Stories

FURTHER MUSINGS OF A KANSAS FARM BOY (MY SECOND DAY IN THE 359th) BY JAMES HUSKEY

BE SURE TO READ JAMES HUSKEY’S EARLIER STORY FIRST (A 18 YEAR OLD FARM BOY ARRIVES TO THE 359th) THIS PICK’S UP WHERE IT LEAVES OFF. Ahh!!! Finally!!! looking forward to the ride back to the Company area for a hot shower, hot breakfast and some sack time. Again these ideas bring a laugh from…
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A MEMORY I CAN’T FORGET!!! BY TOMMY BROWN

I remember the day I was broken down in An Khe overnight 22 February 1971 having my truck repaired. The next morning 23 February 1971, I was going to catch the next convoy from the 359th Transportation Company to continue on to Pleiku. But when I got to the gate at An Khe the guards…
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THE KNUCKLEHEAD!!!! BY JAMES LYLES

I was supposed to go check to see why a knucklehead had not turned in his shotgun after coming in from a convoy. He was laying on his bunk. I sat down on the bunk directly beside of his with a clipboard and when I asked him about the shotgun, he acted surprised and sais,…
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AN 18 YEAR OLD FARM BOY ARRIVES TO THE 359th TRANSPORTATION COMPANY IN 1968 BY JIM HUSKEY

Arriving in Vietnam in January 1968 was a surreal experience. There was a sense of urgency for sure. Landing at Cam Ranh Bay, then on to Qui Nhon. Only to be put on a deuce & a half ton truck packed with replacements going to An Khe all in two days. Commotion on the An…
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23 FEBRUARY 1971, “A DAY I’LL NEVER FORGET”, BY WILLIAM F. CARTER

I remember 23 February 1971 like it was yesterday. From that day on we called it “The Dahl Ambush”. It seemed easier to talk about it that way. It struck me hard because it was the second time since I left the world that I lost someone I really knew and trusted with my life.…
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STEVE CAMPBELL’S THOUGHT’S FROM THE BRUTUS DEDICATION 10/1/2016

I feel that a large part of my life has come full circle today. My Vietnam experience as I attended the induction of my Gun Truck Brutus in the Military Veterans Museum and Education Center in Oshkosh Wi. I call it my Gun Truck because I was the last N.C.O.I.C (Non Commissioned Officer in Charge)…
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Story by Joseph (daddy) Dedge 359th 1968-9

I went through Cam Ranh Bay in 1968 and was assigned to the 359th Trans Co which was in the process of moving from An Khe to Pleiku. I still remember the jeep the 240th QM Bn XO sent to pick me up at the airport in Quin Nhon. I had his flac jacket and…
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THE LIGHTER SIDE BY GEORGE ELLIS 1971-2

One must not forget unscrewing tanker hatches and putting ladies of the night inside to get through the gate. One of my twin gunners standing on the street in the village with an extended LAW wanting his radio back that another lady of the night took from him. I convinced him it was better to…
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STORY BY GEORGE ELLIS 359th 1971-2

I was the last NCOIC on the Gun Truck “THE MISFITS”. At about 10AM Feb 25TH 1972 halfway up the Mang Yang Pass we were ambushed hard. Much of it is still a blur in my mind. We had mixed it up before but nothing like this. I could hear bullets hitting the truck all…
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STORY BY CLYDE "JACK" HOOVER 359th 67-8

I had a soldier approach me while I was wrenching for the 359th and ask me to “SOUP” up his 5 ton truck as it was so slow it hardly could make it up the pass to Plieku. I remember he was from Ohio and either had a young son, or his wife was pregnant.…
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STORY BY TOM NEAL 359th 1966-7

We had several 5 tons that weren’t the usual nightly fixes. We had them parked at the edge of the motor pool in a weedy area. Someone went over and got this truck that had an air leak. We brought it in to the Quonset hut to work on it. We let the truck run…
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STORY BY STEVE CAMPBELL 359th 71-2

I was returning from my last convoy on 9 Apr 1972, the 359th had already stopped running convoy’s. I had to take Satins Chariot with a rag tag crew to escort 2 tankers to Pleiku. We got shot up in the An Khe pass on the way up, and returned fire. I called it in…
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STORY BY STEVE LINDSAY 70

