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.