Interesting photos, Episode 3

In an effort to clear out some of the backlogged photos waiting to make it onto my blog, I'm going to go ahead and slip in another post. Again, this is a Vietnam-themed edition. 

An M274 Mule inside a Huey? Seems odd not to sling it below the chopper if you're transporting the Mule. Also seems an awfully awkward load that's probably near the Huey's lift limit. No Chinook handy?

A Marine LVTE-1. The engineering version of the LVTP-5. 

The Australian M113A1 FSV was very effective against the NVA. Not so much against enemy swimming pools. I suspect this is actually the prototype being tested for water-tightness. See the deck plate and turret ring are still unpainted?

The LARC-V five ton amphibious cargo lighter, which served in Vietnam with the U.S. Army's Transport Corps, as well as with the Navy. The first units were purchased in 1958 and the vehicle is still in service with the Navy. Upwards of 600 appear to have been scuttled off the coast of South Vietnam when U.S. forces departed!!

Proof that you can leave the searchlight off of your Vietnam-deployed M48A3 and not be a philistine. This one is also interesting because the M2HB has been removed from the coupla and mounted on a pipe welded to the top. 

 

The Army's LARC-LX (called BARC prior to the nomenclature changes of 1960), a sixty ton amphibious cargo lighter, which was also deployed to Vietnam. Entering service in 1952, it could carry a maximum of 100 tons of cargo or 200 troops. 

And finally a M-49/M-76 Otter amphibious cargo and troop carrier. Used by both the Army and Marines in Vietnam. First deployed in-country in 1965. The odd Pontiac-built vehicle had inflatable tires as road wheels!

That's all until the next post!

Interesting photos, Episode 2

This will be a Vietnam episode. Here are a few photos from my collection which I find interesting for one reason or another. 

Anywhere you could conceivably walk, Charlie could mine. 

You don't often see shots of Zippo boats at work during darkness (it appears to be either dawn or dusk).

An M134 minigun mounted M113, but with an added M2HB for the driver!

Yes, body bombing really did happen. 

An XM177E1 "Shorty", AKA the Colt Commando. There were still a few in service when I joined the Army in 1980. The accuracy was pretty crap because of the short 10" barrel. It had a combination flash and sound suppressor. 

A very good shot of a Stoner 63. 

An interesting field modification to an H-13 Sioux; a Stoner 63 and a smeared on overhead sun shade. 

In the rural areas, anywhere that isn't a rice patty, is a muddy crop field. You can tell that there's some sort of watercourse in the background because of the palm trees. In SE Asia, you don't generally see palm trees, except on coconut plantations, lining creeks and rivers, in a line set back from the beach, and scattered around in the towns.

An XM733, used by the Marines in Vietnam in 1966-67. It's the armored assault version of the M116A1 Husky cargo vehicle

And one of the six M163 Vulcans sent to Vietnam beginning in 1968. This is at the Port of Saigon. Notice the odd camo scheme. Units 1 and 2 had the dishes mounted, but no actual radar set was installed. Units 3-6 had no dish. 

That's it for this installment. More stuff next episode. 

Interesting photos, Episode 1

I've decided to start another regular feature on my blog. Well, I say "regular", but I suppose I ought to say "recurring". Something that I'll do again, from time to time. 

Being that I do a lot of research, much of it on the Internet, for both work and hobby, I often stumble across military/hobby photos that strike me as interesting in one way or another. I save them because...well, just because. So I'm going to begin sharing them. They are not my photos and I do not claim copyright over them. I'm just sharing them because I find them interesting, funny, and/or unusual.  So, here we go....

Just because I like artillery photos that show the shell in flight, this one being from a British FH-70 155mm howitzer. 

You don't see many photos of the M113 mine roller in action in Vietnam. 

That's just plain funny!! If you're not American, and you don't understand the American football reference, please leave me a comment and I'll explain, but I think it's the same in "soccer".

This one is for all the people who paint larger scale miniatures (15mm and up) and insist on painting the viewing slits a neon blue. Does that look like day-glo blue to you? No, me either, so STOP DOING IT!!

Again, just because it's damned funny!!

In Vietnam, even artillery pieces got painted with graffiti. 

Rarely do you see an M113 mounting a recoilless rifle firing over the gun shield.  Looks to be a 57mm M18. 

A whole convoy of North Vietnamese M113s. Obviously either 1974 or 1975. Some of them must still be in operation, because here's another photo that can't be more than 15 or 20 years old and quite possibly more recent than that:

The Vietnamese Army didn't begin wearing camouflage uniforms until not all that long ago.

Most wargamers don't put graffiti on the M60 gun shields, but we ought to. 

Photos of the LVTH-6 in the field are relatively rare, so I was very happy to find this one. Only 210 were built. 

And this episode's award winner:

A U.S. Navy rating trying to set fire to a hooch on the riverbank from the foredeck of a PBR. That's just too cool not to share it!!

That's it for this installment. More after I've built up enough new photos.