I am the Historian for the National Dusters, Quads and Searchlight Association and we cover all the air defense artillery units that served in Vietnam.

I trained on the M-42A1 Duster AW SP "twin-40mm" tracked vehicle and the M-55 quad 50 machine gun mount. I served with B Btry, 4th Bn 60th Arty (Dusters) in Pleiku in 1971 and closed out these types of units in late 1971.

The ADA units in Vietnam include the four quad-.50 batteries that were specifically created to serve in Vietnam. These were initially 2.5-ton movers with the M-55 trailer mounted quad 50 gun carriage bolted to the truck bed and later changed to the 5-ton mover.

They served multiple tasks during their roughly 5 years of service including: anti aircraft coverage for ground troops (very rare/never); firebase perimeter defense (daily); strong point security (daily) and of course convoy escort and security (routinely).

In their role as convoy escort and protection they would typically fall under the category of Vietnam Era Guntruck. These Quad 50 batteries were specifically designed, trained and manned for this task by dedicated officers and enlisted men of which 32 died in service.

In order to assist modelers and other historians in preserving the imagery and memory of these men, I will try to be available to respond to technical and historical questions about these units.

ADA "First to Fire" and our motto continues with "Last to Leave"

Respectfully
Paul Kopsick
DQS Historian

I may not get to this site very often, feel free to contact me at:

[[email protected]]

For those looking for something "different" to model, consider the Mutt 151A1 with a Xenon searchligh mount.

For the really adventurous ask me about "The Leprechaun"

Welcome to the site Paul. Also if you haven't already been here, here is a link to the Gun Truck site

http://groups.msn.com/VietnamGuntrucks/_homepage.msnw?pgmarket=en-us

Thanks for the reply.
Dave,

I have been semi-tracking Guntrucks on the web for several years and have provided several images to Jim Lyles over the years. I've been to most sites but things change, move and start up all the time.

I hope to be able to clear up any confusions between the collective Vietnam Guntruck universe and the Quad 50's specifically deployed as E Btry 41st Arty (MG); G Btry 55th Arty (MG); G Btry 65th Arty (MG) and D Btry 71st Arty (MG).

What I lack in modeling skills I hope to make up for in technical and historical information.

Regards,
Paul

Paul, welcome to Armorama. We have a few guntruck modlers here, me included. I have one for you. What can you tell us about AFV Clubs newly announced M548A1 w/Quad .50 mounted on it?


Scroll down to the bottom of the PMMS new models, AFV Club page to see the boxart.

There has been speculation that none were actually fielded and it was only a test vehicle. I have seen one pic of one with soldiers on it, but it wasn't very good and some speculated that it was a retouched pic as well. Any ideas?

Ciao Gino,
I have researched the early development of self propelled anti aircraft weapon systems including prototypes and had not seen this configuration before.

What I am excited about (from the picture shown) is that the mount used looks like the trailer M-55 wheels removed. The eye-ring tounge is visible.

I can see this configuration only being of use for anti aircraft and not for ground support. The side walls preclude it being used except for high flying targets.

I do not see the square base of the M-55 but the towing tounge and jacks appear to be there.

The only M-55 model that I know of is/was the Kirin resin model which I have only seen three on Ebay in 5 years. I got the last one at an outrageous price but that is supply and demand for you.

If AFV makes a good M-55 sprue in this model, I would want it to make "realistic" Quad 50 gun trucks from my Vietnam units (still looking for a good 5-ton for us less talanted modelers). The AFV Nancy has the round collar mount which we did not use.

Hope this helps.

Paul

Follow-up

I looked at the box art and it looks like they can fire "sideways".

As to if this was ever a configuration used in Vietnam, I can saw with certainty that it was NOT deployed with any of the "official" ADA units in Vietnam.

However...it does share the general configuration of "The Leprechaun" an APC with a quad 50 mounted on top of it. It was a one time configuration and resulted in the deaths of three men.

So many stories....

Please keep me informed on these kind of things.

Paul

Thanks. Interesting stuff. Yup, according to the picture taker, the full M-55 trailer is included. Jim Lewis apparently helped them out with this one and convinced them to use the M-55 as opposed to the collar as in Nancy. Hope it comes out soon. Would be great to get just for the M55 to use on a guntruck and still have the M548 as another kit. Especially since the M548 is OOP. Also, rumor from Jim Lewis is that an M54 guntruck may be on the way from AFV Club as well.

Paul

Welcome to the site and thanks for the info you have provided That M548 with quad 50 would make a great what-if build

Gino,
My thanks to Jim Lewis. Hey how can I get in touch with AFV people to try and get some "first-person" input into models supposed to represent actual Vietnam configurations?

I hear AFV is also working on a Duster (my unit) and all the Duster models to date have failed to include 40mm ammo cans or 4-rounds on a clip.

On further thought, the M548A1 looks like the mover for the Chaparrel ADA system. This system was in operation during Vietnam but not IN Vietnam. Both the Chaparrel and the M-55 mount were active at Fort Bliss Texas. That was where I was trained.

The main shortcoming of the Quad 50 on the 2.5 and 5-ton movers was that it could not go "off road" with the other tracked vehicles (that is why the Duster was so valuable). So any tracked mover that could handle the Quad 50 would be viable. I can see R&D trying to marry the two. The APC was too high and the configuration was very top heavy. The lower M548A1 would have helped but would not provide much protection from mines. That is what happened to the Leprechaun. It was specifically targeted by a command detonated mine killing the Cav driver and two E-41st Arty quad crewman.

I am amazed that such a R&D type model could be put into production while overlooking the Quad 5-ton.

We have a Vet that had his truck constructed by a professional model builder. WInning several awards. Reportedly there is some interest in developing a commercial kit from him specs.

Paul

Paul,
No idea how to get in touch with AFV Club reps. Check with Jim Lewis though, he should be able to get you in touch with them.

The M730A1 Chaparrel was on the same M548A1 chassis. Also, AFV Club has a model of it as well, currently OOP too.



Hope an M54A1 Guntruck comes out. I have converted the M35/M925 to make an M54A1. Wasn't too difficult, just time consuming and expensive. Check out mine here.

Thanks again and good luck.

Actually Gino, I wish I could take "credit" for this one - but the M548 Quad concept and project was going on before I became associated with AFV Club/Hobby Fan.

M54 Cargo Trucks and gun truck conversions based on them - well - that's a different story...

Since Paul has e-mailed me, I now have a contact for information along those lines...

Gunnie

Oh well, still a good looking kit even if you had nothing to do with it. Hope those M54 Guntrucks come to fruition. Thanks for pushing this with them as well.