Nah, from what he told me the service pistol was an inaccurate POS, a pain to clean (which one would have to do often) and the G36 rifle is made in large parts

Nah, from what he told me the service pistol was an inaccurate POS, a pain to clean (which one would have to do often) and the G36 rifle is made in large parts (e.g. the stock) from polymer/plastic meaning they were forbidden from ever using the weapon body itself as a weapon because otherwise it would splinter and break. The AK my father and grandfather used in the NVA instead was a real wartime weapon, rugged, dependable and able to be produced in mass quantities relatively cheaply. The G36 instead is apparently expensive, fragile and not that accurate, ie. more of a showpiece.