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Yes, They *DO* Make White M16s!

By Bill on September 24, 2007 | | Comments (6)

Well, actually, White made M16s. Not the Plastic Fantastic Rifle -- this:

Neffi's Nemesis

This beastie made the annual Summer Camp trip from West Orange, NJ, to Fort Drum, NY, between 1946 and 1967, along with about thirty others. Legend has it that the traffic backups created by the convoys got so intense that New York State created the Thruway just so vacationers could speed on their way to the cooler climes of Canuckistan without having to nip between the half-tracks and the Shermans whenever oncoming traffic appeared on Route 9W.

This sterling example was still operational in 1992 -- *and* for the measly sum of one dollar (all the cash collected went into the Scour The Junkyards For Spare Parts Fund), you could get a two-minute trip around the parking lot during Heritage Week.

Now when John bogs the armored Lawn Boy mowing the creek bank, he'll be able to winch it out *and* give Neffi some practical exercises in evasive maneuvers...

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6 Comments

By John of Argghhh! on September 24, 2007 9:27 AM
I'm actually *licensed* on one of those things. Not the M16, it was an M2A1, I believe. Amazing what you find yourself doing when you've got two weeks between the next-to-the-last and last redeployment flights from a REFORGER and you're the Senior Junior Person Present, therefore on the Last Flight Home.
 
By leavenworth centurion on September 24, 2007 10:13 AM
When I was the XO of a Mechanized Infantry Battalion, we "rescued" six of these puppies from the Belgian Army. The battalion commander was jealous that the neighboring armor battalion had a M24 static display in front of their headquarters, so the BMO was very proud of himself when he signed for six M16 (minimum lot size) from the Kaiserslautern PDO. Problem was, they were in Belgium and we had to pick them up. Got the first four by sweet talking the Division G4 into giving me a couple of lowboys for trip 1, but he wouldn't budge for any more trucks. Fortunately, we found a Chinook company without any experience sling loading M16s, so they took it on as a training mission. Still have a picture somewhere of a M16 hanging underneath a CH-47. We gave two away to those who helped retreive them from Belgium and used two as hanger queens to keep the remaining two operational. The BMT converted them to 24V, and we took them to the field whenever we could sneak them on a lowboy or train. We also took the quad 50 mounts off, didn't want to be confused for duck hunters.
 
By Chuck Simmins on September 24, 2007 11:50 AM
Built tough. How did the ammo feed to the quad, 4 boxes, one box with four compartments?
 
By John of Argghhh! on September 24, 2007 12:21 PM
Chuck - you could feed 'em from standard boxes, or the "tombstone" boxes designed for the AA mounts. More here, of both varieties.
 
By DougK on September 24, 2007 5:02 PM
I was priviledged to drive the restored M2 they keep on hand at Ft. Irwin for ceremonial purposes and it was remarkably simple...you could see how any kid straight off the farm in WWII would have felt right at ease (if they'd had a family truck), 'cause that's all it is. The "rubber band track" is smooth, relative to tanks and easy to change, by comparison, if you've got the compressors for the suspension. Our design was SO much more simple and practical that the "other guys", which was stupifyingly complicated (of course, theirs could also get quite large and suitable for towing tanks, when you got into the FAMO's). Neat pic! I sneaked the 11th Cav one off to the desert for some "atmosphere" shots ;-)
 
By OlafTheTanker on September 25, 2007 9:46 PM
West Orange? 50th Armor? Hell, now you're hitting near my grid square! Did some duty with the 2/102nd on Pleasant Valley Way in 86-87.. they still had a couple fully functional M-48A5's there at the armory for training! Kept the real Armor in Dix and Drum though.