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A common request from designated Dragon gunners, and which was always denied, was for them to get to carry CAR15s (think early M4s) instead of the comparatively longer and heavier M16s.
Here's a photo from the 1983 US deployment into the island nation of Grenada, known as Operation Urgent Fury, you can see guys carrying M47s on the right there. This was arguably the best foreign military action the US ever engaged in, wasn't trouble free, and it was yet more 'world policing' at the expense of the US people, but Grenadians were at least very happy to get the help and to not be left under the boot of the sudden Communist takeover that had occurred.
The place could certainly be better, but I seriously doubt it would be better today without Operation Urgent Fury.
If you look at the dude on the left, he's carrying not just an M16A1 with an M203 underbarrel launcher (overall a very practical weapon to carry), he's also got an M72 LAW on his back, which doesn't have nearly as powerful of a warhead as the M47, but it's MUCH lighter in weight to carry, far less bulky, and it's very easy to aim and use with just minimal training. Troops liked the M72 LAW a lot, even if it wasn't as powerful.