Truth be told there was not any way we are able to stream you to pallet right back into the the new lighthearted truck, thus as the a Samaritans we had been, i stacked as many circumstances even as we you can expect to to your all of our V-100-really we could hardly change brand new turret. Without a doubt, there had been certain sorry MPs you to definitely nights and a lot of terrible head aches the following day.
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 Brand new Roundup, our local GI newspaper. The April 1970 article was headlined, “66th MP Co. Super Heroes to Combat VC Wrong Doers.”
From time to time we had all of our minutes, for instance the go out once we were escorting a good convoy in the An enthusiastic Khe Pass and something of one’s vehicles forgotten a whole pallet out-of beer
David A great. Swisher lives in Marshall, Ill. The guy gotten brand new Army Commendation Medal with V Product having his tips in the ambush within An Khe Ticket for the April 1970. For additional discovering, see: Cadillac Gage V-100 Commando 1960-71, by the Richard Lathrop and you will Jim Laurier; and you may Combat Police: U.S. Army Military Police in Vietnam Saxony-Anhalt escort guide, by Rick More youthful.
Most of the problems showed up towards the QL-19, but I usually felt more comfortable thereon road than into the QL-step one, given that they there had been far more convoys towards the QL-19 and this better probability of content. My baptism from fire arrived into plant during the hairpin contour about An enthusiastic Khe Admission. Our V-100 had already break through this new hairpin and you may try oriented off brand new solution, if westbound convoy is struck. The words “Contact! Get in touch with! Get in touch with!” showed up along the radio internet once i was operating, thus i turned into new V-100 to and you may on course back-up the latest admission. When we reached the newest hairpin, I watched particular Korean soldiers pinned off. Included in this got his arm stuck up floating around pointing to the south section of the hairpin turn. We taken the newest V-100 between the Koreans as well as the status he had been leading so you’re able to, therefore we you can expect to let them have a little more safety and also have build relationships the firepower.
My personal V-100 is escorting good convoy away from Tuy Hoa one day whenever there was enough build manage the street, resulting in a little a keen accordion effect
Anything on powering the new paths every day is that you never know exactly what strange material would definitely occurs 2nd. In the event the top of your convoy stopped, the back tightened. Then your top manage start once again, as well as the convoy dispersed before the buttocks you can expect to start. Because of that, We informed the V-100 rider Reno Catalano to get in the center of the latest road so we keeps other auto out of our very own convoy up until i got out of the structure city. Whereas we always assist reduced automobile go ahead and pass brand new convoy autos, since there was so much design I desired to store the brand new convoy clear of the other travelers.
On a single convoy so you can Weil Nang, one of our cars hit an excellent Lambretta full of Vietnamese. It actually was quite chaos. The Lambretta ran off the highway and you will off an embankment. Once we got good dustoff there and got one thing removed upwards a while, there were all kinds of black colored pajama-clad people with firearms position up to talking and you will screaming. Because of the language barrier, a misunderstanding could easily has developed, before one taken place i got from truth be told there and you can back to your convoy.