Gun trucks of Vietnam (thanks Mike!) how has no one made a movie about these guys and a supply run on this road? These were not Army issue, they were all hand fabbed, from spare parts, and stolen machine guns from damaged helicopters

Because truck convoys moved the bulk of the food, fuel and ammo to American and allied units stationed in the countryside, there routes became target for enemy ambushes.

The Truckers were the front men—first into battle, first into enemy territory, and always volunteers. These men were considered the elite of their division.

One of the worst supply runs was that along Route 19, some 150 miles of winding nowhere that became known as “Ambush Alley” for the motor transportation guys having to make the drive.

So the soldiers hit the scrap piles and scavenged steel, sandbags and anything else they could find that would up-armor 3 axles and later 5 ton trucks then pile on whatever ordnance they could mount. In some instances, this ran all the way up to entire M113 armored personnel carrier bodies.

While these gun trucks look like Mad Max props, they were a magnitude of times better armed. While M60 machine guns and M2 “Ma Deuce’s” were popular, WWII quad .50 Maxson M45 mounts known as meat choppers, were used as well.

there was even a Super Bee

But the videos are better than these photos

The only known remaining Vietnam-era gun truck is Eve of Destruction, which was shipped back to the states before the fall of Saigon and is now restored and on display in the Army Transportation Museum at Fort Eustis, Va.

However, the Museum has an online record of more than 90 of these trucks at their website

"In the fall of 1967, the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) decided to sever the lines of communication along Route 19 to the combat units at An Khe and Pleiku. Route 19—unknown to many U.S. drivers—had a fateful past. Thirteen years earlier, during the French Indochina War, the Viet Minh completely destroyed an entire brigade-size French element along the same route. The U.S. forces were overly dependent on trucks for fuel and supplies, and the enemy commanders knew that.

On 2 September 1967, a convoy of almost 40 vehicles from the 8th Transportation Group was returning from Pleiku. By the time it reached An Khe Pass, the convoy was split because of mechanical problems with a fuel tanker. It was almost dark when the lead gun jeep was ambushed. Simultaneously, the rear half of the convoy was attacked and the rumbling fuel tanker began to burn. Many of the Soldiers were unprepared and were caught by surprise. Before this ambush, enemy attacks on U.S. convoys had been minimal and limited to sniper-like attacks. This was the first major ambush of an American convoy, and it changed the nature of logistics operations for the rest of the war.

The kill zone was almost 1/2-mile long. Many of the Soldiers were not trained to react to ambushes, and they depleted what little ammunition they had. In less than 10 minutes, the enemy company had damaged or destroyed all but seven vehicles and killed seven Americans. The ambush was merely a rehearsal for future attacks that would be launched to shut down supply lines of communication before the Tet Offensive of 1968, which was only 5 months away."

and the best video is a 50 minute tv show from the Smithsonian, and it's not on youtube or Vimeo, so I can't get a copy to embed. It's worth it to click through and watch it, they've cleaned up the home movie camera videos a LOT  https://www.sho.com/pr/smithsonian/sp/title/gun-trucks-of-vietnam?c=7l1c2p4u2a6u3l2i7v4o7r18290d5i2u

How good is the video? R Miller says:
Thank You so much for finding, posting, and bringing to light that Smithsonian video. Few things have touched and moved me as much as watching it the last hour this morning.




We could really use a cool ensemble cast comedy, you know? When's the last time anyone made a MASH type tv show?

Or, Band Of Brothers larger scale serial tv show? Sheeez, imagine someone making a Baa Baa Black Sheep type period piece show, of the gun truck convoy escorts, with enough of a core cast of actors, plus plenty of guest spots for chopper pilots, nurses, medics, etc... but your couple of main stars would be the driver, and the gunner on a couple trucks. Like Fury, that tank movie with Brad Pitt

But if they delay another 10 years there won't be any guys around to give 1st hand accounts of the real shit, and keep the show somewhat accurate


https://www.guns.com/news/2015/07/31/when-the-army-went-mad-max-vietnam-gun-trucks-16-photos
https://www.sho.com/pr/smithsonian/sp/title/gun-trucks-of-vietnam?c=7l1c2p4u2a6u3l2i7v4o7r18290d5i2u
https://www.flickr.com/photos/peerintothepast/31050581422/
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/zippo132/tags/guntruck/
http://225observer.blogspot.com/2011/03/quad-50s-in-vietnam.html
http://garbee.net/~cabell/photosguntrucks.htm
https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/Improvised_Gun_Trucks__Vietnam_VS_Iraq_Wars/5-1788389/&page=2
http://www.vietnam-guntrucks.com