"puffer@rpi.edu" wrote:

Yup, I was in the 1st CAV Div, 70-71. I commanded a forward support company, supporting the 3d Bde of the CAV on Firebase Mace.

Ok, If ya ever want to get back in the seat of one let me know.

"Deas wrote:

Hi, FaCatGotHot.
I had forgotten all about that thread over on CMN. Thanks for reminding me.

Clearing photos:



The last 2 photos are of a machine nicknamed Big Lizzie preserved at Red Cliffs, Victoria, Australia. Originally built to haul wagons for freighting, it was found that she was too heavy to get across the Murray River to where she was supposed to go. She spent some years doing land clearing work around the Red Cliffs area before being abandoned, She is currently under (slow) restoration.

Just my 0.02.

Hi Deas, that made me corious. Here some details on this mechanical camel train - also land clearing operations are explainend:

redcliffshistory.wordpress.com/history/big-lizzie/

"puffer@rpi.edu" wrote:

No discussion of land clearing would be complete without including the Rome Plows used for land clearing in Vietnam.

Probably as nasty as land clearing can get: As a spearhead under enemy fire, aggressive bamboo fibre dust in the air, long, hot days followed by maintenance and repair in the evening and just little sleep. On one cab carried the slogan : "We're not sleeping, we're dozing." Thanks for sharing, the Rome Plows and Jungle Eaters will have a special section in the article.

"FatCatGotHot" wrote:

Probably as nasty as land clearing can get: As a spearhead under enemy fire, aggressive bamboo fibre dust in the air, long, hot days followed by maintenance and repair in the evening and just little sleep. On one cab carried the slogan : "We're not sleeping, we're dozing." Thanks for sharing, the Rome Plows and Jungle Eaters will have a special section in the article.

And the mud, snakes, spiders, bomb craters and land mines!

"Rome wrote:

And the mud, snakes, spiders, bomb craters and land mines!

And don't forget the rockets, mortars, punji stakes, satchel charges, AK47s, monsoon rains, and terrible beer. Other than that, Vietnam was a beautiful place.

From JUNGLE FOR LUNCH, written by Peter Elliot:


....

"It's difficult to defend against RPGs," sayd Staff Sergeant Dick Koutch, a platoon sergeant with the 60th. "They dont aim for the tracks or engine," he said, "they go for the cab, trying to get the driver. In Cambodia, documents were found which put a price on a Rome Plow Operator's head. It makes you think," he added.


...

Rome K-G Cat D9G by Ad Gevers

Further above, text also mentions the four D9G Rome Plows used in Vietnam:

"... Recently, on a experimantal basis, the D-9 bulldozer, twice the size of a D-7, was introduced to Vietnam's jungles. It weighs 57 tons and can claw out a 16 foot section of jungle in a single pass.
In heavy, double-canopy Jungle, the D-9 is devastating. Where the D-7 cuts 10 acres of jungle in a work day, the D-9 sweeps away 30. "It's like driving the atom bomb," said one seasoned driver.
"It rolls right over trees that the D-7 would have to go after with its stinger," said Specialist Four Tom Grogan, a D-9 operator. "And it has better weight displacement per square inch, meaning it goes over mud in which the D-7 would bog down." .... "

Other reports mentionend that the D9Gs could clear the jungle so fast that the infantry/vehicles supporting them had problems to keep up wit their pace. And it was very difficult to recover a D9 from the many bomb craters, filled with mud and water. While the US military used D7 and D9 tractors, the Australian Army used D8-H tractors, but I don't know in which numbers. They carried angle- or SU-blades and K/G blades, too.

www.awm.gov.au/collection/C349269


With best regards,
Max

...and here an old drawing I did in 2005, showing a cable-operatoted Rome Plow on a D9E.

D9E FCGH frame by FatCatGotHot

Thats some great artwork there!!

"FatCatGotHot" wrote:

From JUNGLE FOR LUNCH, written by Peter Elliot:


....

"It's difficult to defend against RPGs," sayd Staff Sergeant Dick Koutch, a platoon sergeant with the 60th. "They dont aim for the tracks or engine," he said, "they go for the cab, trying to get the driver. In Cambodia, documents were found which put a price on a Rome Plow Operator's head. It makes you think," he added.


...

Rome K-G Cat D9G by Ad Gevers

Further above, text also mentions the four D9G Rome Plows used in Vietnam:

"... Recently, on a experimantal basis, the D-9 bulldozer, twice the size of a D-7, was introduced to Vietnam's jungles. It weighs 57 tons and can claw out a 16 foot section of jungle in a single pass.
In heavy, double-canopy Jungle, the D-9 is devastating. Where the D-7 cuts 10 acres of jungle in a work day, the D-9 sweeps away 30. "It's like driving the atom bomb," said one seasoned driver.
"It rolls right over trees that the D-7 would have to go after with its stinger," said Specialist Four Tom Grogan, a D-9 operator. "And it has better weight displacement per square inch, meaning it goes over mud in which the D-7 would bog down." .... "

Other reports mentionend that the D9Gs could clear the jungle so fast that the infantry/vehicles supporting them had problems to keep up wit their pace. And it was very difficult to recover a D9 from the many bomb craters, filled with mud and water. While the US military used D7 and D9 tractors, the Australian Army used D8-H tractors, but I don't know in which numbers. They carried angle- or SU-blades and K/G blades, too.

www.awm.gov.au/collection/C349269


With best regards,
Max

It just looks like it means business with that cab, grill guard and Rome blade.

A few pix from Australian war Memorial Site Canberra.
Foliage hidden B52 bomb craters were a big problem not to mention wasp/bee nests and all the other things mentioned above.
Another era. I despair that what we supposedly fought for all gone when I see the world and all the shysters today--my God.

Cheers,
Eddie B. RAE, 17 Construction Squadron, Plant Operator, Vietnam, May 1968-69.