POTD: Mattis & the Afghan M14s

by Matthew Moss

Published: September 17th, 2018

U.S. Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis arrives at the Afghan Presidential Office building, Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 7, 2018. Mattis met with Afghan and coalition members during the previously unannounced visit to the country. (DoD photo by Lisa Ferdinando)

Last week US Secretary of Defense James Mattis paid an unannounced visit to Afghanstan. While there he met with the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the Afghan Presidential Office building in Kabul. During his visit he was met with a full honour guard presented by the Afghan National Army.

The honour guard are armed with chromed ceremonial M14 rifles. The M14 is one of three rifles used by US military honour guards, the others being the M1 Garand and M1903 Springfield. It seems fitting that with Afghanistan’s military reportedly receiving over $70 billion worth in military assistance aid since 2002, that along with thousands of M16A2 and M4s, that some ceremonial M14s were thrown into the bargain.

Another Afghani honour guard with M14's during the 2011 Independence Day Parade (source)

Afghanistan’s neighbours Iran and Pakistan both use licensed H&K G3 clones for ceremonial purposes. While Pakistan tends to use G3s with older wooden furniture, Iranian honour guards are often seen with chromed G3s.

Source

#M14 #Mattis #HonourGuard #AfghanArmy

Matthew Moss

Managing Editor: TheFirearmBlog.com & Overt Defense.com. Matt is a British historian specialising in small arms development and military history. He has written several books and for a variety of publications in both the US and UK. Matt is also runs The Armourer's Bench, a video series on historically significant small arms. Here on TFB he covers product and current military small arms news. Reach Matt at: matt@thefirearmblog.com

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4 of 18 comments

Libertarian45 on Sep 18, 2018

This will sound like nit picking, however, it is a very common error. People from Afghanistan are Afghans. Afghanis refer to their currency (contrary to the mistaken caption).

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El Duderino on Sep 18, 2018

Time to invade Iran! And let me bring home a chrome G3 as a war trophy!
As long as we're in this line of thinking, I wish dogs could talk...

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- Spike1984 on Sep 24, 2018
  
  @El Duderino Running into a Guard Corps with a G3 or any other Western-European-made rifle reflects Iran's old ties with the West from 1925 to 1978 wherein the Western countries provided military aid to Iran until the 1979 Revolution led by the late Imam Khomeini forced the West to cut the planned 1980 sales of GD F-16 Falcons to Iran and reroute these to its arch-foe Israel. In response, Iran realigned to the now-extinct USSR for its arms requirements, and purged Pahlavi remnants from its ranks for the next 18 months.
  
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- El Duderino on Sep 25, 2018
  
  @spike1984 The Iranians quite literally make their own HK blowback guns right up to the present day. G3s, MP5s, etc. Whether under license or not I don't know...what are the Germans going to do, invade Iran over arms licenses?
  
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POTD: Mattis & the Afghan M14s

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