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If anyone has more details about "Ben Het" please post.
"The Vietnam War" This video is worth a look at if you haven't seen it...The page "History of American Wars" has many links to all American Wars and Weapons used in them. It's a Very Nice Read...Contains some Really Nice Stories, Pics and Videos.
I met SGM Wayne Van Dike (actually spelled with a Y, just the censor won't let it through) just before he passed, back in 1998. He was part of the Captured Materiel Exploitation Center in Vietnam, and was instrumental in the recovery and shipping back of the first fairly intact PT76 they found over there. It was a ways back up into the country, and had to be cut into four pieces to be lifted back to the CMEC. Then welded back together at Aberdeen Proving Ground. A lot of stories about other things they found out there. I was part of the modern CMEC-fielding unit (FMIB/203rd MI) at the time I met him.
Last edited by matthanne1; 12-11-2016 at 05:41 PM.
It had to be cut because it could not be dragged or lifted by Chinook- so they lifted in a cutting crew and measured a few times, and then laid it out again in Saigon before crating it to go back. He had a lot more details about it but he had more about other things they found. When I met him, he was in Harford Memorial Hospital 'on orders' for the Reception Station 'upstairs'. Lived an amazing life, probably knew and fired that FG42 as well. It might even have ended up at APGs Ord Museum, Doc Atwater had a bunch of items there before he retired and the place was scrapped/moved.
Jolly green giant...except higher probably didn't care enough. That leaves it to the lower ech to bring it back and study it so the highers can later take credit for it. Wonder where it finally ended up?
The PT76 was very light even for a 'light' tank; it would float. It's armor could be defeated by a .50 cal machine gun and if there were five PT76s' against one M-48, I would feel far more safe in the M-48. I am not surprised at the massive damage done to the two destroyed PT76s' quite possibly done by artillery but easily may have been done by 90mm HE rounds from one of the M-48s. I read that one of the PT76 was destroyed by a LAW. This is generally the area where I served with 1/10th Cav but I never got further north than the village of Vo Dinh (sp) on highway 14 just north of Kontom. Ben Het is northwest of that towards the border if memory serves. Best. Tom
In 1975, I was shown a classified film of NVA tanks being engaged by US Army UH1 gunships firing test versions of an anti-armor wire guided missile near during the Battle of Kontum in 1971. I remember in one scene the gunship fired past a water tower to engage a tank on a road. There wasn't much left of the tank after the smoke cleared. One thing that surprised me from the film was that they used UH1 gunships instead of AH1 Cobra gunships.
As to what happened to the recovered PT-76- once measured and tested (including a lot of non-destructive modes), if it can be used at all it may go to various agencies, like Tank and Automotive Command for review. However, most 'unserviceable' or marginally usable foreign gear eventually goes to the Lethality Core testing ranges where US weapons are tested against it. Then, if it hasn't happened as a matter of testing, it is scrapped.
Almost all stuff that we run across or find gets a scheduled 'date with destiny' as oftentimes the Lethality Core budget was one of the paying agencies that got the item in the first place. Sometimes you cringe when you see what happens to these things, but we really do find out critical factors about the items. We don't have money for a real 'Kubinka' anymore, especially with EPA breathing down our necks for 'particulate contamination' (aka rust). You guys who follow the APG museum know it has left. The FMIB museum closed over 20 years ago.
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Originally Posted by matthanne1
