It was a rainy day at Ft. Jackson SC in November of 1964. Our Company Co B 4Th Bn 1st training Brigade had just finished firing on the trainfire course and were back on "tank hill" in the barracks cleaning our M-14's. Watching all the guys having trouble cleaning them, I decided to try a different approach. I had the rifle stripped down as far as we were allowed to then decided to give it a hot water cleaning. I soaked it with oil and solvent and went into the latrine and began to scrub it down. Who walks in but SSgt Patterson, our platoon sgt. He looked at me with one of those "what the @#$% do you think you are doing" looks. My only response was was to say, Sgt I am cleaning my weapon. He looked around, stepped close to me and said "son,you are the only one in this whole company who knows how to clean one of these things. Just make sure you dry and oil it" From that point on at every weapons inspection mine was given a light but good check compared to others.

Anthony Rice, Stevens, Pa.