Headstamp Publishing, a specialist publisher producing books on arms and military history, recently announced their new book " From Hartford to Vietnam: An Illustrated History of How Colt Brought the AR-15 to War".
The book covers the early history of perhaps the most influential modern rifle, the AR-15, its production by Colt, and its fielding in the Vietnam War. While Armalite and Eugene Stoner designed this rifle, it was Colt that set up mass production after acquiring the rights to the design in 1959 and made the AR-15 what it is today.
The author of the book, collector and historian Alex Young, managed to acquire a unique collection of photographs, many of which were never published before. One of the main sources of photos is Rob Roy, Colt’s lead salesman and engineer who started working for Colt in 1963. Overall, the book contains 570 images, most of which are from the 1960s and 1970s.
The book has five chapters. The first one is “Factory” that shows the production and testing facilities of the Colt manufacturing plant.
The second one is “Guns” that covers both production models and rare prototypes developed by the company.
The third chapter is “Testing” that shows Colt employees testing weapons, as well as military officials and visiting politicians attending product demonstrations and firing the weapons.
The fourth one is “Sales”, which documents Colt’s effort in marketing the new rifle at trade shows and demonstrations in different countries.
The last chapter is “Field”, which documents the trip of two Colt employees, Rob Roy and “Koni” Ito, to the warzone in Vietnam. There, they were training troops in the use of new rifles and investigating problems that were reported by soldiers.
The topic of early M16s in Vietnam is fascinating; it is both dramatic and controversial. It is great to see that more photos and information from 60 years ago are finally coming into the limelight and expanding our knowledge about the US's longest-serving service rifle.
You can preorder this new book here.
