I had an M16A4, and got my own rail, sling, optic, grip, etc. Only thing we could not do is change how the weapon fired or anything permanent.
The reason why they don’t technically allow mods is because they don’t want people putting junk parts on their guns that will fail in battle. My unit let this idiot SAW gunner put a BSA red dot on his weapon, and it broke the 1st time he tried shooting with it. Crap like this is why commanders don’t want joe blow to go buy parts, and put it on their issued weapons. Unfortunately with so many aftermarket parts out there its impossible for the big mil to say this is ok, and this isn’t. They could never keep up with everything, and so just ban it all.
Also agree with the stupidity of “old school” leaders who don’t like the new issued gear, and don’t let soldiers use it. Includes fleece, beanies, gloves, jackets, etc. At another command I got bitched at for wearing a black fleece because the unit SOP was the gortex. Well I was ETS’ing, and had already turned everything in. Didn’t matter that it was 20 degrees with a foot of snow on the ground. So I got to shiver and be miserable the rest of the time there.
I think the USMC is and will always be more critical when it comes to uniformity than any of the other services. The leaders have always looked upon the issue as a matter of being “squared away”. We also had an issue with wearing black fleeces, and beanie caps while on al Asad, but got away with a lot more than the rest of our reserve unit because we were the convoy security team and weren’t there much.
I was issued an M16A4 as well with KAC rifle length rail package, an ACOG, a black 3 pnt sling/buttstock mag pouch of unknown make, and a light that I also don’t know the make of (it wasn’t Surefire) that had a twist cap and pressure switch that broke before we left the drill deck.
I wish I would have paid a lot more attention to weapons while I was there, but obviously, I was more concerned about not getting blown up. From what I can remember seeing on friendlies, there were bone stock old school M16A2 rifles from airwing guys on the bases, modified 1911 pistols (don’t recall the designation) on force recon Marines, some kind of shorty tricked out M4 type on an SF guy at the PX in TQ, and a host of oddities on the Aegis and Armor Group guys on the road. We ran into the Army convoys a lot on the road but I’ve never paid attention to their rifles, just their ASP (?) Russian BMP looking vehicles.
The only things I had on me that were non issue were a Samco Global (?) mag coupler, Hatch shorty gloves, a Surefire 6P, and a SOG Trident folder. ETA: I forgot I also had my own mag pouches from Spectre Gear.
yeah, i hated that when i was at tq, balls cold in winter walking to the chow hall and get yelled at by the sgtmaj cuz i was wearing my issued beanie, who then got in his trailblazer and drove away with the heat on full blast. the “old corps” guys really do have a hard on for uniformity
Lol tell me about it ,back then (2005-2006) when i was PFC i had chow hall guard duty i had to deal with that crap everytime ,but it wasnt as bad as later on when TQ got all the fancy stuff like cans,and the KBR chow hall then they even had garrison courses…jeez
