Obtained in Nam from the venders at the gate.
We were at French Fort (FSB Santa Barbara), north of Tay Ninh. The place was called French Fort because years ago the French had a camp on this site. The "town" nearby was Bau Co. That's Frenchie up there by the sign.
It was dangerous walking in the perimeter. We had Claymores, concertina wire and CS gas canisters out there.
That's the M30 4.2 Inch (Four Duce) mortar. It is a rifled muzzle loading, high-angle fire weapon. It was phased out of service during the 1980's.
Four-Duce in action. That's Zebro and James Brown in there as "guests" on this fire crew. They belong to the Alley Oop gun crew.
That's an M109 SP Howitzer! Introduced in the 1960's, it weighs in at 27.5 tons. It is fitted with an 50 Cal. (Ma Duce) machine gun up on top. Twenty-eight rounds of 155MM were carried onboard as well as 500 rounds for the 50 cal.
The SP guns had to stick to the roads in Vietnam, weighing in at 27.5 ton, they would sink in the muck if they strayed far from hard surface roads.
This ammo came in 8 each to the pallet. Each round weighed in at 95 pounds.
The Chinook was a work horse for supply and personnell transport, especially when the road to Tay Ninh was closed.
The gun pad would turn to mud during the rainy (monsoon) season. We had two seasons; monsoon (May to December) and dry (January to April). After a fire mission the gun would be buried clear up to the deck. We would fire a six round mission and then spend all day digging out of the mud!
Nui Ba Dinh. We had a camp on top of that mountain. Charlie owned the sides. We fired many support missions on them.
Fire mission, perimeter defense. The quad 50 was originally an anti-aircraft weapon during WW2. It worked very well for perimeter defense.
Yes, it says No Smoking, Prokop!
Looking out over an M60, from a guard bunker.
Yes, it was an actual S--- detail!
The material was taken out, mixed with fuel oil and burned.
