Peerless Tom, just peerless.
Thanks, Brian! Perhaps the next step will be to mount these on a base with some scenery.
As I finish this up, Iâll provide a roll up of the entire vehicle line up of the Battalion as configured in the 1972-1975 time period.
As previously mentioned this unit was tasked and organized to provide Direct Support Artillery to an entire Brigade in a Mechanized Division which would nominally consist of three Maneuver Battalions (a mix of Mechanized Infantry and Armor) with each Battalion consisting of three Maneuver Companies, or nine total.
To do this the FA Battalion had a total of 233 individual pieces of ârolling stockâ, vehicles, prime movers and various trailers. Iâm listing the type and distribution below. The one take away from this is that out of ALL these vehicles (and soldiers) a grand total of EIGHTEEN howitzers (out of 233 vehicles) and the 198 Cannon Crewmen (including those in the M548 ammo carrier) out of a total of 567 total personnel assigned to the Battalion, are the sum total of the âtoothâ part of the unit. Everyone and everything else is simply there to provide some sort of support.
And that tends to be true for all who serve. Everyone has a job. It may not be glamorous. But it IS important.
| HHB | A | B | C | SVC | Total | |
| M109A! Howitzers | 6 | 6 | 6 | 18 | ||
| M548 Ammo Carriers | 6 | 6 | 6 | 18 | ||
| M577 CP Tracks | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | |
| M88 Heavy Vehicle Recovery | 1 | 1 | ||||
| M578 Light Vehicle Recovery | 1 | 1 | ||||
| M151 1/4 Ton | 18 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 33 |
| M416 1/4 Ton Trailers | 11 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 21 |
| M561 1 1/4 Ton w/winch | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 |
| M561 1 1/4 w/o winch | 6 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 17 |
| M101 3/4 Ton Trailers | 8 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 20 |
| M792 Ambulance | 1 | 1 | ||||
| M35 2 1/2 Ton w/winch | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| M35 2 1/2 Ton w/o winch | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 13 |
| M109 2 1/2 Ton Shop Van w/winch | 1 | 1 | ||||
| M105 1 1/2 Ton Trailers | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 13 |
| M149 400 Gallon Water Trailer | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| AN/MPQ-4 Radar | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 10KW Trailer Mounted Generator | 1 | 1 | ||||
| M54 5 Ton w/winch | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 8 | |
| M54 5 Ton w/o winch | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 12 | |
| M54 5 Ton w/winch w/2 400 Gallon Fuel Pod | 1 | 1 | ||||
| M54 5 Ton w/o Winch w/2 400 Gallon Fuel Pod | 1 | 1 | ||||
| M331 1 1/2 Ton Ammo Triler | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 18 | |
| M105 1 1/2 Ton Trailers w 1 400 Gal Fuel Pod | 2 | 2 | ||||
| M816 5 Ton Truck Wrecker w/Winch | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Total | 66 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 47 | 233 |
2 Likes
Very nice Tom! This is a unique collection youâve created. I especially like all of the small details youâve added that only those of us that have âbeen there, done thatâ will recognize. Enjoy a peaceful Veterans Day!
1 Like
You too Rick! Looking forward to your build!!
Absolutely fantastic detailing⌠paper in the typewriters⌠you have an unbelievable collectionâŚ
Thanks, Bert!!!
Thanks Tom. Fantastic builds, and a very detailed history. I usually build wingy things and donât worry too much about âtargetsâ, but you Gino and Rick have really wet my interest in some of these subjects. It looks like most of them have kits available, not that Iâve ever noticed and 1/35 typewriter before 
I may have to cast about and buy some of these tracked wonders. 
Wow, what a collection. I cannot even imagine the amount of hours went into all these. Here I am having a hard time building a single model, due to lack of bench time, and you on the other hand are doing a whole battle group. Simply amazing!
This reminds me of a local pastor whom I meet several years ago, an avid modeler. He loved building figures and had a whole collection of battle groups made from different wars and he would use them to educational children in the local schools about American history. It was the coolest thing I ever saw. Just rows of soldiers in red and blue coats with horses and artilleryâs and all in full 3D.
It will take a lot of work but you should consider doing a full display with all your armor vehicles. It will be the best display ever.
Thanks so much for the kind words! Iâve had in the back of my mind a plan for an arrangement of these vehicles. Iâd originally planned on grouping them on 4 separate bases with a couple of vehicles on each one, which could either be displayed individually or put together as a single display if you had enough room.
That was before I expanded the collection to 20 separate vehicles. Iâm now thinking Iâll need a total of 6 separate bases to fit everything onto.
One other comment Iâll add is that while Iâm very comfortable with vehicles and scratch building, Iâm much less so with figures. (Ironic since my late father was a master with 54mm figures, Napoleonic and Civil War). While Iâm not averse to taking on the challenge, it would be helpful if there were
COLD WAR US FIGURES
available.
You can get plenty of figures with Kevlar/BDU era uniforms, as well as WW II and Vietnam with jungle type fatigues.
But the plain old OD fatigues with steel pots, and field jackets and parkas that THOUSANDS of soldiers wore, especially in Germany from the mid 1950âs through the early 80âs shows up in only one or two options, and require extensive re-work to pose as working soldiers outside of a tank hatch.
I may eventually try to convert some but while itâs understandable that manufacturers are more interested in a âshootingâ war than a Cold one, that is a significant piece of military history that is oddly underrepresented.
1 Like
Outstanding work!
in RVN most FOâs traveled with infantry companies and brought their own radioman. Otherwise it was generally done with a FAC. We used regular infantry as well as the FO posted with them. FACâs operated with whomever they were near at the time. SF had their own school of thought when it came into calling in fire missions. Theirâs almost always danger close.
gary
Thatâs for sure; itâs a real pain having to first of all, identify what might be suitable to convert, let alone the onerous task of the actual modifying viz sanding off detail, Milliputing jackets, creases, modifying helmets, re-adding detail, even having to make your own web gear sometimes, it really is a bit of a faff. I suppose thatâs modelling for you! M16 rifles are about the only things readily available.
