Truth be told there wasn’t in any manner we could weight that pallet straight back towards the the latest lighthearted truck, therefore being the good Samaritans we had been, i piled as many times once we you certainly will for the the V-100-a whole lot that people could hardly change this new turret. Of course, there had been certain disappointed MPs that evening and you may numerous terrible severe headaches 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 fresh 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’d our times, like the time as soon as we was basically escorting good convoy in the An Khe Citation plus one of one’s vehicles lost a whole pallet regarding alcohol
David An effective. Swisher resides in Marshall, Sick. He received the latest Armed forces Commendation Medal which have V Tool to have their methods from inside the ambush during the An Khe Pass from inside the April 1970. For further reading, see: Cadillac Gage V-100 Commando 1960-71, by the Richard Lathrop and you may Jim Laurier; and you will Combat Police: U.S. Army Military Police in Vietnam, by the Rick Younger.
Most of our very own difficulties appeared into QL-19, however, I usually thought much warmer on that roadway than for the QL-1, given that they there had been alot more convoys on the QL-19 which better likelihood of content. My baptism out of flames showed up into the bush in the hairpin contour about An enthusiastic Khe Citation. The V-100 got already come through brand new hairpin and is actually going off the pass, if westbound convoy is struck. The words “Contact! Contact! Contact!” showed up along the radio net whenever i was driving, and so i became new V-100 as much as and you will oriented back up the latest solution. As soon as we got to the new hairpin, We spotted particular Korean troops pinned off. Among them got his arm stuck-up floating around pointing towards the south side of the hairpin turn. We taken the new V-100 within Koreans together with position he had been directing to help you, therefore we you’ll give them more safeguards and have engage our firepower.
My V-100 is escorting an excellent convoy of Tuy Hoa one-day when you will find plenty of design work with the trail, ultimately causing some an enthusiastic accordion feeling
Some thing throughout the running the fresh paths each and every day is which you never realized just what strange point was going to happens 2nd. When the front side of the convoy prevented, the trunk tightened up. Then top do start once more, and also the convoy spread out till the bottom could initiate. Due to this, We advised our V-100 driver Reno Catalano to get in the middle of the path so we helps to keep most other automobile off our very own convoy up to i had out of the construction city. Whereas i constantly help shorter automobile please pass the brand new convoy vehicles, as there is such build I needed to keep the fresh convoy free of another website visitors.
On a single convoy in order to Weil Nang, one of the automobiles strike a beneficial Lambretta loaded with Vietnamese. It actually was somewhat a mess. The fresh new Lambretta went off the path and you will down a keen embankment. Once we had a beneficial dustoff there and got something removed right up some time, there had been a myriad of black colored pajama-clothed people who have weapons standing doing talking and you may yelling. By difficult, a misconception can potentially has actually developed, before you to took place i got from there and you will straight back to the convoy.