The M14 Battle Rifle by Leroy Thompson

Author:Leroy Thompson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The M14 Battle Rifle
ISBN: 9781472802576
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

US Marines in small boats approach the beach for an amphibious assault in the Rung Sat Zone, 35 miles from Saigon. They are among 1,200 Marines taking part in Operation Jackstay during March 1966. (NARA)

The Marines appreciated the fact that the M14 was issued with a bayonet, as they retained the traditional Marine willingness to settle matters with cold steel. On January 26, 1967 during Operation Tuscaloosa, US Marines encountered the VC B-120 Main Force Battalion. John Culbertson relates one incident during the advance against the VC positions:

Captain Doherty ordered Gunnery Sergeant Gutierrez to give the command to form the company on line. “ON LINE! THE CAPTAIN WANTS EVERY MARINE ON LINE. FIX BAYONETS. FIRE FROM THE HIP. FORWARD, MARCH. COMMENCE FIRING”. Gunny Gutierrez led the Second Platoon in an assault line with Marines abreast firing from the hip as they crossed the final two hundred meters of sand to the second stream. The entire rifle company had joined in the assault, with Hotel Company picking up some of Foxtrot’s stragglers on the way. Nearly two hundred Marines advanced confidently into the second stream.

… As the Marines’ assault line entered the stream and came into clear view, the Viet Cong suicide squad opened up from point blank range, sending a short, but deadly, volley into the exposed Marine ranks. One Marine was killed and four others wounded. The enraged Marine riflemen raked the enemy positions with deadly fire, as they scrambled up the clay bank and into the VC trenches. The enemy soldiers who survived the return fire were bayoneted. (Culbertson 2006)

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