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Jeffrey_Button · Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2006 3:44 am Post subject: Little gun trucks in Vietnam...

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Here are smaller guntrucks in Vietnam. "Little Angel" and "Green Machine" (GM). GM was labelled as being in ChuLai in 1970. How common were these trucks.

Doug_Kibbey

Not many of either, but some. M37 was a better candidate for armor. Some are featured in Jim Lyles collection, which may not have seen print for vol. 2 yet.
We had two unarmored, but stripped, M37 "Beeps" with 106mm RR's in my Aerorifle Troop in the 101st....worked better than the M151A1C.

Tanklord

Doug, have you got any photos of the M-37 with the 106 RR's? I have helped friends restore a number of M-37's and we are always looking for something different. First time I ever saw these photos of mini-gun trucks. Gonna have to show that to the boys!

Doug_Kibbey

- Tanklord

Doug, have you got any photos of the M-37 with the 106 RR's? I have helped friends restore a number of M-37's and we are always looking for something different. First time I ever saw these photos of mini-gun trucks. Gonna have to show that to the boys!

Regrettably, no photos...but basically they were unmodfied except for having the RR gun mount, and the stakeside stuff removed...and the rear panel too, I believe. Ammo was boxed and carried to the front of the bed, with some at the rear.
This was an ad hoc arrangement made when M151's just didn't have the mobility or ammo load that the Cav wanted. There was no armor.

Many of the armored jeeps and the like you might find from Vietnam were MP vehicles for convoy duty, etc.. We took stuff off vehicles in the Cav, and didn't put any further protection on, the need for mobility being what it was....

David_Reasoner

The M151 conversion looks somewhat like the WW2 armored Jeep conversions used by some recon platoons. I'm not sure if there was an actual armor kit issued for the Jeep or if they were all field mods by workshop units.

David

Doug_Kibbey

Both of those vehicles above appear to be Transportation Companies, the "other" units apart from MP's to have gotten elaborate with armor protection on these. I know our vehicles, and the ones I've seen with other Cav units were "bare bones" vehicles with guns, radios, and darn little else.

There used to be a nice selection of photos on the site of one of my former units, D Troop, 2/17th, but those pages are gone now....bandwidth issues I'm guessing. I saved a few, but they're not my pics to share. Even the yearbook pages were taken down, for likely the same reason. All I have are the 2-3 with me in 'em....

Neil_Baumgardner

- Doug_Kibbey

There used to be a nice selection of photos on the site of one of my former units, D Troop, 2/17th, but those pages are gone now....bandwidth issues I'm guessing. I saved a few, but they're not my pics to share. Even the yearbook pages were taken down, for likely the same reason. All I have are the 2-3 with me in 'em....

Do you have the old link? www.archive.org is very useful for that kind of stuff...

Neil

Doug_Kibbey

- Neil_Baumgardner

- Doug_Kibbey

There used to be a nice selection of photos on the site of one of my former units, D Troop, 2/17th, but those pages are gone now....bandwidth issues I'm guessing. I saved a few, but they're not my pics to share. Even the yearbook pages were taken down, for likely the same reason. All I have are the 2-3 with me in 'em....

Do you have the old link? www.archive.org is very useful for that kind of stuff...

Neil

Stand by, Neil...I'll get it...OK, it was on this page:
www.dirtydelta.com/Links.htm
...where you see the yearbook pics are gone. Also, there was another section called "Summer of 1970" or "Summer of '70" or something like that with pics by Steve (or Steven) Rauch. Lemme know if you find 'em...I want to save some more. I did capture the aerial of the 2/17th Cav area that even had my old hooch in it...as well as the L Co. Rangers area...

Oh...here are some M37 guntruck pics that aren't mine:

www.garbee.net/~cabell...trucks.htm

Neil_Baumgardner

- Doug_Kibbey

Stand by, Neil...I'll get it...OK, it was on this page:
www.dirtydelta.com/Links.htm
...where you see the yearbook pics are gone. Also, there was another section called "Summer of 1970" or "Summer of '70" or something like that with pics by Steve (or Steven) Rauch. Lemme know if you find 'em...I want to save some more. I did capture the aerial of the 2/17th Cav area that even had my old hooch in it...as well as the L Co. Rangers area...

