Here's a picture of my friend Charlie McKellick from Levittown Pa. after he cut off the end of his thumb while we were mounting a new run flat tire on "Woodstock". That's Paul Mueller from Morton Grove Ill. and Charles "Chic" Daniel from Torrance Ca. (now retired LAPD Detective), I can't remember the Sgt. name- making fun of him.
We had the good fortune to have the Phu Bai airport right behind our MP compound and when we needed tires/parts/motors, we could "intercept" shipments at night before they headed to their rightful owners up north of us (sorry about that Quan Tre V-100s). We were stupid enough to dismount/mount those run flat tires ourselves without an inflation cage. Four or five of us would take off the old one with pry bars and then put the new one on. That's where Charlie lost the thumb when we dropped the new one on the rim with his thumb still on the bead. We would attach a long airhose on it and run behind the sandbags while it inflated waiting for the explosion. None of them ever did, but looking back, studipity can be painful.
Another note on the run flats- the V could do about 65-70 MPH, but... when you had them loaded down like we did, huge amounts of 50 & 60 ammo, m79 grenades w/launchers, LAWS, hand gernades, tools, C-rations, radios, and a bunch of other junk we probably didn't need,- those tires were like huge coil springs. Once it got to bouncing at that speed it was like a bucking bronco for a very eye opening experience. Kids don't try that at home.
Jeff