gentlemen-i served in the nam in 65-66 and 68-68 .why is there little or none info on the ontos battallions or platoons. i racked up many miles in support of my grunt brothers as well as many many convoys. we took small arms fire,rpg's and rocket fire as often as anyone else. i feel bad for all the guys who served in at's and not even recognized with a patch of service. sgt h.w.woods jr 2130928 semper fi brothers
i can't believe that all these years of searching resulted in nothing and one comment on the web site and its there. thank you so much for your response. semper fi to all my brothers and sisters. the marine corp a true brotherhood. bud woods
Did some more searching, the link is to the guys at Ft. Knox that did a restoration to make this ontos fully functioning. Some of the videos are short, but it works.
There's a beautiful Ontos at the Marine Corps Museum. I wish I had taken a photo, but it was quite dark and there was no flash photography. Would have been worth breaking the rules for.
My 0353 MOS says ONTOS all over it, but when I got to Vietnam all the anti-tank companies were full up...I came from 5th Anti-tanks in Okinawa...so I was assigned other duties. But you can thank my father for designing the fire control system back in the early 50's when he worked for Harvey Alum. in Long Beach...he's not only still alive but also a former Marine. I have much respect for my Tarawa Veteran Dad.
Originally posted by king_voodoo: There's a beautiful Ontos at the Marine Corps Museum. I wish I had taken a photo, but it was quite dark and there was no flash photography. Would have been worth breaking the rules for.
The doggies had the M-50 Ontos developed as a tank killer in the 1950's (?) and they decided to not go into production with the vehicle for a number of reasons...The mogas for the engine was fairly dangerous to the crew's health & well being most expecially when the vehicle hit a mine. There was virtually no armor protection. The loader had to get out of the vehicle to load the six recoiless rifles. The amount of main gun ammo that one vehicle could carry was fairly small (I do not know the exact amount - sorry) The driving distance range of the vehicle was relitivly short.
Putting all of those objections aside the USMC decided that the Ontos could be a great grunt support vehicle (besides being anti-armor). They formed Anti-tank Battalions and went to war in Vietnam.
The one place that the Ontos made a really great name for itself was in Hue City during the Tet "celebration" in 1968.
Sadly in 1968 - 1969 the USMC in its infinate wisdom deactiveate the Anti-tank Battalions and melded them into the regular Tank Batallions where they remained until that "shoot n scoot" vehicle was retired to the artificial reef system along with it's big brother, the M-48 tank.
First Anti-Tank Bn was our neighbor at Horno in the early 60's. For a specified amount of beer, payable at the e-club (on their turf) a person could go jackrabbit chasing in the tules in an Ontos. The experience was somewhat like being dropped down a really long flight of stairs in a dumpster. Needless to say it was frowned upon by the brass. Straight skinny had it that the loader had to remember to seal the hatch 'lest the backblast from the 106's would suck all the air out of the machine, thereby ruining a whole day for the crew.
1969 it seemed like all the ontos' were stationed at bridgeheads and major stongholds. We had ontos and M-48s and amphibs at Hill 190 for my short stay there.
Originally posted by Fuzzman50: 1969 it seemed like all the ontos' were stationed at bridgeheads and major stongholds. We had ontos and M-48s and amphibs at Hill 190 for my short stay there.
Ontos were not that great out in the bush since landmines, thin armor and mogas did not mix well.
Not that is it that big of a deal but Ontos is capitalized like Marine is. I believe that it is a Greek god's name.
any ontos crewmen out there,would like to notify you of commerative coin that features marine insignia on front and the ontos on back. it is well done and a great keepsake. i also want to notify you of two ontos bn. patches on e-bay. if interested my e-mail is buddyhwoods@yahoo.com. bud woods