Sadly the modelling gods seem to ignore us Tom.
2 Likes
find it interesting reading your chart. We were all together different
M35âs all had the winch, but we had two or three at the most
M54âs all had a winch, and there were seven altogether. One for each gun and the motor pool had an M35 and an M54. At one very short time period we actually had eight M54âs, but the last one was CBLâd when a 122 rocket hit the grill.
We had one of the 1.5 ton trailers, but never saw it used but once
no wreckers! There was a few ten ton wreckers back in the rear, but also not attached to our battalion.
We had about five or six water tank trailers that were rotated out almost daily. Never had a large water trailer, but one of the five tons had a home brew tank in the back of it (built at Ft. Bragg)
We used the small portable 10Kw generators that were not mounted to anything. We had two running all the time with two back ups. Later we went to six generators. Noticed you had no M37âs or as for that any 3/4 ton trucks. We had three. One for supply, mess hall, and the motor pool. At onetime there was a fourth shared with commo and the mail delivery. It was sent to the rear with the supply Sargent (along with a Jeep) The motor poolâs M37 was CBLâd and never replaced.
Looking at your list; I have to say thatâs a lot of rolling stock! But of course your in a mechanized outfit. Bet the motor pool was kept busy!
gary
Yeah, being in a Mechanized unit makes a big difference in how your TO&E is set up. At the Battery level we only had three 5-Tons and they were used for ammo resupply from Battalion to the Battery. The guns were SP so of course didnât need a Prime Mover and to account for the ammo that would be carried by the prime mover, each section had an M-548 to carry additional ammo.
Our Mess, Maint, and supply were âupgradedâ from a 3/4 ton truck to a 2 1/2 ton, again, most likely because we were generally expected to be able to move ourselves.
Youâre correct that we had no M-37 3/4 ton trucks. In Germany in the early 70âs almost all of those had been replaced by the M-561 Gama Goat which was a 1 1/4 ton (or a 5/4 ton). But they were used for the commo section, the Battery CP and the XOâs vehicle.
And you are dead right about the motor pool being a busy place!!! Trying to keep all that stuff off deadline was a huge challenge!
Tom
In Vietnam, the dreaded thing about using a truck was the dreaded flat tire (always the inside dual wheel).
The motor pool didnât fix the flats, but the driver did. Funny thing about that was the they fixed the tube and it was yours after that point. Along Highway One, it was a well known procedure. In the remote areas, the trucks never went more than two miles on a dirt road, so it never was an issue.
I may have been miss leading about the generators. We used the small pancake ones, and had three running most always. Every twelve hours the switch was made to the other three. One of the three guys in the motor pool kept them going. I remember loosing two in a one week period, and it was earth shaking! Colonel brought two new ones out on his slick, as we had to have them to shoot. Reason we went to three generators was because we got a radio relay squad, and two couldnât handle the job.
In the field, ammo was a major issue. Really needed a bigger truck than the five ton. It wasnât there. So one unlucky truck was loaded with three hundred HE rounds everyday (that ought to tell you how over built the M54 was). That was the H&I truck. Then another did the basic ammo resupply. A third was for the H&I gun (powder), and another was for basic resupply of powder and fuses. Those guys really worked their butts off everyday. We had a three hundred fifty round cut off for the H&I gun, and have seen a few times when we reached the four hundred shot mark with two guns shooting different sets of targets. Easy to get bad data doing that.
During the late spring right on thru the middle of September; you didnât use the winches much. Come October thru the first of April; you used them almost daily. Good old mud was the issue! I just never dreamed mud could be that bad!
gary
Since it has now been FIFTY years since I was the FDO for the Battery, I have decided that Itâs time that I add one last detail to the FDC track that I left out.
This is the âSecret Squirrelâ safe (not the real name, but what we all called it) which every battery carried out to the field and chained into the track. Youâll notice that there are two combination locks on this safe. I knew the combination to only one lock, and the FDC Chief knew the combination to the other one.
Contained in the safe were codes which we would look up if we got a message saying we should do so. Every time we got a message, when we broke and checked the code, it was always just a test, thank goodness, but there were actual mission codes contained in the safe which would have been used in the event of an actual requirement.
We would occasionally calculate the firing data which we would have used for the real thing, which was slightly different than the standard HE projectile so the data was different, but the round would have been fired with a time fuze to result in an air burst. My âahaâ moment came the first time we ran the numbers and I had to calculate the fuse setting THREE times before I realized that it was correct. A 30 second setting was quite a sobering thought.
Itâs funny- when I got to my first Battery at Ft. Hood, one of first tasks was turn in of all the SW materials and equipment. The BC was glad to get rid of the trucks (Maintenance queens) and a lot the other TOE stuff, got his property book down by a quarter and we did not have to so much admin work just for that. We did keep one safe per FDC to store commo and classified/sensitive stuff though. We also picked through a bunch of stuff that was going to DRMO so the gun chiefs got some stuff they wanted.
Only 30 seconds? Damn that is way too close for my liking. Hope there is at least a hill in the way, or something.
Ken
Now thatâs funny. We had one 2 1/2 Ton as our SW truck. Because of how picky the TPI teams were when they came and evaluated EVERYTHING about our SW program and were merciless when it came to inspecting the vehicle, our SW truck was kept inside a bay in the Motor Pool instead of out in the weather with all our other vehicles, and was meticulously maintained, and except for the TPI was never driven anywhere! It was probably not much different than when it rolled off the assembly line!