Sunday, February 3, 2013

Convoy Driving

by Kurt Knoblock

U.S. Army
June 1968 - December 1970

Anybody that was in the military knew that you were a number and you were always being "volunteered" for anything -- and everything.

One of my job functions was driving convoy runs to base camps throughout the III Corp area. We had comm sites on these camps.
Kurt Knoblock

On one of these runs, we were out in the boonies and the convoy came to a stop because the MP's were mine sweeping the road ahead. Now, when a convoy stops, you become a target for enemy activity.

The other side of things here was that I was positioned in between two semi flat beds carrying artillery rounds. If anything happened, I would be gone.

After about a half hour, the MP's came down the line and informed us that the road was open. Then he made the comment that they could not guarantee that the road was clear of mines. He said they had swept, but there was just too much area to secure, so we were on our own.

The logic of this still baffles me today. There we were, sitting targets, and even when moving, we were still targets. We made it to the destination okay, but there was a lot of white-knuckle driving along the way ...


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Thank you for your post, Kurt!  I'm glad everything turned out okay -- I can't imagine what that did to your nerves!  ~CJ


“I am only one, but I am one. I can't do everything, but I can do something. The something I ought to do, I can do, and by the grace of God, I will.” ~Everett Hale