Garand in Hand

Among all the critics of the Army's semiautomatic Garand rifle (TIME, May 6, et seq.), none has been more acid than the U. S. Marine Corps. But none was more discreet. Marines confined their criticisms to barrack-room griping and a few oblique references at Congressional hearings. Reasons: the Corps is part of the Navy, in many matters is therefore subject to the Navy hierarchy, but the Marines get their weapons and ammunition from the War Department, whose ordnance officers developed and cherished the Garand.

Long after the Army had adopted the Garand, the Marines held off, sticking by the tried-&-true Springfield rifle until they could crook their fingers around a suitable semiautomatic. Last November and December the Marines tested four guns: the Springfield; a revamped, improved version of the Army's Garand; Boston Inventor Captain (Marine Corps Reserve) Melvin Maynard Johnson Jr.'s rival semiautomatic; and a new Winchester semiautomatic. Last week the Marine Corps delighted the Army's ordnance officers by officially adopting the Garand as the Corps's standard rifle. Captain Johnson himself (now reasonably content with a big order for his gun from The Netherlands Indies) had conceded that the new Garand was better than the earlier model. Redesigned barrels and sights had increased its accuracy and ruggedness. Still a tough rifle to produce, the Garand was coming out of the Army's Springfield Arsenal at a 560-per-day clip. All that doubting Thomases could ask further last week was proof that the new Garand can stand up under combat firing. What, if anything, the Marine Corps testing board had to say on this important subject was a closely held secret. The Corps and the War Department merely announced that the Garand had been adopted.

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