re: Guns for our soldiers
Grease gun and Colt auto pistol, both .45, and a sawed-off shotgun for close jungle terrain. Generally you get a surprise meeting with the bad guys face-to-face.
Longer barrel for open terrain, where the target might be 200+ meters out.
Hated the M16 getting caught in the vines (M60 was hell), but the M16 worked nice for crossing the wide fields of 12' high elephant grass.
But that's me,
Dan