I noticed that when I saw it the National WW11 museum and the PT boats landing craft were all built here in New Orleans and there restoring one as I type this its going to be awesome. I am so proud of this museum because it honers my heroes.The National WWII Museum | New Orleans
Here is the building were there restoring the PT Boat

 

Wow what a coincidence I was a TC to, but I liked to drive the thing more than working the top turret, unless there was a 50 to play with. the guys always hated when I drove it at camp I drove it flat out and they all hung on. You could power slide the thing on Gravel roads. I got out when Carter was cutting strength, I was a Guard Recruiter from 76-78 full time. That would be a dangerous job now. Here are some old photo's I think I was driving APC in one of the photo's we were off to a Parade. They didn't want the roads scuffed. The photo's were on a Kodak 110.






I have also some Chinook rides too, this thing most likely contributed to the delinquency of my Hearing Loss. Those things were noisy and you always smelled Jet Fuel, the crew chiefs were constantly wiping down the motor. Now one time I took some High School kids on a Huey and we went to a Camp so they could live fire some fun stuff, on the way back the Huey had the Oil pressure gauge go to zero. It was only a fuse but the Pilot didn't know that he laid it on its side and did a 180 back to the Airport, 2 of the kids used the bags after that. I thought it was kind of fun!! Yep we most likely played with some of the same toys. I don't fit in any of the old stuff, some how it may have schunk????

 

Nice, you had to much fun while you were in too! Your right the 113's with their turbocharged engine could be put into a mean power slide. Sometimes with the rubber track pads they would slide on their own, especially in wintertime Korea on narrow mountain trails, sketchy times...

See yours is still solid OD, by the time I got to them, they were all camo patterns. Had painted on the side of Mine by the driver hatch on the hull "Heartbreakers and Lifetakers"

The CH47 was such a sketchy bird, always heard stories of them burning in, sometimes that's all they had to extract you out, so one was just hoping it was a smooth ride. The UH1 Iroquois Huey was such a good birg, loved every time we used them. 8 men and their gear plus 3 crew members,.

Will write more, my ambien is kicking in, ugh...

 

Here is a little of my military times...


My M113A2 in Korea, we were out on "Team Spirit" Here we are camouflaged in a stream bed. If the door was not open it would be hard to notice an APC was sitting there.




I'm in the cupola, we were supporting an armored unit with M48A5 tanks, Notice all the antenna's, this is a F.I.S.T. configured set up. I was the Forward Observer, then had Pfc. Harper as the R.T.O. and then Pvt. Yi here was our KATUSA interpreter and vehicle driver.


Here I'm down in Panama for 2 years 77-79, was there when Pres. Carter signed the papers in Panama City to return the Canal Zone back over to the Panamanians. I was on a 81mm Mortar crew 11C, note our M561 Gamma Goat 6 wheel drive amphibious vehicle.





Here I was assigned to an OPFOR unit at Ft. Hood, Texas. Wore a Russian uniform and drove the T54A main battle tank in the picture. We would travel to different bases and let other soldiers fire the AK47, SKS, AKM etc. and give them rides in our T62, T54A, BTR60PB, PT-76. Or we would go out on field exercises and let the tankers see our heat signatures on the new Abrams thermals to see what the soviet tanks etc. looked like. Or we would do war games against them, we were the "Immortal's" as the umpires could not kill us as there were only 3 tanks and 2 wheeled vehicles. Just smoke dope and blast around harassing them, way to much fun.




Over in Egypt at the Sinai zeroing our M-16's and a photo op of me on a Bedouin's camel...




A couple of my buds and then were loading up for a jump...




This is my own 1972 Ford M151A2 Jeep (MUTT), bought it, did a ground up restoration on it, kept it for about 12 years then sold it off to an ex-USMC Major, who took it to Hawaii. If you enlarge it under the spare tire you can see my Arizona license plate mounted. Really miss it more and more, so easy to maintain. So little, could go about anywhere in it. We had these in the Army too, I actually won "Driver of the Month" with one while in Panama. Won Company, Battalion and then took Brigade DOM. Got three 3 day passes form all that. But an Army 3 day pass is not a Wed-Fri and then the week end off, nope no way it always had to include 1 weekend day. One picture above with the Gamma Goat is me on the pistol team, we are at Ft. Riley, Ks, they flew us back from Panama to the states for the matches. I was picked up by the 5th MTU and shot with them for a while, got to wear a black baseball cap for a few weeks.

