<P> While new - production M1918A2 guns were almost universally praised for faultless performance in combat, a number of malfunctions in combat were reported with armory - reconditioned M1918A2s, particularly weapons that had been reconditioned by Ordnance in Japan, which did not replace operating (recoil) springs as a requirement of the reconditioning program . After decades of complaints, ordnance addressed the problem of maintaining the problematic gas piston on the BAR by issuing disposable nylon gas valves . When the nylon valve became caked over with carbon, it could be discarded and replaced with a fresh unit, eliminating the tedious task of cleaning and polishing the valve with wire brush and GI solvent (frequently in short supply to line units). </P> <P> The M1918A2 was used in the early stages of the Vietnam War, when the US delivered a quantity of' obsolete', second - line small arms to the South Vietnamese Army and associated allies, including the Montagnard hill tribespeople of South Vietnam . US Special Forces advisors frequently chose the BAR over currently available infantry weapons . As one Special Forces sergeant declared, "Many times since my three tours of duty in Vietnam I have thanked God for...having a BAR that actually worked, as opposed to the jamming M16...We had a lot of Viet Cong infiltrators in all our (Special Forces) camps, who would steal weapons every chance they got . Needless to say, the most popular weapon to steal was the venerable old BAR ." </P> <P> Quantities of the BAR remained in use by the Army National Guard up until the mid-1970s . Many recipients of US foreign aid adopted the BAR and used it into the 1990s . </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (July 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table>

When does the light machine gun come out