Here wasn’t in whatever way we can stream you to definitely pallet straight back towards the fresh new lighthearted truck, so as being the an effective Samaritans we were, we piled as many instances while we you can expect to on our V-100-a whole lot that people could not turn the newest turret. Without a doubt, there were certain disappointed MPs one night and you can an abundance of dreadful headaches a day 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 This new Roundup, our local GI newspaper. The April 1970 https://escortbabylon.de/en/austria/lower-austria/tulln article was headlined, “66th MP Co. Super Heroes to Combat VC Wrong Doers.”
Sometimes we had our very own minutes, like the time as soon as we was basically escorting an effective convoy up the A keen Khe Solution plus one of the automobiles shed an entire pallet out-of beer
David A great. Swisher stays in Marshall, Unwell. He gotten the fresh Military Commendation Medal which have V Product having their steps into the ambush from the An enthusiastic Khe Citation inside April 1970. For additional learning, see: Cadillac Gage V-100 Commando 1960-71, of the Richard Lathrop and you may Jim Laurier; and you can Combat Police: U.S. Army Military Police in Vietnam, from the Rick Young.
Most of our trouble arrived on the QL-19, but I always felt much warmer thereon highway than into the QL-step 1, simply because there are more convoys to your QL-19 hence deeper probability of copy. My baptism out-of flame emerged to the plant in the hairpin curve regarding A keen Khe Solution. The V-100 had already break through the newest hairpin and you can is going down the newest ticket, when the westbound convoy are hit. The words “Contact! Get in touch with! Get in touch with!” showed up across the broadcast online while i was operating, and so i turned new V-100 as much as and going back up this new citation. As soon as we surely got to this new hairpin, I spotted particular Korean troops pinned off. One of them got his arm stuck-up floating around leading towards the south region of the hairpin turn. I removed the fresh V-100 amongst the Koreans in addition to position he had been pointing in order to, so we you may give them more cover and just have engage with the firepower.
My V-100 try escorting a convoy off Tuy Hoa one day whenever there can be a number of framework work with the street, ultimately causing some an accordion effect
Something in the running the tracks everyday was you never realized exactly what unusual point would definitely happens second. When the top of one’s convoy averted, the rear tightened. Then front do begin once again, as well as the convoy spread out through to the rear could start. Due to this, I informed our V-100 rider Reno Catalano to go into the midst of the fresh new road so we will keep other vehicle regarding the convoy up until i got from the framework area. Whereas we usually let faster vehicle please citation new convoy cars, since there are plenty build I desired to save the brand new convoy clear of others traffic.
Using one convoy to Da Nang, a autos struck a beneficial Lambretta packed with Vietnamese. It actually was a bit chaos. The fresh new Lambretta ran off of the roadway and you can off a keen embankment. By the time i had an effective dustoff indeed there and you can had anything eliminated right up a bit, there have been all sorts of black colored pajama-clad individuals with weapons standing doing talking and you can screaming. By language barrier, a misunderstanding can potentially possess arisen, before that taken place we got regarding there and straight back to our convoy.