 

Wow Greg you have seen alot. Thanks for your service. We can never say that enough.

 

I had one of the APC's in the water once that was pretty scary when you got water up on the sides and you wonder if you are going to have to swim out of it, but we made it across the lake.

You can just see the back door in the first photo.

We went to a Summer Camp once and had the earlier version of the Jeep it had a vintage 105RR on it. It didn't have the power to get out of it's own way, some how I lost the tranny in that thing 2nd & 3rd went missing have no idea where they went too but I didn't have to drive it back 600 miles.

We flew in the Chinooks once to live fire the 106RR and then when we shot the things the 50cal. on it was put together wrong after cleaning and it chambered 2 rounds and a time and 3 of us on the firing line got hit in the deal. It blew the magazine up and hit me in the neck and collar bone, would have knocked me off the seat but I had a back rest. One of the guys took a shot in his eyes. the tips were WP which makes it really bad. However we all survived the thing.
You got some great photo's there

 

Nice, I never swam the APC, I know up front we have the splash guard. I bet you had every right to be concerned, that would have been crazy to have it flounder while your swimming it. LOL, that would have been funny watching you guys go in and getting out. Bet your pucker factor was so tight you could not pass a BB.

I mentioned my 151 because I saw one tailing the APC in the picture of yours. Yeah the M151 was produced as the M151, then the A1 then the A2. Out of that you had your typical configuration as a Utility jeep like mine and then yours as a gun jeep with the spare tire mounted on the side and a beefed up suspension system and a couple jump seats for the gunner and AG. Then there was the ambulance version with hd suspension. Later the USMC made some into what they called Super Jeeps with V8's in them and a .50, FAV's and numerous other modifications making it quite the versatile vehicle. The last ones left the service in 1999.

Wow, your .50 spotting round double loaded and jacked you guys up? That had to be pretty unpleasant, dang your lucky it was not worse. Bet you guys were like WTF just happened.

Down in Panama we had some Jr. ROTC kids down on the guns and some with us calling in Requests for Fire. It had been raining heavy and the gun crews did not put the tube cover back permitting water to accumulate in the tube, they dropped a round down it, the charge bags got wet and they had a short round. Landed right in front of the gun pit, put about 5 kids in the hospital and jacked up one of the crew members. Things happen. Glad you never took a super big hit, even though it sounds like it was serious and wow, your just a lucky guy!

I used to watch Chinooks come in hover about 4 or so feet off the ground with the ramp down and out would come about half a dozen Armored Recon guys on Kawasaki's just a getting on it. What fun times we had you and I, time in 73-83

 

What was it that John Wayne said life is tough! It's even tougher if you are stupid. Well some of the guys that worked on the stuff we used should have been.
What happened with the spotter 50 cal on the 106 if you clean and take the gun apart the thing has 2 springs in it they are nearly the same if you assemble it wrong it will malfunction.
I had a few 106 rounds jamb in the breach and the only way to get them out was to run a ramming rod down the barrel. You always kinda held your breath cause the 106 had a point detonation fuse tip, which may ruin your day.
Fun stuff; back when I was recruiting it was difficult to get any one to join the Guard right after Vietnam. So we had this idea of turning one room into a rec-room and we put in a ping pong table and a Coin-op Pool table.
So the other full time full time AST in the armory was twice as ugly as Sad Sacks Sgt. 1st shirt. So he always wanted to play pool after work, and I wasn't very good and he said he made money during the depression playing pool and he cleaned up on me. But I watched him like a hawk, after 2 months It was graduation night and he went to town twice to get a role of quarters.
The rest of the guys would only play me if I spotted them a ball and I banked all my shots.
So we went on this Winter Camp and it was cold, the maintenance guys felt bad that the car I had there wouldn't start 76 Vega why I bought that is beyond me.
So one night we went to town to get a few beers and chase girls, and the bar had a pool table. So all the guys were shooting pool, and loosing. So the locals who were winning kept asking about me.
The guys I was with told them no you shouldn't play him. But they insisted. So I finally got up to play and my guys had some wagers going on and I went thru the entire Bar. Folks were standing on chairs watching the games. They made at least 5 bucks. They were so happy they bought me an engine heater for the Vega.
One of the girls in the Bar fell in love with the pool player and gave him a treat too. lol
Fun to reminisce about this stuff but on occasion you run into some body who had a real terrible experience. My Dad introduced me to a fellow who was a survivor of the Bataan March, he could barely talk about it with out sheading a tear or more, and he had me and everybody that was in the place feeling bad.
But he was what I call a real HERO, when I told him that he said he was just doing his job!

