There was not in whatever way we can weight that pallet right back with the the new lighthearted truck, so being the good Samaritans we had been, i piled as many circumstances as we could for the all of our V-100-plenty that we could hardly turn the fresh new turret. Obviously, there were particular disappointed MPs you to definitely evening and you will a good amount 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 brand new Roundup, our local GI newspaper. The April 1970 article was headlined, “66th MP Co. Super Heroes to Combat VC Wrong Doers.”

Periodically we’d the moments, for instance the big date when we was indeed escorting an effective convoy within the An Khe Citation and another of one’s vehicles destroyed an entire pallet out-of beer

David A beneficial. Swisher resides in Marshall, Sick. He acquired new Armed forces Commendation Medal that have V Tool to have his measures for the ambush within An Khe Admission when you look at the April 1970. For additional discovering, see: Cadillac Gage V-100 Commando 1960-71, of the Richard Lathrop and you can Jim Laurier; and you will Combat Police: U.S. Army Military Police in Vietnam, because of the Rick Young.

Most of our trouble showed up on QL-19, however, I felt more comfortable on that street than on the QL-1, simply because there have been a great deal more convoys on QL-19 and this better likelihood of copy. My baptism regarding flames emerged to your plant on hairpin curve from the An enthusiastic Khe Ticket. Our very own V-100 got already come through the newest hairpin and you can is actually went off the fresh solution, if the westbound convoy is hit. The words “Contact! Contact Dornbirn escorts service! Contact!” showed up over the broadcast internet while i are operating, and so i turned into brand new V-100 doing and you can went back-up brand new citation. Whenever we got to the fresh hairpin, I saw specific Korean soldiers pinned off. Among them got his arm stuck-up floating around directing towards the south section of the hairpin change. I removed the fresh new V-100 amongst the Koreans and also the standing he was leading to, so we you may give them a tad bit more shelter and now have build relationships all of our firepower.

My V-100 are escorting an effective convoy from Tuy Hoa someday whenever there’s a great amount of build work with the road, ultimately causing a bit an accordion feeling

Some thing throughout the running the new paths every single day was you never realized exactly what uncommon matter was going to happen next. When the front of your convoy stopped, the back tightened up. Then your side create initiate once more, as well as the convoy dispersed up until the butt you’ll start. Because of that, We told the V-100 rider Reno Catalano to enter the middle of the brand new road therefore we keeps most other vehicles from our very own convoy up until we got outside of the build city. Whereas i usually assist faster car please violation the latest convoy cars, because there is actually such build I needed to save the fresh new convoy clear of others visitors.

Using one convoy so you can Da Nang, a automobiles strike a beneficial Lambretta loaded with Vietnamese. It was slightly a mess. The new Lambretta ran from the road and you will down an embankment. Once i had a dustoff here and you may had things eliminated upwards a little while, there have been all sorts of black colored pajama-clothed people who have guns updates as much as talking and you can screaming. By the difficult, a misunderstanding could easily has actually developed, prior to one taken place i had of around and you may back to our convoy.