Dave,
Can you elaborate on the inquiries? You need to write a book about your Nam, (maybe Laos and Cambodia too??) experiences.
When a Congressional inquiry came down, we had IIRC three days to get something back to HQ. Maybe a few more to get the formal write up done. While it was a combat environment, I had a base defense company; so even though we were in the field at a fire base, we had reasonable facilities and commo. Two of the inquiries were for one fella. I think his Dad didn't want him there and know McGovern (I seem to recall him telling me that, but it was a long time ago). Anyway, on one fella, he had brothers in country at the same time and the inquiry asked why XXX number of brothers were deployed in combat units at the same time, inferring some should not be. I interviewed the fella in question who was in our base defense platoon. He wanted to serve in combat. Long story short, I wrote that up and he signed a statement saying he wanted to be there. Doesn't sound like much, but we had a lot going on and this moved to the top of the list. Thought it pretty strange the person sending the inquiry didn't know that.
Second guy had two inquiries and actually apologized for the first. Don't remember exactly what it was. The second one I do recall. He complained he was in a combat unit and didn't have a weapon. Well, he was a cook. We had more accidents with weapons than those hurt by hostile fire, so, for other than line folks, weapons were kept in a arms room and drawn when folks went out to man defensive positions or on patrol. If we were attacked, the arms room was opened so anyone could get a weapon. I recall I was a bit put out and called him in. He explained he really felt he should have an assigned weapon; so, I explained all that would be involved and he said he understood and still wanted one. I assigned him an M-60 machine gun and explained I or one of my NCOs would be inspecting it every day. If not properly assembled and cleaned, he would have to work on it until done. My report to the inquiry was he had been assigned a weapon and I described some of the circumstances.
At first he really liked it. We allowed him to go to the range, shoot and get instruction. But he didn't have a lot of free time with all his other duties. Several times, his weapon didn't pass inspection and after about ten days, he let us know he was fine with our normal policy; he gave up having the M-60 machine gun assigned to him.
Just as an observation, we had a lot of folks that didn't do well in the rear that really shined when assigned to actual combat duties (myself included). Several folks just didn't feel a sense of purpose in support roles and really applied themselves in a combat role.
As far as weapon assignment, imagine having everyone in your high school class walk around with an automatic weapon and how many accidents there would be. That's why we controlled weapons when in rear area or base defense positions. Grenades were also issued and taken back when troops went out and returned toward the end of the war.
Best,
Dave
