I spent my time at A&M in the Army where we drilled with M-1s. I switched my last semester to the Air Force for commissioning because I had the opportunity to fly. I forgot that the AF did not drill with rifles at any time while I was at A&M. We only had Army and Air Force at that time... No Navy or Marine so the Corps was still pure.

(Before I get flamed, that was a joke)

My father was Class of '59. The funniest thing he asked me the first time came to see my fish hole in 1988 was, "Where do y'all keep your rifles?"

I was in Squadron 9 from '64-'68. Commissioned AF. No rifles then except RV and fish drill team. But I did have a 30-06 at home.

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I am Class of '86. We used the M14 for FTXs. When did those go away?

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Circa 1991 or so, we had at least 30+ M16s but, we didn't have enough to go around for everybody so we would still use M14s for large scale FTXs. We had at least 120 M14s.

Reminds me of a funny Army ROTC FTX where we spent a weekend at Fort Hood with other schools. Prairie View A&M had borrowed their rifles from a National Guard unit who gave them all rifles with M203 grenade launchers.

So, we get out to the rifle range at Fort Hood to qualify with our M16s. There was a gal from Prairie View in the firing point next to me. Her very first round hits the dirt about 3 feet in front of the firing position sending up a bunch of sand and dirt into the air. We hear a cease fire called and everybody is looking in her direction wondering what the heck just happened. Well, as it turns out, she had popped up the M203 sight and was using that to aim instead of the front sight post.

The only thing funnier than that was the guy from Prairie View who was in my squad who right before we get ready to start putting rounds down range says, "I ain't never fired no gun before". I thought. Oh boy, this is going to be a long day. That was the kind of stuff that made me appreciate how well Texas A&M had prepared us.

I'm in the Class of '75 and was a fish in '71. I was also in FTD. The entire Corps did not have or drill with rifles in our day, only RV's and FTD. The Rangers may have also, but I can't say for sure.

On a side note, the freshman cadets at USAFA drill with rifles. Decommissioned and kept in their rooms.

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Rifle drill is still very useful for getting people who've never routinely handled a weapon before (e.g. most privates) comfortable with carrying a rifle safely without dropping it before they're taught to fire it.

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Eh, I disagree. I want privates to learn to keep two hands on the rifle with their finger out of the trigger well and the muzzle pointed down, not to learn to carry it one-handed by the buttstock with the barrel in the air.

And marching still has some use for moving groups of people (like you just wrote).

I don't think I've ever witnessed morale increase by marching or carrying an obsolete rifle that has the bolt welded shut.

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With all due respect, soldiers love having their time wasted at the entertainment of others.

Public gunnery drills, parachute competitions, obstacle course demo's. Marching with rifles falls well effing short of that.

I had to march in a parade with actual unloaded M16's. Seeing as we weren't issued magazines our genius PSG decided it'd be bad ass to affix bayonets. Everyone to a man just rolled our eyes and shook our heads at his public auto erotica.

I lol'd

DS Clary, I went to Fort Lost in the Woods. We were taught how to salute with a rifle during some hip pocket down time, but no marching or anything

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I am Class of '86. We used the M14 for FTXs. When did those go away?

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Circa 1991 or so, we had at least 30+ M16s but, we didn't have enough to go around for everybody so we would still use M14s for large scale FTXs. We had at least 120 M14s.

Reminds me of a funny Army ROTC FTX where we spent a weekend at Fort Hood with other schools. Prairie View A&M had borrowed their rifles from a National Guard unit who gave them all rifles with M203 grenade launchers.

So, we get out to the rifle range at Fort Hood to qualify with our M16s. There was a gal from Prairie View in the firing point next to me. Her very first round hits the dirt about 3 feet in front of the firing position sending up a bunch of sand and dirt into the air. We hear a cease fire called and everybody is looking in her direction wondering what the heck just happened. Well, as it turns out, she had popped up the M203 sight and was using that to aim instead of the front sight post.

The only thing funnier than that was the guy from Prairie View who was in my squad who right before we get ready to start putting rounds down range says, "I ain't never fired no gun before". I thought. Oh boy, this is going to be a long day. That was the kind of stuff that made me appreciate how well Texas A&M had prepared us.

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Welllllllllll, it IS why we train. We assume that the trainee knows NOTHING and we build from there.

