Did they keep the rotating barrel design? Wasn't the Steyt MP9 a rotating barrel? I've never understood how they got a rotating barrel to work with a suppressor. They use some kind of high temperature O ring or something?
Was he issued an M16? If so, what did he have to say about the reliability? I only knew one guy who seemed like he actually was in the shit, made Lieutenant. He was a friend of my fathers nicest guy in the world, when he drank he would talk about his time in Vietnam how much he hated the M16. He stole the first VC issue AK off the first dead VC he came across.
I agree about people thinking cops or service members immediately qualifies them as experts. Some of the dumbest shit I've ever heard came from a detective in the firearms task force in a large metropolitan US city. He saw some Red plastic tipped .223 Varmint varmint loads immediately stated out-loud they were "armor piercing cop killing bullets". I laughed in his face, told him he could buy that shit at Walmart for $20. He did not find that as funny as I did.
Yes, the TMP/TP9 has a rotating barrel. It uses a proprietary mounting system for the suppressor that I believe mounts to a collar that sits around the barrel so the barrel can move while the suppressor stays stationary, but I'm not 100% sure since I haven't had any hands-on experience with one.
When my dad went through boot camp he qualified with the M14. He also had to go through Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape school (S.E.R.E.) before going to Vietnam (at the time all Navy personnel had to if they were going to be stationed in a combat zone and could potentially be taken as a POW, so River Rats, Sea Bees, aviators, and SEALs) which included a weapons familiarization course where they were trained to use our weapons, our allies weapons (ARVN were given our surplus WWII weapons), and our enemies weapons.
My dad loved the M14 and the M1918A2 BAR. When he cycled to the war he was issued an XM16E3, the Navy's version of the early M16. He didn't have any issues with his, but he wasn't confident in it. He was the engineer/mechanic on the PBR he was posted on. His skipper had traded an ARVN NonCom his M16, magazines, a couple cases of ammo, and a couple cases of beer for a Thompson M1 because the skipper's father carried one in WWII and swore by it. He would prop the Thompson up on the windscreen of the wheelhouse with one hand and fire it while steering the boat with his other.
That gave my dad the idea to try to trade for an M14 or BAR if he could. He ran into a couple of Marines who still had M14s, but they told my dad they weren't going to get rid of their rifles until the Commandant ordered them to make the switch. A while later dad ran into an ARVN private who had a BAR, and of course they gave the 20lb machine rifle to a guy who was 5'4" and 105lbs soaking we. Dad was able to work out a trade with the private and they agreed to make the trade the next day. When dad went to make the trade the next morning he couldn't find the private. Dad runs into some friends of the private, come to find out that shortly after he got back from talking with my dad he and his unit were suddenly deployed that same night and dad never ran into the kid again.
But dad never really had issues with his M16. As I said, he was religious about keeping his weapons clean, and his whole boat crew kept their weapons in good condition. The personal weapons were basically backups for the weapons on the boat. The PBR Mk II had twin Browning M2s mounted on the bow in a tub style turret. Behind the wheelhouse were three pintle mounts that could accept a single M2, a single M60, or one of the various belt-fed 40mm grenade launchers like the Mk19 depending on the needs. PBR crews were also known to bubba-rig non-standard weapons like recoilless anti-tank weapons or even small artillery pieces.
Dad's boat crew never went that route and did fine with M2s in front and M60s in back, which they kept meticulously maintained, so they rarely had to fall back to personal weapons while on the boat and would only use them when having to board a sampan and check it for weapons being shipped down river to VCs. We'll, except for their skipper, who loved that fucking Thompson and would find any excuse to fire it. He got really good at firing propped up on the windscreen with one hand and steering the boat with his off-hand. And those fat, heavy .45 ACP slugs cut through the foliage on the river banks pretty well.
But even years later when I got my first AR (a Bushmaster) he always said I should have gotten something in .308. Now that I've had a lot more experience with defensive rifles, my main go-to rifle is an LMT MWS308 and my compact "urban" rifle is a Steyr AUG A3. I'm not the biggest fan of 5.56x45mm and the AUG is really the only one I like a lot. I've got nothing against the AR platform, since my main defensive rifle is an AR...it's just one chambered for 7.62x51mm/.308 instead of 5.56x45mm/.223 Rem. Just my personal preference.
