During the heat of the Vietnam War, the US military deployed a large number of US troops to South Vietnam as a measure to assist the South Vietnamese government in its fight against the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong. Many US military units were spread across South Vietnam, and the resulting demand for supplies and logistics was enormous. This fell to the US military logistics department to handle the delivery of these needs to the various US military units in South Vietnam. Transport aircraft such as the C-47 or C-130 could be used, but only in small quantities. The most feasible way to transport a large amount of cargo in one trip was through truck convoys.
The initial convoys of US Army trucks in South Vietnam were protected by the US Army.
The use of trucks to transport goods from the port to the bases in a convoy would consist of 30 to 200 trucks. With such numbers, coupled with the sparse and inadequate protection of the US military police, long convoys of US soldiers became easy targets for the Viet Cong, who were fond of guerrilla warfare tactics. As happened on September 2, 1967, when the Viet Cong ambushed a convoy of the 8th Transportation Group while traveling from Pleiku to Anke. The ambush resulted in the deaths of 7 US soldiers, the injuries of 17 others, and the loss of 30 trucks. The attack caused the US soldiers, aged 18-19, on the front lines to think of measures to protect the convoy to increase their survival on the battlefield. The idea was to add weapons and armor to the trucks. The term “Gun Truck” was thus born.
Damage to vehicles of the 8th Transport Division during an ambush on September 2 , 1967.
In the early days of the Gun Truck, the US military modified a 2½ ton truck, known as the M35, by fortifying it with sandbags and mounting at least one or two M60 machine guns. However, the sandbags were soon replaced with steel plates because when it rained, the sandbags would absorb water, adding weight to the truck and slowing it down, making it a target for enemies.
Gun Truck named “Cold Sweat” with three M2 heavy machine guns and two XM134 miniguns .
Later, the M35 truck was replaced by a 5-ton truck (M54) which was larger and had more space for modification. After entering service, the 5-ton truck began to be modified rapidly. A large amount of sheet metal was taken from the wreckage of unusable military vehicles and attached around the truck. Then, the truck was painted black with the name and slogans written all around it. All of this was done to intimidate the enemy and boost their morale. In addition to the size of the truck, the armor and the color were changed. The weapons on the truck were also changed. The M60 machine gun was replaced with a larger gun such as the M2 heavy machine gun (93 mm), the XM-134 minigun and the M45 anti-aircraft gun (with a mount for 4 M2 machine guns). In addition, the bodies of the M113 armored personnel carriers that were damaged or removed from the list were also installed on the back of the 5-ton truck.
There is no fixed principle for equipping vehicles. The crew is free to customize the vehicle color and smell according to their own preferences or the number of weapons available.
Gun Truck named “Uncle Meat” with one M2 heavy machine gun on the port side and one on the starboard side and a pair of M2s on the rear of the truck.
The origin of the weapon installed on the vehicle can be called a funny story that can be told to the next generation. In addition, the US Army's transportation unit was only issued with the M60, which was not enough in terms of firing range and penetration power. The soldiers in the transportation unit had to do "every means" to have a weapon that had both firing range and firing power. The methods used by the transportation unit soldiers ranged from finding items to exchange, borrowing (and not returning), to stealing. Therefore, anything larger than the M60 can be assumed not to be from the transportation unit.
If you're lucky enough, you might even be able to get an M113 to add to your Gun Truck.
As the US troops began to withdraw from Vietnam, the Gun Trucks were restored to their original form and gradually transported back to the United States, but that was not the end of the Gun Truck legend. The principle of the “Gun Truck” was used again in the Iraq War to protect supply convoys from ambushes by the Iraqi soldiers. During the Iraq War, various trucks were converted into Gun Trucks with new weapons that increased destructive power, such as the Mark 19 automatic grenade launcher. The Iraq War could be considered the end of the use of Gun Trucks. With the advent of new defense innovations such as the Mine Resistant and Ambush Resistant Armored Vehicle (MRAP), the Gun Truck is no longer necessary in the modern warfare in the eyes of the US military.