I remember another person who worked in the motor pool in Pleiku, “Boy-Son.” He pissed me off one night & I told th MP Sgt. that Iwas going to get him! I was working night shiift & was working on the gun-Jeep. It had a horrible time with brakes, (so heavy) &  I told them…
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STORY BY STEVE WHITE 359th TRANS CO 1970-1

For a while we were doubling up drivers on the run from Qui Nhon to Plieku. Seems like it was one of the few times we actually had a surplus of drivers. SP5 Jenkins and I were assigned together and were hauling JP4. We had made the run several times in a row without incidence…
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STORY BY JAMES HUSKEY 359th 1968-9

In December 1968, I had just extended my enlistment, which Lt Dedge and the 1/Sgt had talked me into doing and I would get the job of unit mail clerk. The day before my extension leave was to begin, my tanker broke down in Kontum. The following morning all road traffic was halted due to enemy activity…
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STORY BY MERTON BARROWCLIFF 359TH 1968-9

SSG Rapold and I were TDY with the 3rd platoon, with 20 trucks with trailers, 2 gun trucks (Brutus & Head Hunter), & a gun jeep. We were to haul from Quin Nhon to An Khe with as many trips as we could make. But sometimes we went from An Khe to Quin Nhon to Plieku…
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STORY BY MERT BARROWCLIFF 359th 1968-9

On 11 feb 1969 I was on convoy to Pla Gerang. I went to the 4TH ID checkpoint to meet my escort to the Oasis. We left about 8 and had not gone more than a mile, when the two M.P. jeep’s ran off and left me. I kept going by myself. I got to the…
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STORY BY MIKE LITTLE, B CO 504th MP BN 1967-8

This is an excerpt of a story Mike Little wrote for the Plieku MP web site a few years ago. It is about the ambush when George McDonald was killed.  Just before reaching our checkpoint, a VC sniper put an AK-47 round through the door of your 5000 gallon tanker truck, killing you. Losing control,…
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STORY BY MIKE BORCHARDT 597th TRANS CO

THIS STORY WAS WRITTEN BY MIKE BORCHARDT THE NCOIC OF THE GUN TRUCK KING COBRA FROM THE 597th TRANS CO. ABOUT THE AMBUSH WERE JIMMY RAY CALLISON WAS KILLED. THE PICTURE’S HE QUOTE’S ARE IN JIMMY RAY CALLISON’S PROFILE IN THE HEROS BULLET AT THE BOTTOM OF HIS PROFILE. IT WAS A FOGGY MISTY DAMP DAY.…
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STORY BY DAVID BOWARD 1967-8

I LEFT MY RIG IN DAK TO. IT HAPPENED WHEN I STARTED DRIVING FOR THE  359th. IT WAS MY FIRST TRIP TO DAK TO AND I MISSED A TURN. I DROVE OUT OF THE COMPOUND AND TRIED TO TURN AROUND IN A FIELD, AND I GOT STUCK. NEEDLESS TO SAY THE GUY’S WITH THE WRECKER WERE NOT…
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BY CARL GAMEL 1971-2

I think it was around the 27th of march 1972, when the 27th Trans Bn made it’s last convoy to Plieku, when we convoyed back that afternoon, we drove directly to the Port in Quin Nhon, and turned in the trucks and tankers to be washed to be put on ships to be returned to the…
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BY MICHAEL (SCARECROW) BUIRGE 1967-8

This was taken from an E-mail to John (Crowbar) Porter. He was the SSG, that put him in the mud! Yuck, Yuck, Yuck…Mr Secretary…It’s on of the most inedible memories when I first got there, Cold, Night, Raining, Mud everywhere… “Specialist, you are going to perform second echelon maintence on this truck.”, ” But  Sargent”,…
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STORY BY JOHN DODD 1968-9

John Dodd was a career soldier and had begun his second tour in Vietnam December 1968. He was assigned to the 359th Transportation Company. The 359th had just transfered from An Khe to Pleiku in November and December 1968, and was attached to the 124th Transportation Battalion. It had been attached to the 240th Quartermaster…
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BY GEORGE GREER 1967-8

THIS IS A LETTER WRITTEN HOME ON:  16 MAR 1968 Dear Dad an Mom Well guess you thought I was dead and like to run. We had three ambushes yesterday. My truck was the first one that got hit. I was driving along and my windshield started cracking and I fell to the floor and…
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BY RON MALLORY 1970-1

