Just after right back within compound, we unloaded the latest beer, put it into a cut-from 55-gallon guitar and you may iced they down
Truth be told there was not any way we are able to weight that pallet back with the this new lighthearted vehicle, so as being the a good Samaritans we had been, we stacked as many cases as we you may toward our very own V-100-much that we could hardly turn the new turret. Naturally, there are some disappointed MPs one night and you can many awful head aches 24 hours later.
To the men who served on a V-100 for a year, the vehicle became more than just a machine. It became your life, your friend and your protector. All but two of our V-100s were named after comic book heroes. These included “Captain America,” “Thor,” “Big Ben,” “Flash,” “Spider – man,” “Barbarian,” “Atom,” “Daredevil” and “Iron Man.” The other two were named “Road Hog” and “The Lemon.” Each of the V-100s had a painting of the character or the name across the front, life-sized and in coloric book superheroes painted on the front of the V-100s made for an interesting article in The Roundup, our local GI newspaper. The April 1970 article was headlined, “66th MP Co. Super Heroes to Combat VC Wrong Doers.”
Occasionally we had our moments, such as the go out whenever we were escorting an excellent convoy within the A keen Khe Ticket plus one of the autos shed a complete pallet from beer
David A good. Swisher stays in Marshall, Unwell. The guy received the Military Commendation Medal which have V Product getting his strategies within the ambush from the An Khe Pass from inside the April 1970. For additional training, see: Cadillac Gage V-100 Commando 1960-71, from the Richard Lathrop and you may Jim Laurier; and Combat Police: U.S. Army Military Police in Vietnam, because of the Rick Young.
A lot of all of our trouble emerged on the QL-19, but I always noticed much warmer thereon highway than on the QL-1, given that they there have been far more convoys for the QL-19 which higher odds of copy. My baptism off fire appeared on bush on hairpin contour from the A keen Khe Violation. Our V-100 had already come through the brand new hairpin and you can is actually going off new ticket, in the event that westbound convoy was struck. The words “Get in touch with! Contact! Contact!” came over the broadcast web when i try riding, thus i turned new V-100 as much as and headed backup the fresh new solution. When we reached new hairpin, I spotted certain Korean troops pinned down. One of them had their case stuck up floating around leading south region of the hairpin change. We taken the V-100 amongst the Koreans as well as the updates he had been pointing to help you, therefore we you may provide them with more defense and possess engage all of our firepower.
My personal V-100 was escorting a great convoy away from Tuy Hoa someday whenever there is a good amount of design work with the street, DГјbendorf escort gallery resulting in some an accordion impact
Some thing regarding running the new tracks daily is which you never understood exactly what unusual question would happen 2nd. When the top of one’s convoy avoided, the rear fasten. Then the front manage begin again, while the convoy dispersed before butt could begin. Due to this, I told all of our V-100 rider Reno Catalano to enter the center of this new roadway therefore we keeps most other vehicle off our convoy until i got out of the framework urban area. Whereas we usually let reduced automobile please citation the latest convoy trucks, since there are a great deal build I wanted to save the convoy free from another subscribers.
On a single convoy in order to Weil Nang, a cars hit a good Lambretta loaded with Vietnamese. It absolutely was slightly chaos. New Lambretta ran off of the street and you will down an embankment. By the point we had a good dustoff here and got one thing cleared right up sometime, there were all kinds of black colored pajama-clothed people who have weapons condition as much as talking and you may shouting. From the difficult, a misunderstanding could easily enjoys arisen, before one occurred we had out-of here and you may straight back to our convoy.