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Military Ceremonial Honor Guards: Rifle Specs

9K views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  Gus Fisher 
#1 ·
What are the weapons used at Arlington for Ceremonial Events like Sen Ted Kennedy's Honor Guard and Salute?

No political responses please.

Garands, M-14's, M-16's?

I couldn't see the Honor Guard well-enough to see what they were carrying.

I always think of the M-14 as a "Classic" for this job and was just wondering what the current specs are for this service?

Are they specially prepped to fire blanks, chromed-barrels and receivers or standard USGI Issue?
 
#2 ·
I was in the Old Guard, Honor Guard Co. for 3.5 years (all but basic and AIT). Unless things have changed Honor Guard would be doing the high profile funerals and ceremonies still. If this was a joint service funeral (I didn't watch it) then there would be an platoons of each service. If not a big full honor funeral then the casket teams would be mixed between the branches of the service. I don't remember any joint service firing parties when I was up there.

We carried M14's. Plain Jane run of the mill M14's. The only shiny chrome thing on it was the bayonet. The M14's are in wood stocks and have nice clean white slings.

When I was up there (1976 to 1979) rifle wise it broke down like this:
US Army M14's (fully operational)
US Marines M1 Garands (deactivated)
US Navy 03A3's and 03's (deactivated and chromed - yechhh!)
US Air Force M1 Garands (deactivated)
US Coast Guard 03A3's and 03's (deactivated, seems like they were chromed but we didn't pay much attention to them)
 
#3 ·
Thank you for your Service and your detailed response.
It was a mixed service casket crew, but the rifle team looked like they were all wearing the same uniform.
I could make out the hand movements between the shots, looked like pulling back an op rod. I assume it was a unit of M-14's, but I couldn't see them clearly enough.
The Discipline and Precision of the Ceremony was inspirational, as intended.

Again, Thanks for Your Service.
 
#5 ·
I have seen both parkerized and nickel (chrome?) plated M14s used. I have also seen rifles with the grips sanded down to look like 03 stocks. The bayonets and scabbards are special. They are nickel plated, wood handles, and the scabbards are nickel plated as well.
Dustin
 
#6 ·
A slight correction to a previous poster...Bravo Co., in which I served from Jan. 1968 through Aug. 1969, participated in lead positions at every major event that took place in the MDW.
These events included medal of Honor Ceremonies at the White House, Pres. Nixon inauguration, Pres. Eisenhower funeral,( lead marching element of the state funeral), Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy assasinations...and the riot control following the MLK assasination, hundreds of funerals, arrival ceremonies, etc. Often small groups of men from Bravo would be sent to the White House and Pentagon. Bravo won six of twelve 'Soldier of the Month' awards during 1968 and also one trooper from B won the 'Soldier of the Year'. One of my men became the first man from B co., to become a Tomb Guard and our platoon sergeant, ( J. Deas), became Commander of the Relief in 1969.
So much for only 'Honor Guard " doing all the 'big jobs'!
 
#7 ·
The first of three times we did major work for the M1 Garands for the Marines at Marine Barracks 8th and I streets in DC, ALL the Garands were capable of firing standard ammo.

They did one thing on their rifles for the Drill Teams, that became a bit of a problem when they did the Blank Firing Ceremonies at Burials and other events. They took out and left out the lower band pin, believing that gave more “snap and pop” when they were doing Silent Drill. That can and does allow the lower band and front hand guard to move around during blank firing and sometimes cause malfunctions.

They were also using the cheap POS “stove pipe” style Blank Firing Adapters (BFA’s) and they finally contacted us at the RTE Shop when a Firing Burial party for a deceased Admiral, LAUNCHED a BFA into the air and it came down in the MIDDLE of the mourning group. Thank GOD it did not hit anyone.

The problem was the stovepipe BFA’s had ruined the barrel threads and when those BFA’s were not cracking or blowing out a piece of metal in use, they would be blown off the end of the barrel fairly easily. We found two more that did it after going over a batch of their guns.

So initially, we separated the Garands with the looser barrel threads and told them to use those rifles ONLY for Drill. Then we made up some reproduction BFA’s that not only screwed onto the barrel threads, but also had a lower ring like a regular Gas Cylinder lock and the GCL screw also held them in place and told them to ONLY use those rifle for Blank Firing. That completely solved their problem for a few years.

A few years later and with a change in their Armorers, ALL the BFA’s we had made up were GONE. So we did it again. Shortly before I retired in 1997, we did it a THIRD time, but this time retained blueprints of the BFA’s we made and a couple of examples so the NEXT time we needed to do them, the RTE Shop (now the PWR Shop) would not have to do it all over from scratch.
 
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