From Hartford to Vietnam: An Illustrated History of How Colt Brought the AR-15 Rifle to War is a journey through the development and production of the AR-15 by Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company (later Colt Industries) and its ultimate fielding just in time for the growing Vietnam War. Though the AR-15 was the brainchild of Eugene Stoner and his team at the relatively small machine shop known as Armalite in Hollywood, California, it was American firearms icon Colt that purchased the rights to the rifle in 1959. From the small number of prototypes originally manufactured by Armalite (fewer than 30), Colt was faced with the seemingly impossible task of selling this new rifle concept to the US military and beyond.  

Authored by long-time Colt collector and historian Alex Young, From Hartford to Vietnam relies in large part on curated photographs that have been sourced by the author from a number of private collections, including from the estate of Rob Roy, a central figure in this story as a high-level employee at Colt during the development of the AR-15 throughout the Vietnam War period. This book contains over 570 images, the majority of which date to the 1960s and early 1970s. Most of the photographs have never been seen by the public.

From Hartford to Vietnam is divided into five main chapters – each telling an important part of this story:

• Factory chapter: Rare views of the production and inspection areas at Colt, as well as Colt’s new rifle testing facilities built for the AR-15,

• Guns chapter: An incredible array of photographs of weapons (many of which were experimental prototypes) taken in-house at Colt, with a heavy emphasis on the Model 602, 603, 604, 605, 606, 607, 608, Hybrid 607/608, M5, M2, LMG, experimental polymer receiver, CMG series, sniper rifles, grenade launchers, SP1, carbine variants, M16A1E1, M16A2, ACR, M16A3 Enhanced series, M231, and more.

• Testing chapter: See Colt employees and US military officials at the range in a multitude of product demonstrations often firing the weapons seen in the prior Guns chapter.

• Sales chapter: See Colt employees, US military officials, and politicians at trade shows and demonstrations of products, as Colt put forth its best efforts to sell the AR-15 family of weapons (and others) to militaries around the world.

• Field chapter: Follow Colt employees Rob Roy and “Koni” Ito to the Vietnam War (and beyond), both to train troops in the use of new weapons (such as the XM148 grenade launcher) and to identify issues and problems being reported by troops in the field with the AR-15.

Additionally, an Appendix section at the end of the book presents a number of rare blueprints and additional documents.

From Hartford to Vietnam will become a valued addition to your library, whether you are a Vietnam War history enthusiast, or a serious collector of historically significant variants of the AR-15. The photographs and blueprints in this book are presented in incredible detail on large format, full-color prints in a premium hardback form.