You are not obligated to be a sniper, you can do a Early GI kit or a Marine grunt kit, They used the M14 for a little while before switching to "Jamming Jenny". M14s were still around the Tet offensive if I remember correctly.
Here a picture taken durin operation Junction City in 1967 :
The soldier is Us Army
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...SupplyDrop.jpg