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Wish I had them when I was still in the Marines. All we were allowed to wear were those garshdarned green wool socks. Add them black leather combat boots and it was a real pain, literally.

As part of my attempt to recreate a gun truck to pay tribute to the men and women who served in the Vietnam War, I’ve slowly been adding details to make it appear to be the real thing. My latest acquisitions are reminiscent of the gun trucker’s “ditch guns”. Throughout the various references...

Finally got out to the barn. My backpack radio is a PRC 10. Looks like it may have been made in the ‘50’s. The truck mounted radio is a RT 524. The antenna mount, which is important for accuracy, is the MX-2799. The first section of antenna is AT-1096. The second section is fairly common...

Here’s the antenna and mount as a setup. It’s zero balance with this vender but you’ll have a visual of everything you need. https://www.sportsmansguide.com/product/index/us-military-surplus-vietnam-era-mx-2799-at-912-vrc-jeep-antenna-and-base-used?a=2210061

Perforated steel plating. It is/was used to quickly create aircraft runways and parking ramps. Very handy stuff. It can be used in a bunch of different applications. When used in the context of the gun trucks, they were added as reinforcement to sand bags.

For now it’s single walled. I have sections of PSP that I plan on installing as the inner wall. Some of the pictures in various trucks, especially the earlier ones, show PSP being used. The side wall is layered. Outer layer is thin sheet steel, it’s backed up with 1/2” plywood. All around the...

I’m a Marine as well. The beautiful thing about gun trucks is no two are exactly alike. Each truck NCOIC made adjustments, added armor and weapons as they saw fit. For my armor I used 1/16th (IIRC) thick steel plates. I backed them up with 1/2 outdoor plywood. I painted everything black which...

N I didn’t notice that. It’s good you have shots of both sides. Every bit of info is priceless especially when you want to recreate one of these trucks.

I looked at it twice the last couple days. I knew there was a picture, just couldn’t remember which book it was in.

After much searching, I found two photos of Marine Corps “war wagon” gun trucks. One is in “Have Guns will travel” be James Lyles and the other is in David Doyle’s book called “Gun Trucks”. On page 71 of “Gun Trucks”, there’s an excellent photo of one of the Marine Corps war wagon gun trucks...

Good looking bird! I have 4 sets of skid shoes for that type helicopter. I keep hoping I’ll find a helicopter to put them on.

That HEMTT is nice! The refueler was the last vehicle I was trained on. If only I could afford a real one… you do outstanding work, thank you for showing us your artwork!

The last book, Have Guns Will Travel should be the one with the Marine Corps trucks. I dug out my small stack of gun truck books. I’ll search them for anything helpful.

LOL!

I found the reference for modern day gun trucks. It’s a multi service document and applies to the four services. The Coasties and Space Force are not included (when they need gunners on the space shuttle or space station, I’m volunteering for that!). The reference for the Marine Corps is: MCRP...

Well shucks, that won’t do any good. Back to the drawing board.

https://www.keymilitary.com/article/braving-vietnams-roads Some shots of trucks on convoys.

I need to dig around in my dungeon, I mean basement, for all the books I’ve got on the subject. The one book I don’t have is the Marine Corps manual on converting vehicles into improvised gun trucks.

This picture was taken at this year’s (2022) Cheyenne Wyoming’s annual Christmas parade. We raised $150 and collected 4 donation boxes full of toys.

Beautiful truck! The hardest part of building a Marine Corps gun truck you already have, the ring mount. The gun box sat a couple feet aft of the cargo bed forward bulkhead. There was an antenna and a weapons mount sticking up out of the bed. I need to find my books to jog the old brain housing...