Engine for M109 & M108 too?
Joined: October 03, 2007
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Posted: Thursday, March 25, 2010 - 05:33 PM UTC
Quoted Text
Gary,
I've got a couple of Nolans books here & wasn't too impressed by them. I've got the "Battle of Saigon", "Battle of Hue" & "Into Cambodia". I was going to get "Into Laos" but after what you've said I dont think I'll bother now!
"Hundred Miles of Bad Road", "No Greater Love" & "We Were Soldiers Once..." are now on my wish list!
I do hate it when these so-called "historians" take the truth & twist it so that it fits their interpretation of things. It's a real pity.
Joe.
Nolan would have had a clue about a vacation into Cambodia or Laos! Just an opinion that don't mean a!@#$ thing! I tell people they should at least read "The Long Grey Line" if nothing else. The 13th Valley is fiction, but so real it will give you nightmares. Chickenhawk is another great read. One of my alltime favorite air war books is Thud Ridge (I rate it right up there with Jonnie Johnson's "Wing Leader.")
gary
United Kingdom
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Posted: Friday, March 26, 2010 - 10:00 PM UTC
Gary,
I read Chickenkawk about 20 years ago now. The other books you mentioned have been placed on my Amazon wish list & I'll get these over the next few months.
Joe.
"Never get out of the boat. Absolutely goddamn right...unless you are going all the way".
On the bench:
Tamiya SAS Green Hornet Land Rover
Western Australia, Australia
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Posted: Friday, March 26, 2010 - 10:35 PM UTC
dont mean nothing , drive on
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Posted: Saturday, March 27, 2010 - 02:55 AM UTC
Hi Brian,
How goes it down under?
Chickenhawk is a great book, dont you think?
In fact, I might well read it again as it was over 20 years ago that I last read it!
I'll get back to that email you sent very soon.
All the very best to you, mate.
Joe.
"Never get out of the boat. Absolutely goddamn right...unless you are going all the way".
On the bench:
Tamiya SAS Green Hornet Land Rover
United Kingdom
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Posted: Saturday, March 27, 2010 - 03:52 AM UTC
Okay fellas,
I think we discussed before about lighting around the gun emplacement.
But did you have electric lighting rigged up inside your bunkers?
Or did you still rely on your red lens angle head flashlights?
Joe.
"Never get out of the boat. Absolutely goddamn right...unless you are going all the way".
On the bench:
Tamiya SAS Green Hornet Land Rover
England - South East, United Kingdom
Joined: June 19, 2007
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Posted: Saturday, March 27, 2010 - 04:05 AM UTC
Joe,
I would definitely recommend reading Chickhawk again, it was the first book I read on the Vietnam War back in 1988 and I think I've read it 4 times now and never get bored of it.
Since then I have read probably over 200 books on the Vietnam War (sadly that's not an exaggeration!).
If you like books on the helicopter pilots view of the Vietnam War I would recommend
Low Level Hell: a Scout Pilot in the Big Red One by Hugh L. Mills
Snake Pilot: Flying the Cobra Attack Helicopter in Vietnam by Randy R. Zahn
If you like the aircraft pilots view then I would recommend the following
The Rescue of Streetcar 304: A Navy Pilot's Forty Hours on the Run in Laos by Kenny Wayne Fields
Here There Are Tigers: The Secret Air War in Laos and North Vietnam, 1968-69 by Reginald Hathorn
Cheating Death: Combat Air Rescues in Vietnam and Laos by George J. Marrett
Flying Black Ponies: The Navy's Close Air Support Squadron in Vietnam by Kit Lavell
A few others that spring to mind are
Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills by Charles Henderson
Fields of Fire by James H. Webb
And for the Australian view point
The Battle of Long Tan by Lex McAulay
Or any of the other books by Lex McAulay
Gary or the others sharing their knowledge in this thread might have a better idea if these books are worth reading, I have listed them as I found them all to be the kind of book you don't want to put down.
Cheers
David
'And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind.'
Maj. Michael Davis O'Donnell. Dak To, Vietnam 1970.
Reported M.I.A March 24th 1970.
United Kingdom
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Posted: Saturday, March 27, 2010 - 04:32 AM UTC
Hi David,
Thanks for the pointers on the books. Like you, I've probably read about 200 books on Vietnam & some books you have listed I already own although haven't read yet!
The others, I will look out for.
Thanks, mate.
Joe.
"Never get out of the boat. Absolutely goddamn right...unless you are going all the way".
On the bench:
Tamiya SAS Green Hornet Land Rover
Joined: October 03, 2007
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Posted: Saturday, March 27, 2010 - 05:50 AM UTC
I road with those guys a couple times when we did some OP's with the 101st. Masters at their trade!
gary
Joined: October 03, 2007
KitMaker: 1,388 posts
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Posted: Saturday, March 27, 2010 - 06:03 AM UTC
Quoted Text
Okay fellas,
I think we discussed before about lighting around the gun emplacement.
