I received the following letter from a US Army Specialist who spent at least 2 tours in Iraq with the 4th Infantry Division as a Selected Designated Marksman (SDM) using my favorite rifle, the M-14 as a platform for performing his duty.

I’m keeping his name private to keep him from any negative consequences for sharing the information with us. His only wish is that the information gets passed along to those who can use it. I also want to note that I edited his original letters for content, mechanics, and any information that may lead to recognition of who he may be.

He was responding to my article on drop in improvements for the M-14 type rifle. He wrote:

I loved your article about improving the M14. I carried one as a SDM from 2005 to 2007 in Iraq with 4th ID. The only problem with the rifle (other than not having collapsible stocks for CQB work) was when It came to Night Operations they were of little use because the Leupold scope (which is one of the finest scopes in the world, in my opinion) we were using had no night vision capability. So for about the first month we’d remove the Leupold and then mount either a TVS (thermal vision sight) or an old AN PVS-5 light amplification sight. Well, as you can imagine, we got tired of having remove remount and rezero our scopes every time we drew night missions.

So, one night while doing routine maintenance on our rifles, I and one of my sergeants got an idea. We took my PVS-14 Night Observation Device (night vision monocle) which can mount on your helmet or rifle on a rail system and tried to figure out a way to mount it onto our rifles. This was tricky because we only had standard wooden stocks with no rails to mount the monocle. So what we came up with was we took a Cardboard Tube from toilet paper cut it on one side, and fitted one it around the PVS-14 forming a kind of bracket and then securing it using 100 MPH tape around the monocle and then fitted the other end around the rear of the scope using the same method but taping the tube to the scopes diopter ring.  Then, to make sure the NOD didn’t fall off our makeshift mount, we used the normal neck loop and tie off to tie the NODs to the scope and scope rail.

It worked!

We could see our cross hairs through the NOD and engage our targets at night with out worry. To adapt the scope back to day operations, we just untied the ties and slid the NOD off the back of the scope. Something else: The NOD adapter was not affected by water damage because the 100 mph tape was thick enough to keep the tube protected against the occasional water dunking (though thinking back, I’d use plastic to do it again).

This trick will work with any scoped rifle and any of the little Night Vision Monocles you can buy on the market today. I thought I’d pass this along so it can be given to people who need to know it. We had a saying, “He who Controls the Night Controls Half the Battle Field”.

I also enjoyed your “Spring Cleaning Tips". Here are a few things on field cleaning that I’ve learned (sometimes) the hard way. Being a “grunt”, I have lots of experience cleaning dirty, filthy gear:

Magazines: Clean and service your magazines along with the rifle! I’ve seen too many people forget that most important piece of equipment and then have their weapon go down (not function) in a fire fight – not fun!! I’ve got “real world” experience with this one and it’s really not fun when you’re the only one with functioning magazines in the whole squad.

Ammo: Include ammo in your maintenance routine. You can actually wash ammo in hot water with a mild detergent and a brush or green scrub pad*. Discard any ammo that is unserviceable from rust, damage on the casing, or the bullet isn’t properly seated in the case mouth.

Web/Molle Gear: For lightly soiled gear, I suggest an industrial sized washing machine. For heavily soiled gear or gear with clay stains, I use a self-service car wash and pressure wash to get the heavy grime and dirt out. It works pretty good.

Medical Supplies: Inspect them often and change them out when you need to.

Batteries: Inspect them often and change them out before a mission even if you know they’re good.

  So, there you go. Some good tips from someone who’s been in harms way for quite sometime. Something else that’s nice about this particular vet: He’s a Michigander.

Thank you Specialist, for your service and your help in furthering the knowledge of those in the MPA!

* Exercise extreme care/caution before you attempt to wash your ammunition. If the primer isn’t sealed like military ammo, you can easily get seepage into the primer pocket which could cause a misfire. 

See you in the field.