Thanks to a tip from Big Al last week, we found a couple minutes of video of John Garand talking about the development of US small arms. It was buried in an episode of “The Big Picture”; a syndicated TV program produced by the US Army from 1951 through 1964 (I’m not sure exactly when this particular clip was filmed). Of particular note is the rack of rifles to Garand’s right – they are the various early prototype version of his rifle. Unfortunately, he doesn’t discuss them at all (perhaps more of this lecture still exists on video somewhere?). Also, xenophobes beware: he has a surprisingly thick French-Canadian accent.

Yeah, he’s not saying anything we didn’t already know – but it’s pretty cool to actually see the man on video!