Yep, I talked to a guy back in 1970 who told a similar story about finding a
Conex full of Thompson SMGs that weren't on the Property Book. They had to
bury it somewhere in South Vietnam. I believe him. He was a very honest guy.
In a similar vein, we had an asphalt roller (the boxy thing with a row of
smooth tires at the front and rear) that our Maintenance Section could never
get to run right, and couldn't get the proper parts for. The Maintenance
Officer couldn't get a new one, as long as we had a "functioning" unit. He
solved that problem by placing a 40 pound cratering charge on top of the
unit and setting it off the next time that we started taking incoming fire.
It was a "combat casualty". We got a new roller the next week. Sometimes you
just have to improvise.
John
-----Original Message-----
From: Cougarjack@aol.com [mailto:Cougarjack@aol.com]
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2001 9:53 AM
To: mil-veh@mil-veh.org
Subject: Re: [MV] Urban legend or not? trenches of parts, long
>Anybody else seen
> "trenches" of NOS stuff on bases?
Somewhere on the former site of Camp Enari, South Vietnam, the former
division base of the 4th Infantry, there is a similar trench containing two
brand new M35A2's, one M54 tractor with 55 foot lowboy trailer, and six
conexes full of spares. I was on the detail that was ordered to bury these
items as they were not on the TOE, and an upcoming inspection demanded it.
The spares boxs had LDT engines in the cans, enough stuff to build a dozen
mules, and dozens of new mounted tires, plus a rack of M14E1 rifles and a
browning M2. There were also unopened canvas pouches of new carbines, two
full size maintenance shelters, still in crates, and a big Fairbanks Morse
mud pump. I took pictures, only to have my camera confiscated later when
someone dimed me. The stuff was "appropriated" from other units, by our
covert night supply group, the same as our stuff was subject to
"appropriation" by other similar foraging units. What it all amounted to was
that we shipped all that stuff over the!
re, gave all the wrong stuff to
the wrong units, then they "traded" it by various means so every had what
they needed, then everyone buried the stuff before each inspection because
they couldn't get caught with it. With all the forms and paperwork bull the
army had, you'd think they would have a form for trading equipment. This
was practically SOP, except that there were no written orders. I would bet a
lot of that stuff is still pristine today, if you could find the sites.
Sigh...
Jack
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Aug 07 2001 - 09:34:12 PDT