Buddy of mine took these pictures of "The Outlaw" and "The Big Kahuna" while he was in country. He is looking for more pictures in boxes at his house so I can post them here for reference material.

Shaun

http://groups.msn.com/VietnamGuntrucks Pics and stuff all over Just have him Join the group.

Matt,

He doesn't have a computer...

Shaun

Get "The Hard Ride" by James Lyles. it has some pics fo Most in it.. Part II is available in a few weeks.

Shaun copy some of the photos from my gallery. I have just about all the trucks listed in there. i am sure he will remember a few of them. I have a couple more of the Kahuna and some of the out law as it was with the APC on the back and of the out law II with the open box armor after the APC truck was destroyed.

Matt,

I'm sorry. I just reread my post. My buddy Steve is looking for more pictures for me to post to the site as reference material in his boxes of pictures at his house.

Sorry for the confusion.
Edited my post,

Shaun

:-) :-) No problem..... It's still a Usefull thread!!!!!

Look in my gallery. I have a lot of the trucks posted there.

The "Big Kahuna" was all black. It had the yellow nose of the 8th Trans Group Here is the link to more APC trucks. By the way the APC truck Out law was destroyed in an accident and the name and crew went on a conventional 5 ton gun box as the Outlaw 2.Here are a lot more photos of gun trucks http://photos.kitmaker.net/showgallery.php/cat/12306
http://photos.kitmaker.net/showgallery.php/cat/13870 The markings on the front bumper are when a lot of the trucks were being combined ans we began are draw down. The QNSC was I believe the Quartermasters Corp of the 27th Trans Bat.

1) Main ACAV Shield: one photo of truck with QNSC * 512T 227 bumper codes. A different photo of truck with bumper codes: 8 GP 27T * 2T 82 (1971) TRK REG# not discernable.

2) Okinawa-style ACAV Shield: one photo of "COWBOY" = 8 GP 27T * 58T 501 TRK REG# 5E0245. Another photo of Kahuna's M113 Shell on a truck photographed as a part of 2nd TC with Okinawa-style Shield, but without any logo/nickname.

3) Full-ACAV Turret Kit and M60's mounted on each flank: QNSC 27T * 512T 82 (the 512T and TK# 82 partially obscured by opened M113 rear door). TRK REG# not discernable in photo and three white stars on each rear mud flap.

This is what I have...

Gunnie

Way to come to the rescue Jim. Those are the two units the truck was assigned to. These trucks were constantly being upgraded as the crews could scrounge up the materials. There was no depot as they have today to build these trucks. All our trucks were field mods at best.The truck was originally in the 2nd Trans and later as with most of the trucks they were consolidated to the QNSC 512th. Shortly after this they were dismantled and equipment sent stateside. The only surviving truck from Nam is the Eve of Destruction which is on germinate display at the Transportation Museum at Ft. Eustis Va.

Depended on the painter and how fast they needed the truck. Most were left in the green. I do know that a lot of the drivers (drivers were responsible for the upkeep of the truck) would try to paint the interior of the cab as they had the time. So if you build a model of any truck you will be correct with either green or black interior. Some trucks were OD green and the armor plating installed would be black. A few were painted OD green which looked like a very dark green because we had a habit of rubbing the paint with old motor oil or diesel fuel to make them shine. It would darken the paint. The big Kahuna was a standard armor box GT with a tall canvas top at first and when the unit was able to get a destroyed APC shell that was in good condition they converted it to the way the photos show it.

I am the Historian for the National Dusters, Quads and Searchlight Association and we cover all the air defense artillery units that served in Vietnam.

I trained on the M-42A1 Duster AW SP "twin-40mm" tracked vehicle and the M-55 quad 50 machine gun mount. I served with B Btry, 4th Bn 60th Arty (Dusters) in Pleiku in 1971 and closed out these types of units in late 1971.

The ADA units in Vietnam include the four quad-.50 batteries that were specifically created to serve in Vietnam. These were initially 2.5-ton movers with the M-55 trailer mounted quad 50 gun carriage bolted to the truck bed and later changed to the 5-ton mover.

They served multiple tasks during their roughly 5 years of service including: anti aircraft coverage for ground troops (very rare/never); firebase perimeter defense (daily); strong point security (daily) and of course convoy escort and security (routinely).

In their role as convoy escort and protection they would typically fall under the category of Vietnam Era Guntruck. These Quad 50 batteries were specifically designed, trained and manned for this task by dedicated officers and enlisted men of which 32 died in service.

In order to assist modelers and other historians in preserving the imagery and memory of these men, I will try to be available to respond to technical and historical questions about these units.

ADA "First to Fire" and our motto continues with "Last to Leave"

Respectfully
Paul Kopsick
DQS Historian

I may not get to this site very often, feel free to contact me at:

[[email protected]]

For those looking for something "different" to model, consider the Mutt 151A1 with a Xenon searchligh mount.

For the really adventurous ask me about "The Leprechaun"

Thanks for the info Paul and Welcome home Bro. Here is a working link to pauls site.

http://www.ndqsa.com/

a question from the un-initiated (that's me)...

why did they have an M113 shell on top of the guntruck? as opposed to just using an M113 or a normal armored guntruck?
was it because the tracked suspension was troublesome in that terrain?

The guntrucks were assigned to the transportation companies. They were not authorized M113s. They made the guntrucks from mainly spare/scrap parts. The M113 hull was used for its descent small arms protection. They were also damaged M113s that were being scrapped. It was also due to speed. Standard M113s couldn't really keep up with the trucks on the roads.