But did you have electric lighting rigged up inside your bunkers?
Or did you still rely on your red lens angle head flashlights?
Joe.
Yeah we used plain jane 60 watt lightbulbs. No plug in recepticals unless you were located in the rear. Be sure to put at least on white bag powder canister sticking up from the ground (about three or four inches). That's was the place for taking a leak (there was always one near every bunker). If you were in a place that had no electricity then you used candels (we did that number often). You put the candle in the bottom of a coffee can (the ones from the mess hall are painted O.D. green). We even had one rigged up that used four candels, and would heat coffee over it. C4 burnt too hot for being in the bottom of a coffee can.
gary
Joined: October 03, 2007
KitMaker: 1,388 posts
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Posted: Saturday, March 27, 2010 - 06:38 AM UTC
Quoted Text
Joe,
I would definitely recommend reading Chickhawk again, it was the first book I read on the Vietnam War back in 1988 and I think I've read it 4 times now and never get bored of it.
Since then I have read probably over 200 books on the Vietnam War (sadly that's not an exaggeration!).
If you like books on the helicopter pilots view of the Vietnam War I would recommend
Low Level Hell: a Scout Pilot in the Big Red One by Hugh L. Mills
Snake Pilot: Flying the Cobra Attack Helicopter in Vietnam by Randy R. Zahn
If you like the aircraft pilots view then I would recommend the following
The Rescue of Streetcar 304: A Navy Pilot's Forty Hours on the Run in Laos by Kenny Wayne Fields
Here There Are Tigers: The Secret Air War in Laos and North Vietnam, 1968-69 by Reginald Hathorn
Cheating Death: Combat Air Rescues in Vietnam and Laos by George J. Marrett
Flying Black Ponies: The Navy's Close Air Support Squadron in Vietnam by Kit Lavell
A few others that spring to mind are
Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills by Charles Henderson
Fields of Fire by James H. Webb
And for the Australian view point
The Battle of Long Tan by Lex McAulay
Or any of the other books by Lex McAulay
Gary or the others sharing their knowledge in this thread might have a better idea if these books are worth reading, I have listed them as I found them all to be the kind of book you don't want to put down.
Cheers
David
I think I read Snake Pilot once. The Australian books sound interesting, and will hunt them up. You might want to read Sucide Charlie and Diary Of An Airborne Ranger. Trying to get time to read Plaster's SOG book, as I've heard it's pretty interesting. I don't have the books anymore, but there was a platoon leader by the name of Downing or maybe Humphries that did two or three books on daily life in the 198th near the coast and a little south of Chu Lai. Excellent reads, and once again very accurate (we did the same AO for awhile). But in the end I liked Hundred Miles Of Bad Road the best
For all the folks that are Marine buffs, I highly recommend the book Valley Of Decision by Stubbes. This book goes all the way back to the early sixties and right on thru the siege of Khe Sahn (that's what it's really about). Very accurate with no hype in it. (the author was the Chaplin on Khe Sahn) I know for a fact that he got 97% of the stuff right that the other guys ignor on purpose. Ward's book (Letters Home I think) is an excellent read on the life of a Marine Sniper and is not a third hand interpetation like at least one other is. F4 Phantom Over Vietnam is a good read about what it's like flying one, and it's close to home (for me). Not much combat in it, but mostly about what the Phantom was and how to fly the thing
gary
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Posted: Saturday, March 27, 2010 - 07:14 AM UTC
Gary,
I love the idea about the makeshift latrine. This is the kind of thing that's often overlooked in dioramas. So, would it be located inside or outside of the bunker? That might be a bit of a silly question!
I only ask about the lighting situation because I think a bunker dio would look great lit up from the inside!
Just thought I'd let you know, too, that I've bought myself a copy of "A Hundred Miles of Bad Road" from Amazon. Should be here by the middle of next week!
The other books I'll look out for & buy them as & when.
BTW, I've got all 3 SOG books by John L. Plaster. These are "SOG - The Secret Wars of Americas Commandos in Vietnam"; "Secret Commandos - Behind Enemy Lines with the Elite Warriors of SOG"; & " SOG - A Photo History of the Secret Wars". Although, I must say that I haven't read them yet & therefore cant say what they're like.
I'm sure they'll be a good read, though.
Joe.
"Never get out of the boat. Absolutely goddamn right...unless you are going all the way".
On the bench:
Tamiya SAS Green Hornet Land Rover
Joined: October 03, 2007
KitMaker: 1,388 posts
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Posted: Saturday, March 27, 2010 - 09:34 AM UTC
Quoted Text
Gary,
I love the idea about the makeshift latrine. This is the kind of thing that's often overlooked in dioramas. So, would it be located inside or outside of the bunker? That might be a bit of a silly question!
