M715 as Gun Truck in Vietnam

[Tim Koehn]

I have a friend who wants to turn an M715 into a Gun Truck like was used in Vietnam. I have searched and cannot find that they used them for that. I saw that the book Hard Ride listed M151's, M37's, 2 1/2 T's, and 5 T's but not the M715. Does anyone know if this was done? If not, I want to keep from butchering a restorable M715. Thanks!

Tim

[Barrman]

Tim,
We have had pictures posted of M715's with a single gun mounted in the back. Others with them on gaurd duty around air bases, but I have never seen a picture or heard about one being converted to a "gun truck" like the M35's and bigger were.

Please post up if you find evidence that they were used this way.

[Beast]

From what I've been able to research, there were no 715's used as an up-armored gun truck for convoy support. There are several pics and referances of 715's with machine guns mounted in the bed and used as base/perimiter security. The big thing to remember is that the 715's were not shipped to Vietnam in big quanities, as most were shipped to Europe along with other new equipment to stop the Russia's from crossing the boaders. That was the US's big concern at the time and so most all new equipment was shipped there first. 715's did serve in Vietnam, just not in great quanities like older equipment that had been in service since the begining of the war in 65'. That is also why you don't see a lot of pics of M151a2 in Vietnam, as most went to Europe. There are tons of pics though showing the older M151 and M151a1 in Vietnam.

Dave
1967 Kaiser Jeep M715 weapons carrier:http://www.davidallenracing.com/M715.htm
1967 Kaiser Jeep M35a2 2.5 ton cargo truck: http://www.davidallenracing.com/M35A2.htm
Delta Team Decals: http://www.i2k.com/~schwarzd/

[k8icu]

Like Tim said I've seen pics of them being used as MP or SP (air force security police) trucks with a M60 mounted on a mount in the bed but I've never seen a pic of one "armored" gun truck. Most trucks like that were either 2.5 or 5 tons.