545th TC 8th Gp

[Ralph Fuller]

545th Transportation Company, 8th Group, Vietnam 1970s. Notice the tires, star placement, and of course no heater.

[WC Matt]

Also notice the side view mirrors (two of them & retangular at that).

Ralph
I thought that the 8th used a yellow identifier band across the front of the engine hood? That A1 seems to be missing it.
Matt

[Ralph Fuller]

Matt: You are correct about the yellow noses.
In 1969 battalion and group commanders either rode along in the convoys or flew overhead in helicopters to observe convoy discipline and monitor radio traffic. But the vast amount of traffic, both civilian and military, made it difficult for commanders to recognize their trucks on the road. At first, 8th Group had the lead and trail vehicles mount panel markers on their vehicles.
Colonel Alexander Langston ordered a yellow stripe be painted on the hood or nose of each 8th Group truck so that his boss, the Qui Nhon Support Commander, could tell the difference in the convoys from the air.

[toptiger]

The bumper number '-6' usually refers to the unit commander, the Six, so perhaps this jeep was the CO's and was not leading or following the convoy?

I flew lots of those convoy cover missions with my gunship fireteams.

I saw the horror of a VC attack, east of Nui Ba Dinh I think on the road to Dau Tiang, July August or Sept 1968- wish I could get the date closer but I just do not remember.
The text book attack the decimated the convoy in just a few minutes. Lead truck, last truck , then the middle on out.

[Ralph Fuller]

Top Tiger: This one is for you

[toptiger]

Big combo mission, there, it looks like. The unit with the bird on the nose was the 118th Assault Helicopter Company, a sister unit in our battalion, based at Bien Hoa.
That is a lot of aircraft from one unit. I counted about 14. The most slicks we would use from our unit was 10. Must have been a biggie and they had to pull out the hangar queens. Plus bring in another 14 from another unit.

[rickf]

A LOT of rotating blades to watch out for there, in the air and on the ground. Aren't they fuel bladders on the ground? looks like it is marked JP-? Probably JP-4 for the choppers.

Rick

[toptiger]

They are fuel bladders, probably brought into the staging area by CH-47 chinooks.

[rickf]

Look in the background, you can see them refueling. Didn't notice that before.

Rick

[toptiger]

Also you can see a few pilots with stateside white helmets- that must have been around 1967 or early 1968 or so as it was quickly determined that white helmets act like a bullseye. Duhhhhhn.
Also hard to see but the crews do not seem to be wearing Nomex two-piece flight suits, just newly issued jungle fatigues with rolled up sleeves.
By June 1968 no one used the white helmets and most of us had and wore Nomex by the end of 68.

[toptiger]

I have just has a series of interesting exchanges with WC Matt. here are the condensed versions- stay tuned
>>>>
Toptiger’s first post on the 545th TC 8th Gp thread on theG838,
I flew lots of those convoy cover missions with my gunship fireteams.
I saw the horror of a VC attack, east of Nui Ba Dinh I think on the road to Dau Tiang, July August or Sept 1968- wish I could get the date closer but I just do not remember.
The text book attack the decimated the convoy in just a few minutes. Lead truck, last truck , then the middle on out.
>>>>>
Post on the g741 website to from Wayne64 to Matt
Matt, Followed your link and I was shocked. It seems the action that was mentioned by Toptiger was no doubt when I was wounded twice in 5 hours. I tried to register to explain the action and that was part of the reason our unit got the PUC. Maybe send a message to Toptiger as he might want to hear the whole story including that they were NVA not VC and we also killed a good number of Chinese advisor's.
>>>>>
PM from Matt to Toptiger
Here is a link to a fellow poster on the Dodge site I frequent. He was on the ground during that attack, was wounded. http://g741.org/PHPBB/viewtopic.php?f=2 ... 206#p32206 He tried to register over on here and contact you about it.
Matt
>>>>>
PM From Toptiger to Matt
Dam, interesting that, Matt.
I tried to reply on that site to him but am now caught up in the registering process so it might take a while.
Meanwhile please post this to him.
I recall taking to someone on the ground during that attack. My call sign was Mustang 6 and I lead a fireteam of 2 Huey Gunships over head. Wonder if that was him on the radio. He is lucky to have lived thru it. It was a precision ambush, and deadly. I often thought it was way too well organized to have been pulled off by the black PJ boys, so that NVA/Chinese advisor comment makes sense. I would love to hear those details.
You can give him my email.
>>>>>>>>
Stay tuned

[WC Matt]

Also you can see a few pilots with stateside white helmets- that must have been around 1967 or early 1968 or so as it was quickly determined that white helmets act like a bullseye. Duhhhhhn.
Also hard to see but the crews do not seem to be wearing Nomex two-piece flight suits, just newly issued jungle fatigues with rolled up sleeves.
By June 1968 no one used the white helmets and most of us had and wore Nomex by the end of 68.

I remember seeing a color photo of some Infantry debussing from a UH-1 and the door gunner was wearing a gloss black flight helmet. Was always curious about that.
Matt

[toptiger]

WC Matt, It took a few days to get someone at the M37 site to approve me so when I went to the site just now to answer the post using the above link, I was told it no longer exists.? WTF, over.
Anyway, I finally found the post and a way to log in and will make contact.
I would love to know what happened on the ground. I have aerial photos of that ambush, probably shows his vehicle, haven't seen them for years though.

[WC Matt]

Good to know Top. Funny this all started because someone over on the M37 site posted a question about MVs sporting "stret" tires over in RVN. I replied by posting a link to this thread because of Ralph's pic at the top of this thread. Reminds me when I get some extra cash up I want to buy another (couple of?) set of rims so I can mount something other then NDTs on them for my A2.
Matt

[rickf]

Rims are cheap, tires are freakin expensive! The problem is that the correct size is the same as pickups from late 70's up to around 2006. Supply and demand.

T