NAM VET'S FIRST M37

[NAM VET]

Ater having one sort or another high performance or sports car since the mid '60's, I decided to sell my Porsche GT3 and just go in a different direction. I have always liked the vintage military vehicles, and have some experience with them since I spent 30 years in the army, Vietnam and Desert Storm, and back in the mid '60's wanted to buy an M3 Greyhound 6 wheel armored car I saw in a field in Nebraska. Well, anyway, was out in South Eastern Nebraska a few weeks ago, my wife is from that area, and was talking with a gunsmith, who told me he was selling his '52 Command Truck. So I drove out to his place, and we went for a ride, and now it is mine. I am making arrangements to get it back to coastal SC. It is a 24 volt/100 amp truck, with a new wiring harness, good tires, a rebuilt motor with good oil pressure, and has the winch, presently dismounted. Plus as he had owned it for about 25 years (it was a Kansas NG truck), and kept in his pole barn; he has collected a truck bed full of OEM parts. Boxes and boxes of stuff. His intent was to fully restore it, but he is working on his civilian power wagon lately. Nearly rust free, just a little superficial rust in places. It is street licensed and driven in NE. I am arranging shipping back to Coastal SC soon. Looking forward to meeting up with all of you, and will soon be back for your suggestions as to what is necessary for my truck. Now to see if I can get a picture here.

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[Tom P]

Nice Score!
And Welcome to the site.
Lot of knowledge here.

Thank You for Your Service

Tom

[T. Highway]

First of all, Welcome to the site.
I know we all looking forward to seeing more of your project truck. It looks like you have a very complete and clean truck to start with. Great picture.

Bert

[HingsingM37]

Welcome indeed and congrats on the truck. You will enjoy your new piece of history. I would say that is quite a step from a GT3 The wife thought I was nuts when I sold my Harley to get mine.
Coastal SC? Sounds like I may have to make a road trip from up here to visit and say hello! Lots of good folks here on the forum

[Cal_Gary]

Always a pleasure to thank a 'Nam Vet, so thank you for your Service! I was just a couple of years too young so I enlisted in '76 and served into '88-Cold War Vet.

Glad to have you with us!
Gary

[NAM VET]

In my 30 year army career, starting in the summer of '69 (I just love the song by that name), after graduating from Nebraska via ROTC, and an 18 month tour as a Platoon Leader, 3D Infantry Division, where my transportation was an M113 APC, I was posted to IV Corps, Vietnam, or the Mekong Delta. First six months in Kien Phong province, where we had roads, the second six months way way south, in An Xuyen, south of Camau, in fact, I was the southernmost American in the whole country, where there were no roads, just waterways, and my transportation was via Boston Whaler with twin Johnson 40's.

I shot a lot Kodachrome with my Pentax, and have had many of them professionally digitalized, so will with the permission of the moderators, put here some pictures of the vehicles I was associated with. Plus, have digitalized copies of my recently deceased father in law's time in the South Pacific, with the 32nd Infantry Division, when they took back Buna. An assortment of pictures of early WWII vehicles also will put up from time to time here.

Here is a jeep, with me standing around. I found the grab handle on the dash in front of the passenger seat ideal for holding my M3 Submachine Gun on road trips, where we just drove fast as we could. Once, after a week or so out in the Plain of Reeds as a MAT advisor, was picked up at our home base helipad, and when I got back to our Compound, found my .45 had fallen out of my well worn holster, and fortunately found that my pistol had fallen down along side the passenger seat. Lucky to not have to "combat-loss" my issue sidearm.
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[j mccormick]

Interesting, a black M151 with no markings!

[T. Highway]

Please post all the pictures that you want. Was it the sun exposure that turned the OD to black over time?

Side note: One of the first history lessons that my father taught me was about HWY 32 that goes through the middle of our town. It was dedicated to the 32 Div. of WW1 & WW2. There is a large marker (Link below) and a wayside type park just north of our town.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin ... edonia.jpg

Bert

[NAM VET]

Yes, the battle for Buna, with the Aussie's was something else. Perhaps some of the worst conditions our Pacific troops had to fight in WWII. My father in law was a BAR man, but that gun was not reliable in the mud, so he changed to an M1 Garand. His company went into the line with something like 150 or so men, and only 16 of them walked out at the end.

As for the black jeep in the picture, I was with MACV, which was the Advisor part of that war, so most if not all of our stuff was owned in some fashion by the Vietnamese. I have some other pictures of vehicles then. Here is one I drove out to Kien Van, a post with three other Americans, it was later over-run by VC and Main Force. The Americans there took refuge in the inner bunker, which was made of concrete sandbags, and just held the trigger down on their M60 and ran a 4000 round belt in one long burst down the hall, to keep Chuck out, which worked and saved their lives. Of course, when I met up with the the Captain years later, he was mostly deaf from his ordeal.
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[NAM VET]

My father in law, going off to war from a farm in south east Nebraska, was sent as part of the 32nd Infantry Division first to Australia, then to New Guinea before they were sent across the Owen Stanley Range to take Buna back from the Japanese. He was one of the few troops to have a camera, and my wife a few years ago took his old B&W pictures and had them scanned and put into a digital scrapbook. This is one of his platoon, getting out of a truck. This soldier was soon killed in battle.
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[NAM VET]

Way down south of Camau, along the edge of the U MInh forest, where Lt. Nick Rowe was held as a POW for five years, and later CPT Rocky Versace was awarded the MOH, and my interpreter Son, had been on the helicopter that picked him up (they did not machine gun him because Nick had a beard, and Vietnamese don't), one day I came up to Province HQ in my Whaler, and checked out a jeep do some errand, and drove into a little mud puddle in a nearby hamlet, only the puddle was mud several feet deep. As soon as I was stuck, the local kids promptly set up a refreshment stand, and started selling watered down coke. I had to walk back to the Command Compound to get a truck to come out and pull my jeep out of the mud. Which smelled really bad of course.
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[NAM VET]

Late Dec, '69, I was about to be picked up by a chopper and sent out with one SGT to a Vietnamese compound way out in the Plane of Reeds, not far from the Cambodian border. These advisory missions were usually about a week long, and since this one was going to be over the new year, I decided to take out a bottle of Champagne so my Sergeant and I could ring in the new year with some sort of toast. Somebody is going to drive me over to our helipad and here is my bottle, before I stuck it in my rucksack. We had a hodgepodge of military hand me down vehicles.
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[m-37Bruce]

Welcome and Thanks for your service!
Your Command Car/Truck looks to be in great shape, nice catch!
I was a zoomie, 69-71 CCK,AFB Taichung, Taiwan. As a cook and working at the 6217th USAF Hospital I didn't see much action. (all of the wrong kind) After returning from the Pacific, I was assigned to a small radar site, where I got to drive my first M-37, dressed out as a snow plow.

[HingsingM37]

Great pics indeed! Thanks for sharing and for your service

[Hal O'Peridol]

Great Pictures! Please share more when you have time.

Always had a soft spot for Nam vets, must have come from worrying about my Uncle while he was there.

1969 I was 9 years old, living in St Albans WVa. I remember my Dad watching the news about Viet Nam every single night. Put some years on him until is brother made it back home.

I did my time in the active Army from 6 Jan 83 until 10 Feb 93. Was in Desert Shield/Storm from 15 Dec 90 to 8 May 91. A detachment of 1st Inf Div attached to 2nd Armored Div out of Garlstadt FRG. For some reason the Army decided it needed a section of Russian and German linguists for that little skirmish.