In the case of the M60, the firing mechanism was made with a bicycle cable and the gearshift lever from Mary’s ten-speed. The bike was in disuse, since its tires had partly rotted out and replacements were unavailable. For the five M16s, the fire control mechanism took five separate triggering rods, all linked together on a common axis bar. It in turn was linked by a “traveling arm” to a firing lever mounted on the front of the left armrest of the rear seat. Using scrap metal and more parts from the rack on Mary’s bicycle, Lon built this mechanism in less than three hours. The sights were a home-brew affair, made out of six-inch-long sections of Schedule 40 one-and-one-half-inch white plastic water pipe, with crosshairs made out of stiff wire at the front of each.
These tubes were attached to the gun mountings using bolts and fender washers. Stacks of washers were gradually built up until the point of aim in the crosshairs matched the bore-sight view. Test firing confirmed the point of impact.
Lon completed the mountings by fabricating brass catchers out of scrap sheet metal. He primarily used the front panel of Kevin Lendel’s disused electric dishwasher, and license plates that had been taken off of the various cars and trucks at the retreat. The catchers would serve to both save the fired brass and links for reloading, and to prevent fired brass from causing any damage to the planes, or getting underfoot inside the planes.
Since the Larons had dual controls, it was simple enough to fly them from the rear seat. This required repositioning the throttles. It was a long reach to hit the starter switches, since there were no equivalents in the rear seats, and the visibility from the rear seats was not as good as from the front. The instruments were largely out of view as well, particularly on the green Laron with the wide M16 mounting rack. However, Doyle expected that the upcoming flights would be all “seat of the pants” flying anyway. Without the canopy, the slipstream would be tremendous at full throttle, but manageable in slow flight. The Doyles were given two pairs of the Grays’ army surplus “Goggle: Sun, Wind, and Dust” to compensate for the lack of canopies.
The gun mounts themselves were a marvel of quickly improvised tube bending, machining, and welding. The mount for the M16s bolted directly onto the rifle’s receiver extension tubes. It was found that in order to save space, the buttstocks and pistol grips would have to be removed. The removal of the buttstocks left the threaded buttstock hole available at the back end of each receiver extension. An eighth-inch-thick plate of two-inch-wide steel was drilled for these bolt holes. The missing pistol grips meant that there was nothing to hold the selector switch springs and detents in place. Rather than fabricate something special, it was expedient just to tape the selector switches in the “Burst” position. This kept them from falling out of the receivers.
The forward mounting point for each of the M16s was their forward pivot-pin hole. These pins (along with their springs and detents) were removed, and long carriage bolts were put in their place. These same bolts bisected a piece of tubular steel. It in turn tied into the main framework. Once assembled, the entire mount could be removed with the guns intact by simply unclamping four bolts. This, Lon predicted, would simplify cleaning the guns. The brass catching bins were assembled and mounted separately. They, too, could be removed easily if need be. They also had clever sliding metal doors at the bottom that allowed the fired brass to be shoveled out into a sack. The handguards of the five M16s were removed to provide better airflow for cooling.
Almost as an afterthought, Lon mounted Video 8 camcorders that belonged to the Grays and Kevin Lendel on each of the planes, using one-quarter-twenty bolts. It was Kevin Lendel who made the effort to mount the cameras.
He explained, “The only way to counter the Federals’ propaganda is with the truth, and what better truth to show than some exciting gun camera footage?”
A third camera, from Pastor Dave’s house, was borrowed to document any upcoming ground engagements. Charging the two sets of batteries for each camera took two days.
For the test firing, the M16s were fired in their semiauto mode, and the M60 was fired in a few brief bursts, in order to conserve ammo. Operationally, the M16s would be used in their “burst” mode. To those assembled for the test firing, Doyle explained, “The M16A2 has a three-position selector, just like the older A1s, but the third position produces a three-shot burst setting instead of traditional full auto. Instead of teaching troops proper fire discipline, the military decided to solve the ‘spray and pray’ problem by making a mechanical change to the rifle. The A2 selector mechanism has a little ratchet that clocks up to three and then stops the burst. You get subsequent bursts by releasing the trigger and pulling it over again. Pretty nifty technology, but a sad statement on the caliber of Army, Navy, and Air Force volunteers. It’s sad, in my opinion, that they needed three-shot burst control technology to begin with. It should have been a training issue.” He shook his head in dismay, and then went on.
“Anyway, we will be using the burst setting. With thirty-round magazines, that will give us ten bursts of three shots each on each sortie. With five guns on line, that’s fifteen rounds per burst. Should do the trick, eh?”
Lon asked Doyle, “You don’t expect those M16s to stop tanks and APCs, do you?”
Ian shook his head and replied, “No, these M16s and the M60 are for antipersonnel use, and perhaps against unarmored vehicles. You’ll need to figure out something else to stop tanks and APCs.”
Doug Carlton smiled. “Don’t worry, Ian. We have a goodly supply of thermite grenades and Molotov cocktails for that. We assembled them a year and a half ago.”
The Doyles spent three full days ferrying supplies toValley Forge in both of the Star Streaks. It required twenty-five round-trip flights. Landing at the meadow on the first ferrying trip, Ian and Blanca unbolted the guns from their planes to make room for cargo. On the subsequent flights, they carried fuel and oil—a total of fourteen five-gallon cans of unleaded premium and a case of forty-weight motor oil. Next was ammunition. They took all of the M60 belt links and more than half of the remaining .308 and .223 ammunition still available at both retreat houses. This totaled almost twenty-four thousand rounds. The last ferry trips carried, food, tents, sleeping bags, and cold weather gear. After that, the canopies were removed again and the guns were remounted and reloaded.
While the work on the planes went on, large quantities of gear were hauled to Valley Forge on pack boards, with garden carts, or on the Porters’ sturdy mountain bikes. The bikes proved particularly useful. They were better at negotiating the rough terrain than the garden carts, and could haul nearly as much. Most of the loads were slung in stuff sacks on both sides of the center of the bike frames and on the panniers. It was impossible to ride the bikes when they were so loaded down, but walking alongside them was easy enough. The bikes could each carry two hundred pounds or more per trip.
In all, it took more than fifty round-trips to haul the supplies to Valley Forge. The militia members were careful to take numerous routes so that they wouldn’t leave a distinguishable trail. After making several trips, Mary commented that it would have been prudent to establish a cache many months before. She remarked to Margie, “Just imagine if we didn’t have a few days’ warning like this? We’d be S.O.L.! And what if we had to beat feet in the dead of winter, even if we had some warning? There would be no way to move this much gear in just a few days. We should have pre-positioned half of our food, fuel, and ammunition at an off-site cache a long time ago. That way we wouldn’t have to rush to move it all at once. We’re very lucky that we got away with putting all our eggs in one basket for so long.”