Got a new toy

Sorry Rusty that is a very expensive ready to run fairly large model of a US Army Viet Nam Patrol type boat.

Edited in...Crap I am all wet...It IS a NAVY Patrol boat, but a PT -105

The rest about Army PBs is still fairly relevant

I am not up on all the different versions...Many refereed to as PB (supposed to be Patrol Boat- but jokingly many called them Plastic Boat) as some made from plastic others plywood, some were called Swift Boats and they were aluminum

IIRC over the Viet Nam years there were some 13 different versions

Had a good Army buddy who was a "River Rat". He said they were crowded, the river patrol was always hot, humid, snakes and bugs, generally a miserable experience... side of river vegetation was so dense a ambush was always around the next bend and not realized until the shooting started

Have a buddy who was a twin 50 cal. gunner on an Army boat in Viet Nam. He said he had a great time chewing up stuff with Twin 50's until a bad guy with a captured M16 hit his arm during a firefight.
Today, he has bad scar on his arm but the Gov sends him $115 per month for the disability..
Wow, what a deal !!! (sarc).

Hey, Fred, thanks for straightening me out. I read more about PT boats of WWII and they were about 80' long, which, judging by the fuel drums, Bob's model is not. His type of craft looks to be about 20'? Much better as a river runner. And the Boonie hat should have given it away. But I got a kick out of watching some old B&W TV videos about PT boats and even JFK.

66 Malibu wrote:Have a buddy who was a twin 50 cal. gunner on an Army boat in Viet Nam. He said he had a great time chewing up stuff with Twin 50's until a bad guy with a captured M16 hit his arm during a firefight.
Today, he has bad scar on his arm but the Gov sends him $115 per month for the disability..
Wow, what a deal !!! (sarc).

Hi Steve, how ya doin' these days?

No kidding, Thanks for your service, soldier. Here's your reward. Don't spend it all in one place.

I don't know what they were originally called. But, the one I served on (that's a much younger me in the picture) was called a PBR for patrol boat, riverine. It was a fiberglass over balsa hull. It had a pair of Detroit 250's that ran Jacuzzi pumps. The out drives were steerable and had clam shells to go from forward to reverse or back again almost immediately. I saw the model while at the LHS and had to have it. It brought back lots of memories.