My memory isn't that great but as I recall at Lackland in 1977 we first dry fired some beat to hell rifles that wouldn't actually fire. Live fire wasn't much and we were told we would never fire on full auto, and never did. We never trained on field stripping and cleaning in basic training either.

When I got to Whiteman AFB and we were on occasion to be issued M16s, a buck sgt or higher had to oversee the loading of the magazines and weapon. Since I was working with a buck sgt and I was just then the rank of airman, 1 stripe, he would oversee me loading my weapon then watch me loading his since technically a buck sgt or higher would have to observe him if he loaded his own. Anyone remember anything like this?