You are doing it much better than I have! I should just take some to somebody with some better machining skills...thanksOriginally Posted by MDFA
You are doing it much better than I have! I should just take some to somebody with some better machining skills...thanks
This seems like a good time to recommend Charles T. Williamson's The U.S. Naval Mission to Haiti 1959-1963. They don't throw anything away, but they're not so hot on maintaining it either. I think they got the M14s during that period because they had a lot of unserviceable Garands, Mausers, and Springfields. I seem to recall toward the end a TTM contact told one of the Marines that he should carry a pistol, and he jokingly replied that he'd rather have a submachinegun, and the Duvalier secret police guy was like "here's a Thompson."
@TDA
That's a decent guess, so I did some research. I couldn't find a free copy of your referenced book online, but I found this which covers US-Haiti relations from 1958-1968: https://repository.lib.ncsu.edu/bits...=1&isAllowed=y
I don't think they would have gotten the M14s in that time frame. We began giving them military aid in 1960 due to a lack of any standardized weapon, which makes it sound like it was still just a hodgepodge mix from the 1890s and leftovers from the creation of the Haitian Gendarmerie and Garde d'Haiti (Army) during the Banana Wars. It sounds like they would have received M1 Garands from 1960-1962 as I don't think they would have been provided them earlier that that....M1 Garands instead of M14s especially so since we cut off our aid programs in 1962, only one year after the USMC transitioned the FMF to the M14. Surely we wouldn't have been providing them with brand new M14s when the US Army hadn't even been fully equipped with M14s by then, the advisors themselves (USMC) hadn't even fully transitioned, and places where we had placed much greater importance for containing Communism than Haiti, such as Indochina, were still being provided M1 Garands and M1 Carbines into the mid-60s.
Looks like we resumed aid in 1969 to Haiti, so 69 into the 70s sounds like a more plausible timeframe for us to have sent them M14s.
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer
Another photo from the series.
I think you're right and the safety is on the Ruger.
As for the M14, not much experience with them, but if I was forced to vote, I, too, would say the front-sight is off.
Having used the M14 in servitude to Uncle Sugar I can say with near certainty, the rifle is missing it's front sight.
We may lose and we may win, but we will never be here again.......
My last trip to Haiti was before the turn of the century (fuck, I'm old). I was there shortly after our last major "intervention" for about 6 months. One of the things I used to do fairly regularly was work with the UN CIVPOL guys who were training the Haitian National Police (HNP). Every Friday, the local CIVPOL crew (Mounties) would do a uniform/gear inspection for the "precinct" they covered, and, whichever HNP officer was the most squared away got a prize.
In those days, HNP officers were issued one of a number of worn out, donated hand-me-down 4" .38 Special revolvers, and SIX rounds of ammo. If they expended any ammo for any reason, they had to replace it out of their own salary, which was meager, to say the least. Most of the revolvers I saw were missing one or more grip panels - most had a WHOLE BUNCH of rubber bands wrapped around whatever grip(s) were left to make a "usable" pistol.
Luckily, my wife knew precisely where my box o' revolver doo dads was in our house, and got them off to me in the mail. When the guys saw that they might be able to pick a complete set of Pachmeyer or Hogue grips, or a SPEEDLOADER, they became the sharpest looking HNP officers on the island. Too bad my wife couldn't mail me ammo - if I could have offered ammo as a "prize," I'd probably been named Emperor of the Pearl of the Antilles...
It looks like that Mini is missing the handguard. That would not be a fun one to shoot after a few rounds went down the pipe! I could also see it biting the hand that feeds it.Another photo from the series.
I think you're right and the safety is on the Ruger.
As for the M14, not much experience with them, but if I was forced to vote, I, too, would say the front-sight is off.
Again, it is just a good reminder of our first world problems when it comes to rifles in America. We complain when we don't have the exact part at a certain weight to fit our custom built 3K dollar rifle.
Not to become a curmudgeon, but the older I get, the more I just want a solid A1 with a fixed stock.
EDIT: I love the dude who looks like he is rolling a joint in the background. "No worries here."
Smoke’m if you got’em!
Now I have to go through the book again- It doesn't really lend itself to paraphrase, and the situation in Haiti was a mess, but I believe you are correct. Apparently in 1959, the FA'dH were equipped with FN Mausers, 1903 Springfields, and some quantity of M1 Garands. The first push seems to have been to inspect and repair everything, and then to issue the same rifle to each department, instead of mixing and matching. Then it seems likely that the MAP equipment they received circa 1961 were Garands and BARs. But as early as 1960, one (purportedly) would not have seen these 4 guys maneuvering with three different rifles and a joint because that was recognized to be a bad idea. There was a push to move them from 9 man squads to 13 in the then current Marine Corps model although it seems to have been an absolute hash, since Duvalier was weighing the threat of coup against the D.R. and Cuba and not really being enthusiastic at the thought of a competent domestic force other than his secret police.
Looks like maintenance practices are unchanged.
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