[MV] M715in RVN
David C. Decker (campdeck@infomagic.com)
Fri, 09 Jan 1998 18:23:59 -0800
Jim Rice wrote:
>
> A friend of mine, a retire First Sergeant, remembers M715s from Vietnam.
> They weren't particularly well liked. In fact he went from Vietnam to
> Germany. In Germany the still had M37s (which they had while he was in
> RVN too). They ended up getting M715s so they could ship all their M37s
> to Vietnam.
>
> He recalls the M37 he was driving getting hit by some small caliber RPG
> and blowing a rear wheel off and damaging the rear differential. While
> being sporadically fired at, he and another fellow disconnected the rear
> drive shaft, cut a small tree down and lashed the trunk to the rear diff
> to make a crude skid and limped the truck about one mile to the firebase
> using the front wheel drive.
>
> Today he is retired and has a restored M37 as a daily driver and loves
> every minute of it. He can't understand though, why anyone would want
> an M715.
>
> Jim Rice
> '43 GPW
> '52 M38
> '51 M100
>
> M151 A1 wrote:
> >
> > My uncle was in a Special Ops unit in Vietnam. He spent most of his time in
> > Cambodia and Laos. They used the M715 quite a lot for hauling materials
> > around. He said he remembered the truck being underpowered for the kind of
> > abuse it received. He also said the guys over their preferred the M37 for the
> > severe off-road driving capabilities.
> >
> > Jason
> >
> > ===
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>
> ===AS a tank crewman my first tour of RVN in 69, I escorted a lot of convoys
in III Corps. I don't remember seeing any 715, however, I heard that the
Marines used them in I Corps. There were none to be seen seen in IV Corps
in 70 during my 2nd tour.
I think the Army sent most of the newer stuff to Europe, as I saw lots of
M37s and a mix of M151s and M38s.
As a side note: I don't believe there is any such thing as a 'small
caliber' RPG, they ALL look like huge bottle rockets coming toward a
tank. I don't disagreed on being able to come home with the rear
dragging. I'm sure they figured the alternative sucked.
Congrats for your 1st Sargent retirement. Thank him for serving. Good
luck.
Dave in Flagstaff
M715
M274
===
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