Does this work?

[Forty Rod]

Trying to add a pic to my profile and want it to show up here, too.

Let's see if I did anything right.

[Forty Rod]

Hey, lookie there.

That's me. 

Vung Ro Pass, about June, 1969.

The wonderful machine on the seat is a Thompsom M-1 submachine gun, ca. .45 acp.  Not far away are a dozen or so loaded mags for it. (one can be seen in my belt on the left side.)

The belt was custom made and holds .38 ammo on one side and .45 Colt on the other. 

Not shown are a S&W Model 60 stainless .38 Special at the small of my back, a Browning High Power 9mm in a shoulder rig, my issue 1911A1 on the right hip, and a SAA .45 x 5 1/2" in a cross draw rig or in the right cargo pocket of my fatigues. 

I likely also have a couple of grenades and a Gerber Mk.II knife someplace around.

My Boss, Col. Forrest, called me "Terrible Tom, the walking gun platform".  He predicted I'd be a hero.  He said I'd have to stand and fight because I was too weighted down to run. 

There's an M-60 on a post on the right front of the M-151 and an M-79 launcher someplace, too.

As the senior person on this convoy (Captain, Ordnance Corps) I loaded us down for bear.  Probably 25-30 vehicles and enough guns and ammo to equip a moderate-sized third world country, or an average LA street gang.

"...and bring on the G-- D------ cat!'

[Wrangler Rich]

Looks good, I have a picture of me standing next to a 105 somewhere.  How did you go about adfding your picture (avitar)?

[Advertising]

[Forty Rod]

Go down to the next batch of subjects.  There's one there 'something, something, Tall Tales'.  About third one down. 

There's a thread there about how to add an avitar.

Follow the directions (like I did) and get a little lucky (like I did) and there it is.

[Four-Eyed Buck]

Nice, Forty! Are you still that slim? I know I'm not .............Buck

[Forty Rod]

I'm about 160 lbs in that pic.  I'm still about 160 lbs, but I've got almost 80 lbs of padding to protect it now.

That pic was taken in about June 1969.  I was 27 years old.

[Old Top]

Forty Rod,

Transportation or Quartermaster?

[Forty Rod]

Ordnance Corps: 69th Maintenance Battalion.  (Heavy equipment/Direct Support)  Our motto was 'Rapid Repair And Return'.  Unofficially it was 'If We Can't Fix It, F(orget) It'.

We used Transportation Corps heavy lift vehicles and drivers.  Everyone else was our folks including escort vehicles modular armored MUTTs and 3/4 ton trucks, and small load trucks (up to duece and a half). 

That was for road convoys.  Also flew Air Cav and Trans Corps choppers, even Air Force birds a time or two, out of TWA (Teeny Weenie Airport) at Cam Ranh; used Swifties and Navy to move stuff by water; etc. 

I even snagged ride on a black C-130 with a million antennas on it to carry some stuff from Ban Mi Thuot back to Can Ranh.  Rode the flight deck on that one and was instructed by a guy in a Hawaiian shirt to talk to no one on the flight, or about the flight.  Hope the statute of limitations has run out on that by now.

If I could have I'd have commandeered that stinking little plantation railroad north of Cam Ranh, but it didn't go anywhere.  Didn't work anymore anyhow.

Hauled supplies out, (everybody's: QM, OrdC, Trans, Meds, anything that was going our way, we took it.  Even ran 105mm and 155mm gun tubes, hydraulic fluid, batteries, etc to Marines out in injun country by chopper.  Took them 25 gallons of highjacked ice cream one time.  They wanted to build a statue to remember us.  ) and busted stuff back.  Shipped that out of Vung Ro back to Okinawa for rebuild, cannibalization, and/or scrap.

[Old Top]

Forty Rod,

Just asking as the same time frame I was with the QM, rigging up loads to be transported one way or another, droped or trucked.  With the 82nd QM and the 101st QM.

Old Top

[Forty Rod]

Were you out of Cam Ranh?  Don't recall all the outfits we dealt with there, but it's sure possible.  About the only folks we didn't work with were the PAVN/NVA and Charlie. 

[Old Top]

No the 109th was there, I ended up stateside the entire time, only got shot at in riots and such.

Old Top

[Frenchie]

Hauled supplies out, (everybody's: QM, OrdC, Trans, Meds, anything that was going our way, we took it.  Even ran 105mm and 155mm gun tubes, hydraulic fluid, batteries, etc to Marines out in injun country by chopper.  Took them 25 gallons of highjacked ice cream one time.  They wanted to build a statue to remember us.  ) and busted stuff back.  Shipped that out of Vung Ro back to Okinawa for rebuild, cannibalization, and/or scrap.

Hey Forty Rod, my father was a Seabee. I'll bet you didn't work with them, because you didn't mention it. If you'd worked with them or had any nearby, you would have mentioned it, if only to complain about how you had to stay up all night to keep an eye on everything that wasn't nailed down (and a few things that were) 

[Forty Rod]

Frenchie, the Seabees were all over the place.  They didn't steal from us because it would've cut off their ability to move their stuff.

Didn't have much to do with them, though.

They did save a convoy for me once.  Land clearing crew with a bunch of Cat dozers came charging to the sound of the guns when Charlie hit one of my convoys and blocked us in on the road.  Nothing the VC had that day would faze a dozer blade.  Besides, those Seabees had real live guns and shot back.

Charlie didn't have the sand to stand and fight.  Those guys saved our bacon.

Had a stray flight of F-4 Phantoms come to our rescue once, too.  They showed up and rained hell on Charlie.  I never did figure out how they got on our radio frequency.