[Nyles]

Well, everyone wears that. In tans the only way to tell Army, Navy and Air Force apart is the crest on the name tag. In greens the t-shirt's and berets are at least a different color. The M4 variants, depending on when you were there, were likely C8A2s, with the 16" heavy barrel. Most infantry troops carry C7A2s (20" barrel, M4 style stock), at least when I was there with 1 PPCLI it was mainly M203 gunners and LAV crew that had the C8s. The M249 would have been a C9, again depending on year probably the C9A2, which comes with an 18" and a 14" barrel and a folding stock.

Excaliber: Can't speak to US military, but as far as Canadian military goes, yes. Money would be much better spent on training than new kit. Hell, it's a good thing I'm a shooter in civilian life, because in Army life my training with the Browning amounted to "here's a 9 mil, try not to shoot anyone". As Checkman said earlier, civvie shooters tend to forget that most people who carry a handgun for work aren't gun people, and espescially in the case of those who don't carry it as a primary weapon, probably aren't espescially interested or well trained in its use. I'd be more concerned with it being as simple and light as possible rather than a favorite of competition shooters or Guns and Ammo.