AUTORIZACIÓN PARA UTILIZACIÓN DE LAS PROTECCIONES COLECTIVAS:

The Army had already installed a new system of direct management for projects needing special attention, such as the M14 rifle. The following are excerpts from a March 4th

explanatory memo issued by the Commanding General of Army Materiel Command, outlining the reasons behind Project Management and the special powers that went with the job:

119 The Army's "One-Time Buy" of AR-15s

Left: a custodian of the Colt museum at the Connecticut State Library in Hartford holds a 5-shot, .56 caliber revolving musket which Samuel Colt produced for the US government during the Civil War.

Right: a Colt's assembly employee holds a brand-new, selective fire Colt AR-15. 129. "For immediate release": a proud publicity photo from Colt's parent

firm, Fairbanks Whitney Corporation, labelled "Colt's Oldest - and Newest - US Combat Rifles "heralds the Army's announcement of the "one-time buy" of AR-15 rifles.

Project Management has been endorsed by the Secretary of Defense as a means of reducing materiel lead time. It has been applied within my command to critical weapons and items of equipment that collectively account for over half of the total AMC PEMA and RTD&E funds. The corres- ponding magnitude of responsibilities assigned to Project

Managers, the radical departure of this new concept from the Army's traditional way of managing its materiel, and the compressed time period during which it has been intro- duced have resulted in a new set of management problems.

.. I have delegated to each Project Manager my full line authority to make decisions regarding his particular weapon and/or items of equipment. In exercising my authority, I expect that a Project Manager will. .deal on a direct basis with all contributing elements of AMC, serving as a master

project planner and providing both the direction and control necessary to implement such plans; [also] deal direct with the OSD, DA staff, CDC, CONARC, field units of the Army and the other military services [and] act with the complete assurance that for all activities required to manage and direct his weapon/item system he is acting for me alone and is in no way responsible to any functional directorate;

. .The Project Manager will initiate the project plan, the annual program and budget request, reprogramming actions and other..changes. .as are necessary to satisfy requirements that have been set by the Army for its.. materiel... Primarily, responsibility for the direction and control of major contrac- tors rests with the Project Manager. In the past, contractors have, on occasion, received different and conflicting instruc- tions from several sources within the Army; henceforth,

contractors will look only to the Project Manager. .for their instructions.

I am convinced that the system of vertical management we have installed will be of great and lasting benefit to the accomplishment of our mission. Each Project Manager will be personally considered and approved by me before any indication of his possible selection is made. It is my intention to obtain for these positions the highest caliber and most fully qualified officers that the Army can provide - the leaders

of tomorrow who are preparing that base today.

[signed,]

F.S. Besson, Jr.,

Lieutenant General, USA Commanding

The "Office of Project Manager for AR-15 Rifle Activities" was established on March 6 with headquarters at Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois. After due deliberation, General Besson appointed Lt. Col. Harold T. Yount as Project Manager, a capable officer and the son of old family friends. Bill Davis, still the Superintendent of the NATO North American Regional Test Center for ammunition, introduces this pivotal character in our story as follows:

I first met Harold Yount when he was assigned to the Small Arms Branch, [D&PS], at Aberdeen..in the mid-fifties...I believe that he was then a captain of Ordnance, soon to become major. He had a strong avocational interest in small arms (as did many of us then in that organization), had been a "Golden Bullet" rifleman in interscholastic marksmanship competition during his college days, and was still active in competitive shooting. He was assigned to Aberdeen as a Proof Officer, directly engaged in the day-to-day testing of small arms and ammunition, which was the business of that organization. He was bright, industrious, highly moti- vated, eager to learn, and professionally competent.

As noted by General Besson, Lt. Col. Yount's "Office of the AR-15 Project Manager" was established to achieve the earliest possible acquisition and deployment of the AR-15 system, as directed by Defense Secretary McNamara. Among the Project Manager's many duties and responsibilities was the coordina- tion of "product requests" from all the other services and agencies who had hitherto made their own deals direct with Colt's and Remington. Another duty, even more important from the standpoint of our story, was the preparation each week of a management report, informing HQ AMC of the significant happenings within the program during the past week. Fortunately, a complete set of these reports survive.

130. A rare, early Colt model 01 instructional cutaway AR-15. This arm features the Colt "green stock", which was simply the old brown stock painted green.

121 The Army's "One-Time Buy" of AR-15s