Ia this what you were looking for?:
web.archive.org/web/20...f+1970.htm

Neil

Doug_Kibbey

- Neil_Baumgardner

- Doug_Kibbey

Stand by, Neil...I'll get it...OK, it was on this page:
www.dirtydelta.com/Links.htm
...where you see the yearbook pics are gone. Also, there was another section called "Summer of 1970" or "Summer of '70" or something like that with pics by Steve (or Steven) Rauch. Lemme know if you find 'em...I want to save some more. I did capture the aerial of the 2/17th Cav area that even had my old hooch in it...as well as the L Co. Rangers area...

Ia this what you were looking for?:
web.archive.org/web/20...f+1970.htm

Neil

Yep! Thanks...saving some of this that I didn't get before now!

Neil_Baumgardner

- Doug_Kibbey

Yep! Thanks...saving some of this that I didn't get before now!

Any of the vehicle photos on there you were talking about?

Neil

Doug_Kibbey

- Neil_Baumgardner

- Doug_Kibbey

Yep! Thanks...saving some of this that I didn't get before now!

Any of the vehicle photos on there you were talking about?

Neil

Yes, but not the bit you need to see! In one pic of an M151 with "road test" on the front grill (itself an M151A1c I think, with 106 removed...note plates at rear, provision for side mount spare on passenger side, and no windshield...probably this vehicle was stripped of gun for the M37...it seems to be carry ammo in rear), you see an M37 behind it...but only the lower half.
web.archive.org/web/20...%20(2).JPG
Likely one of them. Lot's of good views of our gunjeeps and RR-equipped jeeps, however....and two views of what a mine does to an M151.
A nice photo of a mortar firing, too....and some of our "non-standard" weapons.
Most of the live fire and gunjeep views apart from in the company area are taken at Firebase Birmingham, which I know well and was back there last year. Looks a lot different now.
Some of the heli pics are taken at variously the 17th Cav "Scabbard" pad, some at the 17th Cav/"L" Co. Rangers "Acid" pad, and some at FSB B'ham (all in Thua Thien Province, west of Hue).
Also some change-of-command and award ceremony stuff.

Oh...in this view of the Scout Platoon area, my hooch is second from left.

web.archive.org/web/20...%20(2).JPG
(I have great pics of that roof coming off the hangar behind during Typhoon Agnes/SuperTyphoon Bess in '71)

Thanks for finding that link!

Roy_A_Lingle

Hi Folks!

During my time over there, I don't ever recall seeing an up-armored M151 or M37 3/4 ton truck. When it comes to the M151, that vehicle didn't have a lot of cargo carring capacity once you loaded four troopers in it.

During WW II, scouts had jeeps mounting M2HB .50 cal machine guns. During post WW II and the M38A1, scouts still had M2s. When the Army switched to the M151, it found that the recoil forces of M2 was to strong for that stamped sheel metal body and frame. Even the mount for the M-60 machine gun had eight large bolts going through the frame (or what past for a frame) to hold that mount in place. I had HEARD that a number of units in Vietnam tried to mount M2HBs on their M-151. Wasn't hard to do, the gun mount pintel for the .50 and the M-60 was the same size and would set down into the top of the pestle post. The problem was found that after a lot firing that the bolts at the base would start pulling up through the sheet metal frame. Add in some ruff terrian and the next thing you have is the frame cracks and the vehicle breaks in half. That is why you don't see a lot of Vietnam era M-151s with M2HBs mounted in place of the M-60 machine gun. Getting heavier weapons was not that much of a problem. Finding a good way to mount them was. That cheap stamped sheet metal frame wasn't all that strong. Look at the vehicles prior the M-151 and after, they all have a strong frame under them.

When it comes to the heavy trucks, the only armored trucks I remember seeing were five tons during my second tour. During my first tour, I remember a lot M-35 2&1/2 ton trucks with the maxin turret setting in cargo bed. But none of those had any armor on them.

I sure do wished I had taken a lot more pictures than I did.
My 2 cents,
Sgt, Scouts Out! Smile