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Here's Bennie (on the right) with some other of the NCO's of the 8th
APS MOB
at the NCO barracks - Bldg. 756
(is that "Big Ski"
next to Bennie?)
Note the
sand-filled 'armor' defensive wall units in front of the door and along
the walls of the building. These were handy to hold beer cans and
cigarette butts
- and also served to keep incoming mortar or rocket blasts from
entering the barracks...
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Bennie Drake & ? going on a mission?
Bennie's wearing his web belt. Is that his first
aid kit or his revolver on the left?
Looks like the cargo hold of a C-130 note tie-down straps and chain
attached to the floor.
looks like our team box and cooler strapped to the forks of an AT...
and an AT chained to the floor.
Is this a view from the outside, looking in to the back of a C-130?
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Loc Ninh Airfield, RVN. Runway to the right. Ammunition, fuel and tires
strapped to cargo pallets, dropped where convenient - on the edge of
the runway.
Note kids on rubber fuel bladders, commonly shipped in pairs and
referred to as "elephant balls"
US Army APC - Armored Personnel Carrier and barrels of diesel fuel in
the background.
Tires appear to be replacement for C-130 landing gear
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Special Forces Pet Monkey on 10K Adverse Terrain Forklift tire
Loc Ninh?
Note the mud on the tires. Imagine how deep it was to drive through...
Note also that the treads point in different
directions - for best traction moving forward or back with 4-wheel
drive..
The AT would buck like a horse at
times - 36,000 pounds of power. But it would (almost) always get
through.
If it got stuck, we had creative ways to move it.
We could either tilt the forks forward to raise the front wheels and
crab-walk out of a hole, or have a heavy (over 10,000 pound) truck
drive onto the forks. Then, when you tried to raise the forks, the
rear-end would come off the ground instead. Since the AT is
"articulated" (bends in the middle), you could swing your back around
to reach dry ground.
Quite a machine, the 10K AT... |
That mud also stuck to the bottom of your
boots... which made them quite heavy...
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