I only ask about the lighting situation because I think a bunker dio would look great lit up from the inside!
Just thought I'd let you know, too, that I've bought myself a copy of "A Hundred Miles of Bad Road" from Amazon. Should be here by the middle of next week!
The other books I'll look out for & buy them as & when.
BTW, I've got all 3 SOG books by John L. Plaster. These are "SOG - The Secret Wars of Americas Commandos in Vietnam"; "Secret Commandos - Behind Enemy Lines with the Elite Warriors of SOG"; & " SOG - A Photo History of the Secret Wars". Although, I must say that I haven't read them yet & therefore cant say what they're like.
I'm sure they'll be a good read, though.
Joe.
well Dwight Birdwell's book will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Talk about a cat with nine lives! Now there was one.
Put the
P@#$ tube outside of the bunker and maybe six or eight feet away (smells bad on a hot day). Always put a canvas cover over the doorway of a bunker! Look at the pictures and you'll see the flash wall in front of the door. The canvas tarp over the roof was stolen by yours truly, and was the bed cover for a 5 ton truck (there are two of them on that bunker). Under the canvas are a few sandbags placed the victims of the great telephone pole incident (first sargent knew about it all along and never said a word till we were done, and then the only thing he said was to leave the new telephone pole alone)
glt
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Posted: Saturday, March 27, 2010 - 03:09 PM UTC
Thanks Gary,
I'm getting a real good picture of how to build a bunker dio now.
How many guys to a bunker?
Would you have shared beds? You know, like in the Navy, when your shift has ended you jump into the pit thats being vacated by the guy who is going on duty.
Or would you all sleep until the shout goes out for a fire mission?
Any other snippets of info you can think of would be really helpful - however trivial.
Joe.
"Never get out of the boat. Absolutely goddamn right...unless you are going all the way".
On the bench:
Tamiya SAS Green Hornet Land Rover
Joined: October 03, 2007
KitMaker: 1,388 posts
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Posted: Saturday, March 27, 2010 - 07:06 PM UTC
Quoted Text
Thanks Gary,
I'm getting a real good picture of how to build a bunker dio now.
How many guys to a bunker?
Would you have shared beds? You know, like in the Navy, when your shift has ended you jump into the pit thats being vacated by the guy who is going on duty.
Or would you all sleep until the shout goes out for a fire mission?
Any other snippets of info you can think of would be really helpful - however trivial.
Joe.
everybody had their own bunk. In the daytime you had your usual chores to do (I took care of all the ammo & powder). Somebody cleaned the breech every morning. In the evening everybody was pretty much up and moving about (remember the nightshift thing). Somebody was shooting at least once an hour if not more than that after dark. There was also somebody with the phone close to them 24/7. If you were the H&I gun they'd back a couple of 5 tons up with powder and rounds in the back of them, and of course all of it has to be opened up, as well as fused. (that alone takes well over and hour). If the crew is small (like ours was at one time) your pretty busy all day and all night long if your the H&I gun. Rarely is there not a night when two or three groups out there are not doing business. And even then on a light night you probably will shoot the same H&I targets several times over. Often the SF guys would shoot up the Hiep Duc Ridge with a 57mm recoiless rifle trying to get a response (movement), and when they did we'd shoot the area up for them (still daylight). They also used a fifty caliber with incendiary rounds to start brush fires to kill store ammo, and then of course we'd follow up. We kept two guns setup to follow the SF teams out and about as they often got into a jam (we knew exactly where and how they were moving). So you had to update everything almost by the hour. Time went by fast
gary
United Kingdom
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Posted: Saturday, March 27, 2010 - 09:27 PM UTC
Never a dull moment, then?
Always busy, always doing something!
So, when the hell did you sleep?!
Joe.
"Never get out of the boat. Absolutely goddamn right...unless you are going all the way".
On the bench:
Tamiya SAS Green Hornet Land Rover
Joined: October 03, 2007
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Posted: Sunday, March 28, 2010 - 07:45 AM UTC
Quoted Text
Never a dull moment, then?
Always busy, always doing something!
So, when the hell did you sleep?!
Joe.
got used to three hours a day
gary
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Posted: Sunday, March 28, 2010 - 08:09 PM UTC
Three hours a day for a whole year?!
Joe.
"Never get out of the boat. Absolutely goddamn right...unless you are going all the way".
On the bench:
Tamiya SAS Green Hornet Land Rover
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Posted: Monday, March 29, 2010 - 04:23 AM UTC
Quoted Text
Three hours a day for a whole year?!
Joe.
we kept track of it for several months, and a good day of sleep was four hours, and on a few nights it was less than two hours. It's hard to go back to sleep after you get a fire mission lasting about thirty or forty minutes once you get keyed up. REMP's got to sleep their standard eight hours, but nay not so for a kid out in the field
gary
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Posted: Monday, March 29, 2010 - 08:52 AM UTC
Well, Gary, I dont know how you did it. You guys must have been like zombies!
