Sgt C
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Did Marines in Vietnam ever convert any 2.5 or 5 ton trucks into gun trucks? All I ever see pictures of are Army gun trucks.
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U.S.M.C gun trucks?
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Yes, according to James Lyles books, the Marine Corps had war wagons, as they called them. If you can find copies of his books, you should find lots of general gun truck information. The Army, Air Force and Marine Corps all had gun trucks. The Navy had battleships.
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Pretty amazing that a search brings up nothing about the USMC and War Wagons. No pictures that don't have US Army on anything I hunted down... I did find the books by Jame Lyles.
- The Hard Ride, Vietnam Gun Trucks, James Lyles, Planet Art, 2002, ISBN 971-93037-1-9
- The Hard Ride, Vietnam Gun Trucks; Part Two, James Lyles, 2011
- Gun Trucks In Vietnam, Have Guns - Will Travel, James Lyles, Rhame (Random?) House Publishers, 2012
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The Navy inadvertently left a 20mm machine gun unguarded. It ended up on an Army gun truck. There’s pictures of quad .50’s on 2.5 and 5 ton trucks. The quads were leftovers from World War 2 and the Korean War. If I could find the parts and pieces, I’d build a quad .50 truck. Imagine driving that in a parade!
Sgt C
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Gentlemen, thanks for the info. I'm contemplating turning my deuce into a representation of an early gun truck (now War Wagon) but I will not change my USMC markings to Army. A friend of mine has a USMC HMMWV that is decked out with all the military bling you can think of...smoke, boomerang antenna, .50 w/turret, minigun out a side window, etc. When we go to shows together his gets more attention. Obviously, more guns = more attention. My wife got jealous of all the attention his MV was getting and told me our deuce needs a gun. I told her to be careful what she wishes for. I put an M66 gun ring and .50 on it last winter and it definitely increased the crowd draw, but now I want to keep going and add two more .50's on pedestal mounts in the bed. I just don't want to deviate too much from historical accuracy.
Sgt C
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Just ordered all three books. Thanks for the lead!
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There’s at least one picture, maybe two, in the book that shows the Marine gun truck. As I recall, all Marine Corps gun trucks were called “war wagons”. If they also had more personalized names, I don’t recall seeing any.
My gun truck “War Wagon” is modeled on the 359th TC gun truck by the same name. I upgraded it as I believe that was what would have been done by crews who drove the original. I go to a few local parades and to the nearby Air Force Base open house every year. If you have the chance, my build pictures may be on this section.
Sgt C
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I'll see if I can find pics of it
Sgt C
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This is mine as it sits now. Obviously a work in progress.
m715mike
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There was a Deuce in Houston with a quad .50. I’d see it in downtown each year for the Veteran’s Day parade.
Note… this picture was taken from 18 stories above the parade.
SgtMajHarper
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This just reminded me of an ad I saw recently from a guy selling a quad .50 mount, I believe his asking price was @ 35 g's for the mount, add 20 g's more if you wanted the replica .50's........yikes !!
Sgt C
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No way I'm spending that kind of cash for a display prop!
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That deuce belongs to Robert, a member of our group, LoneStar MVPA, who lives up Houston way. The quad mount, unfortunately, belongs to another guy, who has recently decided he wants to sell it, and not cheaply.
I was surprised that I managed to not only get into that quad mount at one show we did, but managed to get back out again! They were not designed for 6' 210 guys with grey hair, however my son slithered in and out of the thing like a lizard.
Cheers
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Beautiful truck! The hardest part of building a Marine Corps gun truck you already have, the ring mount. The gun box sat a couple feet aft of the cargo bed forward bulkhead. There was an antenna and a weapons mount sticking up out of the bed. I need to find my books to jog the old brain housing group.
There’s also a couple other books with info. The first was written by David Doyle and the second… hmm, got to find it again. Regardless, you’ve got a real winner!
Sgt C
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Thanks. I'm 4 years into it now. I'll be welding on the toothpicks over the winter and fabricating 2 pedestal mounts for the bed. I can't believe how scarce replica guns are right now. I have the David Doyle book but not a single USMC truck in it. I know the deuces didn't last long as gun trucks but I'm not going to look for a 5-ton. I have limited space on my property and there is just something about a deuce...
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I need to dig around in my dungeon, I mean basement, for all the books I’ve got on the subject. The one book I don’t have is the Marine Corps manual on converting vehicles into improvised gun trucks.
Sgt C
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If you find it, let me know!
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Braving Vietnam’s Roads
John Teasdale reports on the dangers the US Marines faced when...
www.keymilitary.com
Sgt C
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Unfortunately it requires a paid subscription to read the article beyond the 1st paragragh.Some shots of trucks on convoys.
Braving Vietnam’s Roads
John Teasdale reports on the dangers the US Marines faced when...
SgtMajHarper
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If you find that manual, I'd like to see it also. I don't think there is one. We had gun trucks in Iraq and other than as issued any others were made on site usually as per whatever you could scrounge. In the early days of the ground war, we still had soft doors and tops on Hummers, as time went on our version of armor was what we called "hillbilly armor", stuff cut off of Iraqi vehicles, sometimes off our own vehicles, other times just "stuff" bolted or welded on a lot like some Vietnam trucks looked like. A later trip back over had for real up armored Hummers, armored kits made for the big trucks, "hillbilly armor" was no more.