The redfield was considered a huge improvement. Back in the 90s Norman Chandler used to host BBQs for young S/S Marines. He always had a bunch of rifles around that depicted different eras of the job. A lot of them were built buy the same guys that built the originals back in the 60s. I remember playing with one set up exactly like the one in the famous picture. I remember thinking that protecting it in the field must have been a bitch.
A close friend of mine that I met after he came back in the Corps after a 10yr break in service told me about going to Desert Storm and his gunny built a rifle rack and demanded everyone use it on the range. The very first day on the range in Saudi Arabia they broke for chow, racked the rifles and went into the shade to eat. When they came back the the sun had melted all the pigment out of the etched reticles. Now the S/S platoon had no rifles. They had 2 useable out of 12. Unertl turned them around in a week and they had them back in time to step off the LOD.
Another good story of his while Im at it: they had the then new Barrets shipped to them in SA. No training, no scopes, no ammo, no training, they received a bullshit TM that was a xerox of some ones notes. Some pages were hand written and xeroxed. They bought shit scopes and he took his into kuwait with irons, they shot delinked M2 ammo.
Edited to add: this same friend was in swoffords platoon and said the book and movie are all lies.they never had any alcohol. There was no branding. Swofford was the only one that hadnt been to division school when they deployed. I believe him.