treatment to returning combat veterans.
Remember: The Democratic Socialist Party
wishes to destroy your USA!

Read this article; it outlines the issues. Yes there were problems with the change to ball powder, but the humid jungle conditions would have caused problems anyway and the solution was chrome plating bores. After all, the Japanese knew this before WW2; all Type 99 Arisaka had chrome plated bores. Our M14s were chrome plated too.

I was in Nam in 66 & 67-68 & 69 and the M-16'
s we were issued didn't have the assist on the right side. Just saying, I don't know when this video was made.

The Video was made in MCMLXVI. The Forward assist was added by the Army in 1964; (M16E1 which the Army adopted in 1967 as the M16A1) if you were in the Air Force, who was the first to use the M16, your rifles did not have that feature. (I came in in 73; too late for VN, but I closely followed the development of it))

The original design did not have the FA. It was added, as dpcd said, by military bureaucrats against Stoner's advice.

The problem/s with the early rifles was not inherent in the design. It was due to poor maintenance, cost cutting, and powder selection. They added weight and complexity trying to "fix" an issue that they pretty much created themselves.

Everyone in or around the Army is a "small arms expert"; which is exactly why I never wanted to work in that field. (After I was a civilian) So they make a lot of mistakes; I can enumerate several of them. And as RC said, the "Army" created the problem and the forward assist, and chrome plating, was the fix.
That is why I was in Tank Armament; there are fewer experts and they are real.

Yeah, ours did not have the forward assist. I don't remember that film, but I remember a bunch just like it.
We qualified with both the M16 and M14. I shot expert with both but did find the M16 to be much easier to shoot well. Nonetheless, I liked the M14 better. I was a bit of a Luddite even back then! Regards, Bill

I went in with the M1 and transitioned to the M14 was rotated out before the M16. I always liked the M1 over the M14 cause I scored better with the older rifle, the m14 had the advantage of a larger round count.