"the M-79 was a gas.....the M-60 was too.....the .50cal. was awe inspiring....the least fun for me was the M-16, but was still a blast to shoot.”
The M2 is the oldest weapon in the current Army inventory - it's been around since 1938. Of course, it was originally designed to be an anti-aircraft weapon,
but hey, we had to find something to use on the ground troops so we could violate the Geneva Convention.
We had a guy in the 1st Platoon, Cecil Bean, when I was there in 1971 that was in the Korean War as a door gunner on some sort of airplane. His weapon was the M2,
and he said he could fire it all day without it heating up because of the cold air that was always blowing on it while the plane was flying at 5,000 to 10,000 feet.
I asked Cecil how he ended up back in the Army in Vietnam and he told me that he got "bored with the civilian bullshit" and needed some excitement in his life.
He and I were also together in the 11th Cav. J.T.