 

We got to shoot a 90mm RR before, prone position at a right angle to it. We used the 7.62 as a spotter round for it. But that was only one time in Panama we did that. You guys on gun jeeps and such had a pretty cushy MOS it seems like. Did you every have to hump a 106 in the field?

I would not want to be a recruiter, always avoided that, takes a special person to want to play that game, I liked to be buried in the crowd, heck at an office day after day with you Co there had to be stressful, no place to hide, quota's to meet. Heard many recruiters committed suicide because of the stress and bad EER's. It was probably a cake slot to be in once one learned how the game was played.

To funny about the pool shark time of yours, how old were you then? That had to have been a sweet time in your youth. I miss our day rooms at Permanent party, pool tables, foo's ball tables and BEER machines. Put in .50 and get a can of beer just like buying a soda.

Speaking of the friend of you dads a Bataan March survivor, I just finished reading a 400 page book last week called "Prisoners of the Japanese" OMG those poor poor bastards went through hell and survived. Thousands did die from many preventable diseases, malnutrition and often time outright murder. Heads hacked off for sport, both arms broken while hanging you from a wire. The Japs would bust your nose so you could not breathe through it, then pour water down your throat in order to make you talk.

Almost to the last man they hated ugout Doug McArthur.

Some sad stats from the war. The prisoners would be so hungry they would sort through the Japanese soldiers crap for undigested beans to eat, The way to survive the death march was to stay on the inside of the column. Outside lines were always beaten on with swords, rifle butts and golf clubs, many died and many survived to be freed only to be killed in a plane crash leaving for the US taking them home. One was a B29 carrying quite the number of cheering soldiers flying back to the US. Unfortunately some clown leaned on the bombs away console, bomb bay doors opened and a number of men perished falling out the bomb bay door at 30k ft over water, Imagine that after all the unspeakable horrors and surviving only to be killed by your own countrymen. His kind are the actual the real hero types.

 

Did you every have to hump a 106 in the field?
Most we ever did was take it off the jeep.
There is a Military Museum in Lexington NE along I 80 and I stopped there back in 99 or so and they had a 106 on the floor and I walked over and started playing with it and the curator was all ears with me telling about it.
We were a Mech. Inf. Batt. and I was part of the Scout Plt. and was glad to be out of the 106 RR to dangerous, when that thing went off it was like having someone hit you from both sides back and chest.
A guard recruiter at that time didn't have the pressure it seems, I had a Major who had gotten me the position. He was disappointed when I left but I didn't see a future with the reductions in Strength then.


To funny about the pool shark time of yours, how old were you then? I was 23 or 24, that was a fun time, the lady was very seductive/persuasive, and I have this rule that I call all bluffs! She wasn't bluffing.
I have a Pool table in my cave but I wear glasses now and that has handicapped the ability.
My dad went to a snooker club with me once and he knew all the old-timers who played this game at the club. So we got there to play a little Snooker and he started BS'n with these guys and then they told him I usually played along with them, he was pretty impressed, as they were real good. They told him I had beat them several times.
Back in 2005 I was with my son and he had joined a Men's group from college and they had a banquet, at the event they had a fellow there who was a Navigator on one of the B-17's that flew into Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7th. So we got to meet him and I said I wanted to shake the hand of a real American Hero! He responded back that he didn't really do anything. Great guy!!