I've seen M35's with gun mounts on top of the cabin.

My question is : how do you access the gun ? Are these only on soft-top cabins or are there hard-tops with a lid ? How do soft tops open ? Does that mean you have to drive with the top open ?
Are these mounts for .50 or other machine gun types also ?
Can you operate the gun while driving or only when it is parked ?

Would a gun mount be possible on a fuel truck or is this an unlikely combination ?

I'm sure I can count on your experience here !

All the ones I ever drove were soft tops but alas no gun mounts all for the threadheads and grunts and gun bunnies . Anybody from vietnam era should have the poop on this truck.

Yes, by MTOE (Modified Table of Organization and Equipment) some deuces have the the .50 cal mount.


roll back the soft top.

All deuces are soft tops, the hard top is an optional kit. You would not order and install a hard top on a deuce that is authorized a .50 cal mount.

Un-hook the cover from the front of the windshield, roll back the roof portion and there are straps at the back of the cover that will secure the top in the open position. Either that or you can remove the top completely. If the tactical situation requires it, yes you would have the roof open and the TC would be in the ring mount pulling "air guard". My supply sergeant used to ride up there all the time.

No, just for a .50 cal, but I imagine that the pintle used to put an M-60 or SAW on a M1025/1026 would fit in the hole.

Semi-humorous story here: to make some of our tank gunnery rotations more fun to the cooks, supply sergeants, mechanics and other APC users, we set up the machine gun range (Tank Table V for you fellow tankers) for the combat support and combat service support soldiers to get familiarized with firing the weapons while mounted and "moving" (they actually slowed to a short halt along a circular course).
We had a category for Trucks (2½ and 5-Ton) with ring mounts, APCs (M113A2, M901, M106A2, M981) and a final category for the M88A1s.
We started by trying to let them shoot on the move, but the first truck crew down range was a couple of cooks from the mess section. They sent .50 cal rounds everywhere but into the impact area. After that, we went to the short halt mode for the engagements.
The soldiers had a lot of fun and some good training on how to fire the weapon while it is mounted on the vehicle. When these soldiers qualify on their machine guns, it was always from a ground mounted tripod. These guys got moving targets to shoot at and multiple troop targets since they fired on a tank range for the first time.

Possible, but unlikely. Fuelers' priority is to get out of the line of fire and not explode. To be honest, I don't believe I ever saw a fueler deuce. We normally used HEMTTs and, on occasion, a 5-Ton TPU.

SABOT is correct. Unlike the Europeans that build hard tops with hatches, US 2-1/2 & 5-ton trucks have a soft top for their trucks mounting the ring mount. I have not seen anything but an M2HB .50 cal mounted as other weapons were not available.

When I was a scout platoon leader, my platoon was tasked to run a range for all the .50 cal crews in the battalion. My scouts ran a scout crew qual course similiar to what the tank crews ran, however for the mortars, support platoon, mechanics, etc, we ran only a stationary range. We ground mounted several guns, plus had M113s, M106s, trucks and M88s on line and let the crews fire at troop and soft-skin targets. The tripod mount was a BEAR!!!! The ground was rock hard and we required a bunch of sand bags to hold down the tripods. The tank crews stayed well away from that range #:-)

Whoa ! That must be as complete an answer as I ever got to a question ! Thanks for helping me on this one. I'll leave the fuel truck without the gun mount, then... Thanks !