From: bolton8@juno.com
Date: Fri Sep 05 2003 - 07:08:46 PDT
Subject: [MV] Yellow Noses
The Yellow Nose was the mark of the 8th Transportation
Group in Vietnam, ran supplies to Pleiku.
Most of the deuces of Our club has agreed to paint our trucks that way
to memorialize 8th line haulers who died in ambush.
KERRY,
Parts of my memory have gotten a little hazy after 35 years, but I
remember the story behind a convoy ambush of the 8th Trans on Hiway 19.
The Company area of one of the 8th Trans was right across the road from
my hootch in An Khe. At this time the yellow nose of the 8th did not
exist.
Hiway 19 starts in the coastal city of Qui Nhon, runs north to Binh
Ding, then turns west to climb the Annamite Chain mountains. You go past
Phu Phong then into the An Khe Pass. After going past Camp Radcliff it
goes through the Mang Yang Pass and then further north to Pleiku. That
was the primary route of the 8th, Hiway 19 from Qui Nhon to Pleiku.
It was during the spring or summer of 1968 that my unit would watch
this company having 'weapons inspection'. The Company Commander would
have in-ranks inspection every day that the unit was back in base camp.
The men were armed with both M14's and M16's and anyone who has traveled
Hiway 19, or seen the red earth of Pleiku knows how impossible it is to
keep a weapon clean in the cab of an M35 or five-ton.
After spending ten to twelve hours a day driving a deuce up 19,
cleaning and tooth brushing the red dust out of your jam-a-matic each day
was eating into too much sleep time. We had heard through the grape
vine that quite a few of the drivers had started wrapping their weapons
in ponchos or bed sheets for the drive north in order to keep them
'inspection clean'.
One afternoon, somewhere between the Mang Yang and Pleiku this company
from the 8th got hit. Forward trucks were blown and the convoy was
brought to a halt.
The driver's were trapped while trying to unwrap their weapons. Story
we heard was that Charlie was running up to the vehicles, some jumping
on the running boards, and either firing into the cabs or through the
door. Gunships and Cobras finally arrived.
The survivors were demanding to get back to their company area in An
Khe, but were forced to spend the night and part of the next morning in
Pleiku. They were held there long enough for the C.O. to be relieved
of his command and choppered out of An Khe by the Battalion Commander.
There was no question as to the life expectancy of the C.O. once the
survivors returned.
I cannot attest for the accuracy of the 'stories I heard' about the
ambush.
But I can state I lived across the road from this company of the 8th
Trans, did witness the daily weapon's inspection, read the name of the
new Company Commander, and noticed the absence of daily rifle inspection
after that.
MVPA 22125
Vietnam: Aug 67 -- Tet 68 -- Mar 69
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