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Pictures from VietNam, 1968.

beaubeau

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Hey CBVET, I was reading one of your older forums where U mentioned the Army Junk yard in Danang. I spent many hours there Scrounging parts for our Motor Pool. I was thinking about how we had to Scroung for parts to keep our equipment going and today we are buying better Trucks than we had to run in V.N. I remember finding a Helmet from either a tank or from some kind of Plane, anyway, It had speakers in the helmet so I managed to wire my Portable Radio through it and I could hear the radio while wearing a helmet driving a M51 Dump. Many years ago!!Looking forward to meeting U someday! Phil
 

73m819

Rock = older than dirt , GA. MAFIA , Dirty
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my old m52 gasser was in better shape then some of the stuff we ran in v.n.
 

cbvet

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Phil (Beaubeau),
Was that an Army junkyard in DaNang in'68? I thought it was a Marine yard, but I'm not sure.
We scrounged a lot of stuff out of that place. I seem to recall Onan light-plant engines were a favorite for go kart builders. When the generator portion would fail, they'd get junked. We got the engines.
Yes, we built go karts in VietNam.
A buddy SeaBee's kart won the DaNang 500.
For you that weren't there, let me explain.
War was rarely a 24 hours a day thing back in the bigger base camps. At night we'd get mortared & rocketed on a regular basis, but the days were often "peaceful".
Because of American air power, planes & helicopters, we weren't usually attacked during the day. Our guys would have clobbered them.
So during the day when we weren't working at our trades, we did typical teenage/early 20's guy stuff.
Volleyball, baseball, basketball, boxing, & horseshoes were popular.
Mechanics built go karts. Just like we would have been doing at home.
We had finished building ASP 2 (ammo dump), with nice paved roads, but the Marines hadn't stocked it yet. So we had a great private test track! Lots of fun.
Maybe I can find some go kart pictures.
Eric
CBVET
 

beaubeau

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Danang Junkyard1968///// Recycle yard!!2000!!

I am almost sure it was Army!Hell, I goy PTSDLMNOPUPFUNNY and all of thr obove!!! CRS is Bad!! we did the same, but we built Dradsters!! I think we used Mity Mite Engines.But i think we eventually went to the engines from M151 Jeeps??? They were hauling little B!!
I was with 7th Engs. which was basicly across from SEA BEES at China Beach. We were not Far from DOG PATCH!!??!! I had a Bridge Crane on a low bed driving down Rt 1 Dagpatch one day and all these Little Gooks chased me on Mopeds and giving me the bird!! Then I looks behind me and I had a Whole bunch of Wire dragging behind me! It was that the Boom on the Crane was Too High and I was pulling down Power lines on Rt 1~~ I was never Reprimanded, so I guess It was not my Fault!!
It's amasing how I cannot talk to any one about what happened in V.N. unless it is a Vet. I guess some of the shit is too Greusome. Too Unbeleivable, " like one day I got a Low bed of Beer from The AirWing and I ended up with 2 pallets extra!!! What a Party!!, or how about the Crazy things Like Go Carts, Dragsters, Trading Fuel oil to Mamason for Babyson!!, or driving a semi 25 miles at night to get a good Meal at Camp Tiensha!! Long time ago, and some of the Best times, and Worst times of my life was there'!! I loved working with the Engs. and I made it a point to learn to run as much of the equipment they had! To this day the Hardest thing was running a Cable Shovel!! Got to keep your Head and ass wired together to run those!!I later learned to fly Helis and that was Easy, compaired to a Shovel!! Well I got to go clear snow with my tracter for my Neighbor. Later, Phil :driver: :lol: :lol:
 

AJMBLAZER

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RE: Danang Junkyard1968///// Recycle yard!!2000!!

Great pics, can't beleive I missed these before.

Took "History of the Vietnam War" a few years ago at the local college and REALLY enjoyed it and the "non-movie/TV" reality it offered. Thanks guys.
 

Lifer

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Re: RE: Danang Junkyard1968///// Recycle yard!!2000!!

AJMBLAZER said:
Great pics, can't beleive I missed these before.

Took "History of the Vietnam War" a few years ago at the local college and REALLY enjoyed it and the "non-movie/TV" reality it offered. Thanks guys.
I had to take "History of the Viet Nam War" in college, too. I'm a 'Nam vet. My professor was a draft-dodger who took refuge in Canada for the duration of the war. Dare I suggest that we had some diametrically opposed views on the subject matter? I got thrown out of class one day because our discussion got a little heated. I still haven't figured out how I pulled an "A" in that class!
 

AJMBLAZER

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RE: Re: RE: Danang Junkyard1968///// Recycle yard!!2000!!

Mine was a former Colonel in the Army who started out in the Marines in the immediate post-Vietnam era. Very good class and very informative. Vietnam was a tragedy for ever happening but hippies, Johnson, McNamara, and the rest are still morons.
 

ARMYMAN30YearsPlus

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RE: M756A1

The policy on Stay Behind Equipment was this:
No vehicle with armor applied would leave the theather.

Since many of the Guard units that came over to the war with dueces and five tons they scrambled to armor them because of the threat to travel off of the FOB. In the early stages of rotation units brought them back and now some of them are in fellow Steel Soldiers hands. DA put a stop to shipping deuces back around the 2005 time frame and we send hundreds to Kuwait where they were cut up for scrap. The rest of them are either stay on the FOB trucks or are being sold to the Iraqi Army.

The National Guard is out many vehicles because of the the SBE policy and right now the Army is scrambling to get back to a fraction of where we were before President Clinton cut the Army end strength by over 500,000 Soldiers. A big issue for us is keeping our readiness up and with so many of our fleet vehicles deployed it is a major concern at the top Army leadership levels.

Thanks for all these great pictures and we are priviledged to have you all on our forum.
 
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