"Hawk" (aka Tony Diaz) served in the U.S. Marine Corps
from Oct 1971 through Jul 1973 after enlisting during high school. During Boot Camp at Parris Island, he trained with the
M14 Rifle and qualified as Sharpshooter with a score of 217 missing expert by three points. After Boot Camp, while
attending ITR at Camp Geiger, he carried the M14 and Rem M870 trench gun while on Guard Duty, as well as the "infamous"
M16 during infantry training. It was here at Camp Geiger that Hawk was given his nickname after a night of compass marches
through the North Carolina swamps. After ITR and MOS school at Montford Point, NC, Hawk was stationed overseas at Okinawa,
Japan, in direct support of the 3rd Marine Division which was deployed in Vietnam. He remained on Okinawa until
his rotation back to the states and early release from active duty as the Military was downsizing at the end of our involvement
in Vietnam.
Some years later while surfing
on the net with his first computer, Hawk realized that he could purchase one of those M14s even though it was a civilian version.
He visited Orion7 and purchased a nice tiger walnut stock that needed refinishing. After refinishing it he brought it back
to show the owner, and was solicited to refinish stocks for them. Shortly thereafter Hawk purchased several
hundred stocks that he has refinished through the years and offered for sale on this website. After Building his first rifle
from a Armscorp receiver which was barreled at Orion7, it had the unsightly hole where the selector went on
the real M14s, he came up with the idea for the Dummy kit. After several modifications and changes the kits have evolved into
what is currently seen on this site. With the sale of dummy kits taking off, Hawk no longer had the time to do anymore stock
refinishing so had to forgo it.
During
the time when Hawk was refinishing stocks, he also did some cammie painting as well. The first to make and market the M14
synthetic stock with an AR pistol grip and collapsible stock, it was decided to spend the time working on dummy kits after similar
modifications started being done by other stock workers. Rather than keep up with the times on the M14 stock modifications
and competition that came with that type of work, Hawk decided to put his efforts into making Dummy Kits.
Awhile back, realizing a need for a good M14 forum after the old Gun and
Knife forum went down in flames, Hawk started the original M-14 forum which progressed continuously until it was sold in March
of 2011. Becoming increasingly difficult to remain with the M14 Forum, Hawk departed andbegan placing his forum efforts into
building what used to be the M14RA forum into what it is now. The Team M14 forum is a forum dedicated to M14 enthusiasts and
owners and has evolved into a more public community of like minded people who enjoy talking and learning about
our M-14 as well as a variety of other subjects. The new forum, dubbed Team M14,also serves as the Home of the M14 Rifle Association
forum with it's own section towards the bottom of the Team M14 forum..
Hawk retired from his regular job in 2007 due to medical issues, and looks forward to spending more
time producing his kits as well as overseeing the care of his two Paint horses.