On Feb 23 1971 we were in our convoy on the way to An Khe our delivery of fuel from Qui Nhon to Plieku. We got a call to come help out another Gun Crew. Who were under fire on top of the An Khe Pass. We went and started unloading massive gun fire. After we…
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BY LOUIS BRITTINGHAM 1968-9

THE BIRTH OF BRUTUS I am CW3RET Louis Brittingham, formerly the Maintenance Warrant of the 359th in 1968-9. During my tenure as maintence tech/officer of the 359th, it was my custom to occasionally ride the convoy to experience what the men and epuipment had to endure and to enhance the maintence precepts for convoy operation’s.…
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DONALD BARNARD 1971-2

Christmas 1971 we had our own “Boxing Day” where the Officer’s and Senior NCO’S drove, except for the gun trucks. Would you know it, They could have made the run without the gun trucks. Because they had the smoothest run I had seen in about 5 month’s. If I remember correctly, Cpt Rast drove a Tanker…
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BY JIM HOPEWELL 1968-9

When I got to Pleiku in April 1968 Brutus had a gunner named Prescott. Brutus was equiped with a 50 Cal machine gun on the front and two M60 machine gun’s on the back. A few month’s after I got there Prescott and I went to the air force base next to us and struck…
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BY JAMES BIRD 1968-9

The gun truck Brutus was not done when I seen it. It was started and had the spare tire boxes started. When I started helping the fabricator at the motor pool, when it was just north of Camp Schimdt. If I remember you had to walk through a path between two compounds to get to…
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BY ROGER BLINK 1968-9

I was the gunner on the day Prescott as NCOIC of Brutus got thirty some confirmed kills just east of An Khe. The date was late Aug. The 2nd platoon suffered one wounded, blown out of the gun truck by an RPG, and then shot in the back with a pistol by a VC in sandals…
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BY JAMES HUSKEY 1968-9

These stories are written around a series of e-mails between James Huskey, and John Porter. James to John:  Yeah I do remember you. You questioned my ancestry I beleave! Something about only a moron could blow 2 head gaskets in one week. From James: First story: A mortar hit on the front of my tanker…
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BY BOB DYE 1967-8

15 Jan 1968 as I remember it. I had 85 days to deros. We were in convoy from An Khe ( Our base camp ) to Pleiku. We had about 40 trucks in the convoy. I was the first in line for the first time out of abour 250 convoy’s. Just as we were leaving George Anderson…
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BY RICHARD CLINTON 1967

My most memorable experience while with the 359th was in nov 1967. We left An Khe in the morning convoy to pleiku hauling JP4. At pleiku I was directed to Dak To with several guys hauling the same fuel. We actually went to a fire base out side Dak To. The only place I”ve been…
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FROM BOB DALTON: DO YOU REMEMBER THESE!

The burma shave sign’s as you left the 359th area at Phu Tai: DRIVER HAD A CUTE GIRL! TILL HE MADE HIS TIRES SWIRL! GRAVES REGISTRATION DID NOT LAG! SENT HER LOVER IN A BAG! To warn all of the driver’s to drive safely!
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BY DAVID HUENING 1966-7

On the boat trip to Vietnam SP/5 David Greene bunked opposite me on the same level. The bunks pivoted out of a center set of pole’s, followed by several other set’s. Green seemed to always go to bed a lot later than me, and his snoring would wake up the dead. I couldn’t flip to…
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BY RICHARD CLOT 1966-7

I remember Jack Traven used to get furious when those little three wheeled vehicles would pass him up on the way up the An Khe pass. One day we were out on convoy and I was riding with Traven, when one of those guy’s passed him loaded to the gills with locals. Traven started yelling…
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BLINKY

TAKEN FROM A 1st LOG CMD REVIEW FEBRUARY 1969 WE KNOW WHO THIS IS ABOUT BUT THE AUTHOR IS UNKNOWN A NOVICE DRIVER WANTS TO BE A PROFESSIONAL PLEIKU – MAKESHIFT BRIDGES LINKED BY TWISTED COW PATH AND FLANKED BY DUST FILLED GULLEYS – THIS IS THE ROAD FROM HERE TO DAK TO. THE ROUTE…
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