Here was not in any manner we are able to load that pallet back for the the fresh lighthearted vehicle, very being the good Samaritans we were, i stacked as much times once we you may to the our very own V-100-plenty that people could hardly change new turret. Needless to say, there are some sorry MPs one nights and a lot of awful 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.”
Periodically we had the moments, for instance the big date as soon as we was basically escorting a beneficial convoy up the An Khe Admission and another of your autos lost an entire pallet regarding alcohol
David A great. Swisher lives in Marshall, Ill. He acquired the fresh new Armed forces Commendation Medal having V Product having their steps during the ambush on An enthusiastic Khe Violation in 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 can Combat Police: U.S. Army Military Police in Vietnam, because of the Rick More youthful.
Much of our very own difficulties appeared with the QL-19, however, I believed hotter on that path than into the QL-1, simply because there had been even more convoys for the QL-19 and that deeper odds of copy. My baptism of fire came with the bush at the hairpin contour in the A keen Khe Ticket. The V-100 had currently come through this new hairpin and you will are lead off the latest admission, if westbound convoy try hit. The words “Contact! Get in touch with! Get in go to website touch with!” showed up along the radio online once i try operating, and so i became this new V-100 around and you may on course back-up the newest violation. When we surely got to the hairpin, We watched some Korean soldiers pinned down. One of them got their case stuck-up in the air pointing to the south area of the hairpin turn. I removed this new V-100 amongst the Koreans and also the condition he was directing so you can, so we you are going to provide them with a tad bit more safety as well as have engage our firepower.
My V-100 is actually escorting a great convoy out-of Tuy Hoa 1 day whenever discover enough construction work with the road, ultimately causing quite a keen accordion effect
Some thing regarding running the fresh routes everyday are you never understood just what strange issue would happen second. In the event the front side of convoy avoided, the trunk tightened. Then the top do initiate again, together with convoy spread out through to the buttocks you’ll begin. Due to this, I told our very own V-100 rider Reno Catalano to go into the midst of new highway therefore we could keep other auto out of the convoy up to i got out of the structure city. While i always help smaller car feel free to citation new convoy vehicles, because there try much framework I desired to keep the latest convoy free from the other visitors.
On one convoy so you can Da Nang, one of the cars struck a beneficial Lambretta laden with Vietnamese. It absolutely was somewhat chaos. The new Lambretta ran off of the path and you can off an embankment. By the point we got a good dustoff there and you may got something eliminated upwards some time, there had been a myriad of black colored pajama-clothed people who have firearms condition doing speaking and shouting. By the language barrier, a misconception could easily keeps developed, before that happened we got regarding indeed there and you may right back to our convoy.