Why did Col. Kirby hold his rifle like that?

I don't know why he carried like that, but after seeing this movie as a kid, I carried my M-16 like that whenever possible. I was cool.....ok, no I wasn't.

It was a goof. He was just so used to handling WInchester '92 lever action rifles in his westerns. The carry handle on the M16 resembles the lever on the Winchester its just on the bottom instead of on top. But who's gonna tell the Duke they have to shoot the scene again because he's holding the weapon all wrong?

It wasn't just Kirby; many of the cast did the same.

That wasn't unusual; slinging it upside-down put the butt just below shoulder-level, whereas slinging it upright put the muzzle above the ear, causing snags if you had to bend over to clear cables, low doorways, helicopter roofs and rotors, vines, jungle foliage, etc.

Carrying the M-16 on patrols, you'd typically undo the sling and thread it through the front sight and around the front of the stock, allowing you to sling it level, over your shoulder, pointed forward, with enough slack to allow you to comfortably hold the pistol grip with your strong hand and the handguard with your weak hand, and be able to fire instantly without bringing it up to eye-level.

These days, infantrymen seem to sling their weapons such that they're carried with the stock slightly above shoulder-level, apparently to allow the scope to be pivoted quickly to eye-level. (Only snipers and some perimeter bunker personnel had scopes in Vietnam.)

One glaring "goof" I noticed was Aldo Ray (and maybe others) seated in a helicopter with his M-16 muzzle-up. That was a no-no; in a helicopter, your rifle was always held butt-up, muzzle-down, in case it were to go off accidently. You wouldn't want rounds going off through the roof and into the engine.

There were other goofs, mainly by John Wayne; on the skeet range, with his shotgun, and later, with his M-16, he was pretty cavalier about pointing his weapon at the troops around him, casually employing it as a pointer while gesturing toward his men.

By the way, I first saw "The Green Berets" outdoors on Tay Ninh Base Camp in 1969. In the middle of one of the main battle scenes, it suddenly acquired one hell of a Dolby Stereo effect. What seemed like enhanced sound turned out to be a mid-movie mortar attack. The movie was stopped for a while, then resumed where it left off.

-- Infantryman, 1st Cavalry Division, Vietnam, 1969-70.