Around was not in any manner we could stream you to pallet right back towards the the brand new lighthearted truck, so being the a great Samaritans we were, we loaded as numerous cases while we you may for the the V-100-plenty that people could not change brand new turret. Naturally, there are particular sorry MPs one to nights and you can a lot of terrible headaches the very next 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 The new Roundup, our local GI newspaper. The April 1970 article was headlined, “66th MP Co. Super Heroes to Combat VC Wrong Doers.”

Sometimes we’d all of our times, such as the go out whenever we were escorting a beneficial convoy within the A keen Khe Pass and another of your vehicles shed an entire pallet out of beer

David A great. Swisher lives in Marshall, Ill. He gotten the Military Commendation Medal with V Equipment to have their steps in the ambush in the An enthusiastic Khe Citation from inside the April 1970. For further training, escorts in SaarbrГјcken see: Cadillac Gage V-100 Commando 1960-71, by Richard Lathrop and you can Jim Laurier; and you will Combat Police: U.S. Army Military Police in Vietnam, because of the Rick Younger.

A lot of our difficulties came to your QL-19, but I always noticed more comfortable thereon path than to the QL-step 1, given that they there had been much more convoys on QL-19 which greater probability of backup. My baptism regarding fire appeared into the bush at hairpin curve in the An Khe Violation. Our V-100 got already come through the latest hairpin and you can are on course off the latest citation, in the event that westbound convoy are strike. The language “Contact! Contact! Get in touch with!” showed up along the radio internet whenever i is driving, therefore i turned into the brand new V-100 doing and you can oriented support the latest ticket. As soon as we reached brand new hairpin, I noticed specific Korean troops pinned off. One of them had their case stuck up in the air leading towards the south region of the hairpin change. We drawn this new V-100 between the Koreans as well as the position he had been directing to help you, so we you will definitely give them a little more security and now have build relationships all of our firepower.

My V-100 is actually escorting good convoy from Tuy Hoa eventually whenever there was loads of framework focus on the trail, leading to somewhat an enthusiastic accordion perception

Some thing on powering the channels day-after-day is which you never realized what unusual question would happen 2nd. If front side of the convoy averted, the rear tightened up. Then your side do begin once more, in addition to convoy spread out until the buttocks you will definitely initiate. Due to this, We informed all of our V-100 rider Reno Catalano to enter the midst of the brand new street so we helps to keep other vehicle away from all of our convoy up to we had out of the structure urban area. Whereas i always help faster automobile feel free to solution brand new convoy vehicles, as there is really framework I desired to keep new convoy clear of additional subscribers.

On a single convoy so you can Weil Nang, a autos struck a Lambretta loaded with Vietnamese. It had been a bit a mess. The Lambretta went off the street and you will off an enthusiastic embankment. Once i got a beneficial dustoff truth be told there and got one thing eliminated right up sometime, there were all kinds of black colored pajama-clad those with weapons position around talking and you will screaming. Because of the difficult, a misunderstanding can potentially features arisen, but before one taken place i had from truth be told there and you will back to the convoy.