Thanks for the welcome!
I was in Viet Nam 'early' ('65 - '66) and actually shipped over with an M-14.
I had already heard stories of the M-16 jamming at the worst possible times and wanted to hold onto my 14 but, the military geniuses knew better and, I was forced to carry the 16 after all.
In my first real action, we were "upclose and personal" with the enemy - some of the fighting was hand-to-hand. As fate would have it, sure enough, my M-16 jammed just as an NVA regular came running towards me with his AK levelled. I assumed that he saw my apparent helplessness with the jam and decided to skewer me with his bayonet instead of shooting me. That's when the adrenalin really kicked in, and somehow (there was no conscious thought), I got that .41 Derringer out of my pocket, sidestepped his thrust and shot him in the face. I grabbed his AK to use until I could unjam the 16 and it was THEN that I discovered his magazine was empty...he was out of ammo! THAT'S why he was bayonet-charging!
By this time, fortunately and unfortunately, there were a number of M-16's laying around whose owners no longer had any use for them so I found one that worked and held onto it. That one did not jam.
Early in that war, the AK-47 was, in my mind at least, a clearly superior infantry weapon...at least in terms of durability and reliability. The first M-16's made NASTY wounds and had some stopping power as a result. But until COLT solved the jamming problem there was a definite lack on confidence in the weapon. (The problem turned out to be caused by the usual beauracratic practice of the bean-counters not listening to the designers and "cheaping out" on the design of both the weapon and its' ammo).
I don't know how much I'd trust it (or the M-4) today if Iwas in Iraq. Our politically-correct military bowed to PR pressure years ago and changed the design of the M-16 rounds so that they no longer tumble on impact, and instead of those bad-guy-stopping NASTY wounds, they now make nice little holes through and through. There simply is NO STOPPING POWER AT ALL!
But, I digress! :)
(The .41 Remington had plenty of stopping power when I needed it...and there's a lot to be said for placing the round in the right place).