Stoner 63.

This is coolbert:

Only in the most vaguest manner was I familiar with this weapon. As was favored by the American special operations naval commando units during the Vietnam War.

"The Stoner Machinegun: A Navy Seal Remembers"

"The Stoner 63, is a 5.56×45mm NATO, Modular Weapon System, using a variety of modular components, it can be configured as a rifle, a carbine, a top-fed light machine gun and a belt-fed squad automatic weapon."

Devoted readers to the blog will want to watch the video in entirety! Well worth viewing. I recommend highly.

Several comments about this video. Participants not wearing eye protection. Nor is the ear protection adequate either. Need to wear the ear cups and not the little itty-bitty and inadequate ear plugs. Trigger control also poor from what I see. These shooters need some real coaching. 

The Stoner 63 had real potential [??] as a squad level automatic for all combat troops in Vietnam but was predominantly used by Navy SEAL units. Did give a lot of firepower and was more light weight than the M60 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun. You could carry twice the amount of ammo for the same weight which is intuitively understood to be an advantage in the special operations type of mission.

More to follow!

coolbert.