I was an air-krapper four years starting in 1967. No air-krappers touched a rifle, unless they were RV or FDT. Occasionally the Army outfits did, they brag a lot about high-porting them. When they do that I tell them that air-krappers highported jets in our bloody-crosses.
Air-kraps in the 50s marched with rifles occasionally.

Spring of 1970, dorm-9 was part Army, part BQ. Then they flipped AF and Army, and I was an air-krap living in dorm-9 1970-71 school year, breathing BQ-air.

wtr1975, you say "FTD" drilled with rifles. Pretty cool, so did the FDT...

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Spring of 1970, dorm-9 was part Army, part BQ. Then they flipped AF and Army, and I was an air-krap living in dorm-9 1970-71 school year, breathing BQ-air.

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I really want to make some wise-ass comment, but I'm going to let it go.

I spent a semester at VMI back when we were involved in the cadet swap when they integrated females into their Corps. All my room mates thought I was nuts for being excited about learning the manual of arms. There every cadet is issued an m14 (or they were at the time spring '98). Since we did not train with arms at A&M and not wanting to look like a fool at inspection or in parade I practiced a lot. I thought it held some value. Plus it is another way to have Cadets to learn to pay attention to detail (cleaning and upkeep) through rifle inspection.

I was a fish in 60. We would do our drill on Saturday mornings in the corp area. We would report to the gun room, get issued our weapon (M-1), and take apart and clean the weapon , do basic rifle drill, right shoulder, left shoulder arms, etc...and stand for inspection of our weapon. It was on those hallowed grounds on some cold, still almost dark, Saturday morn that I got my first (and last) "M-1 thumb".

For the record boys, always, always withdraw your thumb from the well before the carriage bolt (or whatever it was called) smashes it flat!!!

I was class of 74. We had rifle drills my fish year. Ruined some good weekends having to drill on Saturday mornings it was scheduled.

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Ruined some good weekends having to drill on Saturday mornings it was scheduled.

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This comment made me think of a good story you (F4GIB71) know about how one of those drills got cancelled. Feel free to leave out names, but tell the story for us!

I don't remember a rifle drill being cnx'd but I do remember a Practical Warfare (we called it Play War) exercise in Dec '69. We'd go out to near Easterwood with M-14s, M-60s, and blanks on a monthly basis in preparation for six weeks of Field Training at Ft Sill between our Jr and Sr years. Weather was absolutely terrible, very cold and rainy. The Sr cadet in charge of PW got a call from Major Solimosi (sp?) at the Trigon cancelling PW exercises for the next day. Word quickly filtered through the chain of command and half the Jr cadets split for the weekend. This was before many woman at A&M so everyone's girl friends where at other schools. 0400 Saturday morning all the Bulls and NCOs were in the Trigon parking lot wonder where everyone was. Oh course, when did the Army ever cancel anything for weather?
It was 20 years later when I found out who made that phone call claiming to be the Major. A few years later that person told me "the rest of the story". Bull Text class at 0800 on Monday, Major Briscoe is standing in front of the class (and the perpetrator was there). Major Briscoe announces that they know who did it, that there would be charges brought, and probably expulsion from school. My buddy is sweating bullets because he's thinking about all the financial sacrifices his folks have made to send him to A&M, how he was going to be kicked out of school, and probably drafted. Of course it was all a bluff on the Trigon's part.
Statute of limitations has probably expired but I'll never tell.

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I was an air-krapper four years starting in 1967. No air-krappers touched a rifle, unless they were RV or FDT. Occasionally the Army outfits did, they brag a lot about high-porting them. When they do that I tell them that air-krappers highported jets in our bloody-crosses.
Air-kraps in the 50s marched with rifles occasionally.

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AF summer camp1949 - we shot 45s, M1s and a machinegun !

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I was an air-krapper four years starting in 1967. No air-krappers touched a rifle, unless they were RV or FDT. Occasionally the Army outfits did, they brag a lot about high-porting them. When they do that I tell them that air-krappers highported jets in our bloody-crosses.
Air-kraps in the 50s marched with rifles occasionally.

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AF summer camp1949 - we shot 45s, M1s and a machinegun !

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AF Field Training (summer camp if you prefer) 1968 we shot .38 Special revolvers, but not in the quad and we didn't drill with them. For a few guys in my flight, it was the first time in their lives they ever touched a firearm. I'm pretty sure that was the norm.

Hey BTHO......Still qualified under East Kyle at the range in the spring of '77 as a fish to answer your question........

Only thing we did in the mid 90's was shoot little necked down 16's under the trigon to qualify.