| I was Shop Officer of Main Support Company, 5th Maintenance Battallion from November 1967 to May 1968. CW2 Spangler, who was a company maintenance officer in the 8th Trans, and I built the first 5-ton gun truck in Vietnam utilizing a quad 50 mount. It was named "Bounty Hunter". None of the vehicles used prior to that time put out enough firepower and something new was required. We scrounged through the depot and found a quad fifty mount which we mounted on a 5-ton truck. We used coil springs from a junked M-48 tank to mount the quad fifty to the bed. The sides and rear of the bed were hardened |  |
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| with armor plate and we bolted a piece of armor plate across the
front of the cab and attached it to the top of the windshield with a piece
of rope over a pulley. In case of engagement the driver yanked on the rope
and pulled the armor plate up. There was a slit about 3 inches wide cut in
the plate for the driver to see through. We replaced the side windows with
armor plate that rolled up just like the window glass. On the shotgun side
we mounted an M-60 on a ring mount. We had limiters on the quad 50 to keep
the gunner from shooting through the cab. Our first try had some problems
which were discovered after the first trip. It took us a couple of trips to
work out all of the bugs but we had it pretty well perfected in about ten
days. The truck ran flawlessly on virtually every convoy to Pleiku through
November 68 when I DEROSed. I don't remember it being brought back to my
company for any major maintenance that entire period. The Bounty Hunter
was used as a model to build several other 5-tons with quad fifty mounts.
There was at least one other built for 8th Trans while I was there. A
picture of the Bounty Hunter was featured in a 1st Log Magazine published in
late 1968. It wasn't long before Charlie learned to leave any convoy with the Bounty Hunter in it alone and he began to pick on smaller convoys. We solved that problem by loading a junk APC on the bed of another 5-ton. We cut three slots in each side, mounted six gun pylons inside with M-60's on each and used it for convoy security. It also made many trips up and down Highway 19. | ||
| John T. Brown III Captain, US Army Ordnance Corps Shop Officer and Company Commander 5th Main Support Company November 1967-November 1968 |
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