There was not any way we could stream you to definitely pallet back into the the newest lighthearted vehicle, therefore as being the a great Samaritans we had been, i loaded as numerous cases even as we you can expect to into the our very own V-100-much that individuals could not turn the new turret. However, there have been certain disappointed MPs one to night and you will enough dreadful headaches 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 The latest 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 moments, including the day as soon as we was escorting a great convoy in the An enthusiastic Khe Ticket plus one of the cars missing a whole pallet regarding alcohol
David A good. Swisher resides in Marshall, Ill. He received the brand new Army Commendation Medal having V Device getting their strategies in the ambush at A keen Khe Pass for the April 1970. For further training, see: Cadillac Gage V-100 Commando 1960-71, by the Richard Lathrop and you will Jim Laurier; and Combat Police: U.S. Army Military Police in Vietnam, by Rick More youthful.
A lot of our very own dilemmas arrived towards the QL-19, however, I sensed much warmer on that path than into the QL-1, given that they there were alot more convoys into the QL-19 hence higher likelihood of backup. My personal baptism of flames came with the bush at hairpin contour from the An enthusiastic Khe Violation. The V-100 got already come through the hairpin and is headed off new violation, in the event the westbound convoy is strike. The language “Contact! Get in touch with! Contact!” emerged along side radio web while i is actually driving, so i turned the fresh new V-100 to and headed back-up the ticket. When we surely got to the new hairpin, We spotted particular Korean troops pinned off. One of them got their sleeve stuck-up in the air leading to the south section of the hairpin change. I taken the latest V-100 within Koreans as well as the standing he had been leading to help you, therefore we you are going to let them have more safeguards as well as have engage the firepower.
My personal V-100 is escorting a beneficial convoy away from Tuy Hoa someday when there was a good amount of design focus on the road, causing slightly an enthusiastic accordion impact
Things regarding running the fresh channels daily are that you never ever knew just what unusual matter was going to takes place second. If front side of the convoy avoided, the back tightened up. Then the front side create begin once again, while the convoy dispersed before the bottom you’ll initiate. Due to this, We told our V-100 rider Reno Catalano to get in the middle of brand new highway therefore we will keep almost every other automobile regarding the convoy up to i got out from the build town. While we always let less vehicles please ticket brand new convoy automobiles, since there are such construction I needed to store the brand new convoy free of one other website visitors.
On one convoy to Weil Nang, one of our cars struck an effective Lambretta loaded with Vietnamese escort review Velbert. It was a little a mess. New Lambretta ran off of the road and down a keen embankment. By the time we got an effective dustoff truth be told there and you will had something eliminated upwards sometime, there have been all types of black colored pajama-clad people with guns position up to speaking and you may screaming. By the difficult, a misconception can potentially have arisen, but before one to happened we had out-of here and right back to our convoy.