M14's in the National Guard?

gmerkt · Mar 17, 2018

We were discussing M14 rifles in another thread. Which got me to wondering. In my experience in the Regular Army, we had the M14 rifle until about April or May, 1970. At that time we turned them in and received new M16-type rifles.

The When I separated from the army, I had time left on my statutory six year National Obligation and was assigned to the USAR Reinforcement Group in St. Louis. This was a kind of paper reserve army, to be called up in emergency, no drill activity. But after about a year of that, a sergeant major in the Army National Guard talked me into joining. He sold me on the deal whereby Vietnam veterans could sign up for only one year under the "Try One" program. I did that for six years, one at a time, then got out.

But I never saw an M14 in the Guard. When I first joined in 1973, they already had the M16 design. I never thought to ask at the time; did the Guard go from the M1 Garand directly to the M16? Said another way, the time gap between the end of the M14 in the Regular Army and the appearance of the M16 in the Guard was very short. The Ohio ARNG still had the M1 Garand at the time of the Kent State shootings in 1970. I imagine that changing to the M16 likely wasn't uniform across all the Guard units in the country.

In this question, I'm not counting M14's retained for ceremonial or special ops purposes, only for issue to line units.

Anybody know the answer?

JRuby · Mar 17, 2018

That was before my time I know the navy used the m14 at least till 1992 when I got out. The McKee still had them.

WAYNO · Mar 17, 2018

I got out of the Regular Army in 1975, and I also did the "Try One" program in 1982.
Among other things, I was an Ordnanceman, including Small Arms Repair. I was trained in depot repair of every weapon the Army owned, 4.2" and less, but never did I touch an M14, which would indicate to me they were nowhere in any regular inventory at that time, nor were they in any Guard units in Oregon. When you brought up Kent State, I always thought because of the timing, they were carrying M14's. This caused me to do some research, and yep, they were carrying M1's. Interesting the timeline and priorities of when different units had different era weapons.

The regular issue M14's were made in a relatively short window, and apparently distribution was not equal. And not every unit got them before McNamara decided it was time to deploy the high velocity, tiny cartridge M16. So it does look very much as if many units went straight from the M1 to the M16.

gmerkt · Mar 17, 2018

During the course of the investigation into the Kent State shooting, the individual weapons having fired bullets that caused casualties were sequestered as evidence. After the investigation, they were put into storage at Pueblo Army Depot in Colo. for decades. After that facility was closed, they shipped them elsewhere but some went to museums. There were M1 Rifles and 1911 pistols in this evidence material. Serial numbers are known.

My original question concerned use of the M14 by the ARNG. However, since my OP, I've been reading part of an account written by a soldier who spent many years in the USAR in the northeast. His accounts are detailed, year by year. He mentioned that in 1969, his Civil Affairs unit (not exactly a combat outfit) turned in their M1 Garands and were issued M14's. He states in 1971, they turned in the M14 Rifles and received M16A1's. So this one account at least shows that some M14's apparently made it to the USAR.

Yes, the M14 Rifle had a fairly brief career in the army from the standpoint of a regular line weapon. During that relatively short time, they appear to have been shuffled around some. The ones we had at BCT at Ford Ord probably saw some of the longest use. My cousin did his BCT there in 1959 and had the M1 Garand. It seems that the M14 started being used for training circa 1963 and was in use until late 1969 or early 1970. The example I had at Fort Ord was very well worn but functional. Those rifles saw a lot of handling and use in eight week training cycles, cycle after cycle for years.

Mark W. · Mar 17, 2018

The US NAVY is still using M-14's My son upon arrival in Japan and checking in on his Guided Missile Cruiser (granted 13 years ago) was told he had 3 days to qualify with an M-14 and Shotgun, told where to report to do it. He was an electronics Tech and his other job on board ship was security. They used M-14's at sea and against small craft. Shotguns in port.

OH he qualified Expert with the M-14 not bad having never held oneg before his qualification and only being allowed 5 practice rounds. I guess him being a shooter since he was five paid off.

Boboclown · Mar 18, 2018

Most of the uses the M14 has now is as a stopgap DMR while the military tries to standardize what DMR they use. As far as the army and marines are concerned.