Carbine Dating

Opinion: U.S. armed forces still using outdated equipment. By Michael Lynch, Special to the Mercury News, Posted: 03/06/2010 08:00:00 PM PST

I was issued an M16A2 when I was mobilized and deployed to Iraq as a sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserve's 341st Military Police Company (San Jose) in the spring of 2003. However, we should have been issued an M4, the more modern version of the M16, which active-duty MPs were given. Instead I was handed a weapon that was state of the art during the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

The M4 carbine is not an assualt rifle like the M16 rifle. It is a lighter and less powerful weapon (same bullets, but a shorter barrel to add energy to the bullets) and yes it would have been a better choice for a MP unit, if not for line infantry.

Journalists can be forgiven for not knowing the difference between a rifle and a carbine, but it would be nice if the service members of this nation's armed forces who are issued such weapons could tell the difference.

-HJC

Prime Minister Bill Clinton

Exclusive: Inadequate Budget Support for Air and Naval Power, William R. Hawkins, Family Security Matters, March 1, 2010

The last bomber program resulted in the B-2 Spirit, a marvelous stealth aircraft far ahead of anything flying elsewhere, but that program was capped at 21 planes by the Clinton administration.

Mr. Hawkins must not be very familiar with the federal government structure we have here in the United States of America, where it was the United States Congress (under "Newt" Gingrich and Trent Lott) that failed to provide funding for additional aircraft. Perhaps as he gets to know our country better he can avoid these mistakes in the future.

-HJC