What does the "yellow nose" mean?

I see on a lot of gun trucks with the front of the hood painted yellow. I have seen a few non-gun-trucks with the yellow on the nose too. What does this signify?

I believe a certain unit in Vietnam used the "yellow nose" so that the unit commander could find his trucks from the air. Something like that, I'm sure someone here knows the details.

The yellow nose is a distinctive feature of all trucks in 8th Trans Grp. The distinctive yellow stripes were employed to help the commanders orbiting above in helicopters identify which units convoy he was looking down at, so they marked them all...

As an example, notice the shots of the M37.
The shot with the spare tire taken in 1970 Camp Addison (Chrang Valley) the Highlands, Vietnam. Notice that it had the spare mounted on the driver's door. The shot without the spare tire over the driver's door was taken at Phu Bai, Vietnam 1971, near 523rd Trans Company orderly room. During Lam Son 719 (heavy combat) in early 1971 the spare was removed so the driver could exit the vehicle during ambushes.

BTW: I pulled the M37 shots and the caption info from Ralph Fuller's post on the G503... He also stated that in '71 that they were still part of the 8th Group and kept the yellow noses on all of the trucks while assigned to the 26th Group.

A link to the order of battle for the 8th, 48th, and 500th Transportation Groups is:
http://www.transchool.eustis.army.mil/MUSEUM/BOpage.htm

I think it was the 8th transportation group. I'm not 100%, but i'm sure someone will correct me if i'm wrong. It was for identification purposes though.

You guys are right on---The yellow noses were indeed so the 8th group commander could see his convoys from the air (all trucks), that was done in mid 69, then in early 70 (at least in the 523rd) we added another little rally stripe behind the yellow nose---There was also a outfit up in Chu Li that added white noses to their trucks for the same reason, they were a quartermaster unit, one such unit was B Co. 23rd S&T---The Gathering was a huge success, next year will only be bigger and better---keep us in mind, it'd be great to have some of your vehicles in convoy with us.--------Driver

If you want to know something about Vietnam Gun Trucks, Driver is your man.
Uncle Meat was an 8th Group yellow nosed truck assigned to the 523rd Transportation Company. Transferredd to the 26th Group for Lam Son 719 when they went North, the truck kept the yellow nose.
In 1972, the U.S. Army Security Agency, 8th Radio Research Field Station at Phu Bai, inherited three gun trucks. Their primary duty was perimeter security. Uncle Meat is in the middle with a red/white/blue nose.

Sorry to be off topic but gun trucks are just wicked awesome. Wish I could attend the gathering. Next time I visit my sister in the tidewater area, I'm going to Ft Eustis so I can see and hopefully get someone to let me touch Eve of Destruction. Shivers running down my spine.

Kenny: You can just go to Pensacola, Fl and see Ron Smith's Black Widow, a really great example of a 5 ton Vietnam replica gun truck.

If I ever get withing 4 hrs I will check that out. Where will next years Gathering be? I need to plan. Wonder if we could coax Ron into driving it down to the FL rally in Feb?

Pigeon Forge in August 2009....the exact date to be announced.Picture was taken around the 10Th of August 2008 at this years Gathering.

I myself will be trying to re-create the "Nancy" gun truck with the quad 50s. Anyone with good close up pics of the interior of this truck would be greatly appreciated (I know it is asking for a lot).

Halftrack,
I see a quad-fifty in you avatar. Is this yours? is it functional?

superburban said:

Halftrack,
I see a quad-fifty in you avatar. Is this yours? is it functional?

Click to expand...

The guns are dummys but the quad is fully functional and ready to take on the VC. It is easily removable from my halftrack.

So you'll be moving the one from the halftrack to Nancy? Not another one?

How are these things powered?

superburban said:

So you'll be moving the one from the halftrack to Nancy? Not another one?

How are these things powered?

Click to expand...

Yes. The quad will be jumping back and forth from halftrack to gun truc. The are powered by an electric drive motor running off of two batteries that are recharged by a gas powered generator which is all mounted on on the quad gun platform.

Think you might have "NANCY" ready for the Guntruck Gathering next August Halftrack? She would sure be a welcome addition to the Guntruck Crowd. I will see if I can find you some help with the pics.

Thanks.

Nancy in Vietnam

HalfTrack: you can buy the model for $40 at:
http://www.militaryissue.com/product_info.po?ID=9093

Wow! That is the most realistic paint job I have ever seen on a model mv! Who did this?