The REMF's in the rear with the gear would obviously be nice & cosy in a real bed with cotton sheets & got the same medals as they were serving in a war zone! Ha!
Joe.
"Never get out of the boat. Absolutely goddamn right...unless you are going all the way".
On the bench:
Tamiya SAS Green Hornet Land Rover
Joined: October 03, 2007
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Posted: Monday, March 29, 2010 - 10:07 AM UTC
Quoted Text
Well, Gary, I dont know how you did it. You guys must have been like zombies!
The REMF's in the rear with the gear would obviously be nice & cosy in a real bed with cotton sheets & got the same medals as they were serving in a war zone! Ha!
Joe.
when I first hit country, and stayed in a transit company right on the beach (about 100 feet from the South China Sea) everybody had a mattress and a cot. Then after about three or four days we went over to Cherry Hill and stayed with out batallion in their transit hooches. These also had cots and mattresses, but some guys had air mattresses instead of the normal ones. When I went out to my company on Gator there were still a few mattresses and maybe a couple working air mattresses. When we left that hill, that was the last time I saw a mattress. Used my gas mask for a pillow most of the time, and just lived thru it. The worst part was during the monsoon when after about a week everything you owned was either wet or damp. I hit the place right at the tail end of the monsoon season, and it was a light one at that. We did have a typhoon blow in north of us while I was staying on the beach, but doubt if the winds got above 40 mph where we were. The tide rose a bunch, and was maybe twenty feet from comming inside the hooch. We had another one in the fall of 68, but I was out near the Lao border. Had everything tied down, but there really wasn't much wind. But lots and lots of rain. Funny thing was that I can't remember a single thunder storm or a red sunset all the time I was there. Yet you sure see them in the movies
glt
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Posted: Monday, March 29, 2010 - 12:06 PM UTC
Hey, that's Hollywood for you!
Joe.
"Never get out of the boat. Absolutely goddamn right...unless you are going all the way".
On the bench:
Tamiya SAS Green Hornet Land Rover
Joined: October 03, 2007
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Posted: Monday, March 29, 2010 - 03:03 PM UTC
Quoted Text
Hey, that's Hollywood for you!
Joe.
I finally got into the area where they have all the stuff on display. I can see why it was close it was a huge mud hole!
I was right! The Ontos tracks are not right in either form (there are two styles). One set could be made right with some work, but the other style is much different than the kit. They used a rubber band track that has cleats attached to it. Then there's a piece of rubber that's about six inches long in the middle of each cleat. The other style also has a slug of rubber inside each cleat. One thing I did notice about the way the Ontos sat was that it has a pronounced slant to it, but not as much as Academy, and it for sure dosn't set level
The 8" SPG is a real M110, and not a converted M107. Also noticed that the lock down chain for the loader is made of stainless steel roller chain. Looks like somebody has removed the Pantelscope from it as there's no sign of it now. They have the piece setup in a travel mode with the cradles removed and locked down on the spade (I think that's the first time I've ever seen that done!)
I'm going to send all the pics (about 175) to photoshop and do some editing on them (won't need much), and then crop them. I'll try to have some folders put together early next week (I loath working with Photoshop in case you have not heard)
gary
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Posted: Monday, March 29, 2010 - 08:00 PM UTC
Hey Gary,
No, I hadn't heard that you hate working with photoshop. I've never used it myself & wouldn't know how to anyway!
I'm really glad to hear you've got the photos, Gary. At last,eh!
I really look forward to seeing them, buddy!
Thankyou.
Joe.
"Never get out of the boat. Absolutely goddamn right...unless you are going all the way".
On the bench:
Tamiya SAS Green Hornet Land Rover
Joined: October 03, 2007
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Posted: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - 05:32 AM UTC
Quoted Text
Hey Gary,
No, I hadn't heard that you hate working with photoshop. I've never used it myself & wouldn't know how to anyway!
I'm really glad to hear you've got the photos, Gary. At last,eh!
I really look forward to seeing them, buddy!
Thankyou.
Joe.
I want to get back down south again in a couple days (gotta give the mud a slight chance to dry ) with a taper measure to make a sketch of the cleats on the Ontos tracks, and the correct ride angle. I found myself standing right next to a PT Field with about a hundred guys doing grass drill. Next time I need to tell them to quiet down as they're making me tired ()!!
I'm going back down to FT Knox around the tenth of next month (watch it rain)
gary
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Posted: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - 03:30 PM UTC
Okay Gary,
Anything you can get I'll be mightily grateful.
Watch that rain, though!
Joe.
"Never get out of the boat. Absolutely goddamn right...unless you are going all the way".
On the bench:
Tamiya SAS Green Hornet Land Rover
