Comments by "COL BEAUSABRE" (@colbeausabre8842) on "Navy 7.62mm NATO Conversion M1 Garand - Mk2 Mod1" video.

  1. When I was an Army ROTC Cadet (70-74), our freshman and sophomores were issued M14's, the Juniors carried M16's and the Seniors either M14's or M16's depending on which class they were in charge of. The Navy/Marine guys had Mark 2 Mod 1's and the Air Force wouldn't let its cadets touch a weapon (very wise of them). As far as "why did the Navy" go to this length, it realized that it was last in line for new rifles and 30-06 would be increasing hard to find in a combat zone compared to 7.62mm. One use not mentioned was mine disposal. Mine sweepers would cut the cables of contact mines (the USN encountered Russian contact mines made in 1906 in Korea) and they would float to the surface - still dangerous. So some sweepers followed the first line of sweepers and used their weaponry to detonate (or sink - some refused to explode) the mines. Small arms were preferred as they avoided have large caliber shells ricocheting of the sea and going &diety knows where. The USN also converted a bunch of M1919A6's to 7.62 for the "Brown Water Navy" in Vietnam and called them Mark 21 Mod 0. The Israelis did the same thing as did the South Africans and the Canadians as I discovered when my outfit sponsored a Canadian one at FT Lewis in 76 https://www.canadiansoldiers.com/weapons/lightweapons/machineguns/c5machinegun.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_equipment_of_the_South_African_Army#Machine_guns
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  2. Why does the USN need rifles? 1) When my Dad's ship was moored at an advance base such as Ulithi or Eniwetok in WW2, swim call would occur, so you could dive in from the deck and climb back on via cargo nets. Riflemen would be posted from the Marine detachment which was carrying M1903's at the time (then converting to M1's late war). Why? Because there's sharks in the Pacific2) The Navy still did Naval Landing Parties. Dad's ship was in Tokyo Bay for the surrender and sent a party ashore to secure part of the area and dad volunteered - "Anything to get some time off the ship!" So he was issued a set of ancient load bearing equipment, an M1903 and bayonet and off they went to conquer Japan
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