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When I was in Vietnam, once in a while I'd see an interesting old car and if I had a camera with me, I'd take a picture of it.
When I first went to Vietnam, I didn't know what to expect so I just took a cheap little Kodak fixed focus camera. It took, I think, 110 roll film. In case I was going to be knocking around and it got lost, it wouldn't be much of a loss. So my earliest pictures taken in my tour and a half are the square print format due to the 100 roll film. These were taken in Oct., 1970.
The following two show cars that were not old at the time, but for whatever reason I found them interesting. These were taken at the foot of Le Loi St. in downtown Saigon. The first one was taken in front of the USAID (Agency for Int'l Development) HQ building. There was always a fleet of US government cars out front, all black, and usually 66-67 Ford Fairlanes and 69 Falcons. That is Saigon city hall out back.
The second picture was taken in this same neighborhood and the black car is a '67 Ford Fairlane. The RVN legislature building is in the distant background and you can see the ARVN soldier statue in front of it, which became kinda famous the day the Commies came to town in 1975 and toppled it. In 1971, you could walk through the little park the statue was located in and see all the small, plastic vials that had contained heroin that US servicemen had ingested while sitting on the benches.
After I'd been in Vietnam for a while and was established in a +/- secure rear area, I had my parents send me my German 35mm camera and I used it until I bought a new Minolta SLR later, so most of the pictures are in the 35mm format.
I haven't cropped anything out of these because I wanted all the junk in the background to remain. My scanner, unbidden, did trim upper and lower edges on some prints
The picture below shows me standing next to a 1957 Lincoln Premiere in Vung Tau, taken in Feb., 1971.
Below is a picture of the back end of a 1958 Edsel. Actually, I saw several '58 Edsels during my time there, not a rare car at the time. Note the license plate, that must've been assigned to a Citroen at one time because it has the dual chevrons emblem of that company separating the letter prefix from the numbers. The origins of that logo for the Citroen company is derived from the fact that Andre Citroen was the inventor of the herringbone helical gear pattern.
The picture below was of a not-so-rare 1961 Ford four door sedan. It was taken circa 1970 outside of Long Binh Post and the roadway to the left is QL (National Highway) 1.
This picture shows a car most Americans haven't heard of. This is a French Hotchkiss, about a 1955 model. This was made by the same company that made the famous Hotchkiss cannons and the emblem on the grill of this car had the crossed cannons for identification. The Vietnamese who were driving this car had suffered a break-down. In the custom of the time and place, they had jacked the car up right on the side of the road on QL-1 and had disassembled the differential on the spot.
This is the Citroen Traction Avant, a very famous and numerous model in Vietnam as well as metro France and presumably her other former possessions. Our Vietnamese workers always simply referred to these as "Black Car" but I did see a few in grey.
Now in this picture, you see a 1956 Ford Thunderbird. I didn't know at the time, but I guess this car was somewhat famous around Saigon. Some time after I returned, I was talking to a civilian contractor who'd done time there and he was familiar with the car and mentioned it's noteworthiness. Why it doesn't have the typical front bumper used on most '55 and '56 models, which have two prominent round adornments on the upper edge, I do not know. I've seen pictures of a few other Birds that had this simple, straight bumper so it was factory. Maybe made for export? Taken in 1970.
One day in Jan., 1972 I was sitting at a restaurant at a major road junction. The following two pictures were taken where QL-13 originates in the south and goes north to Dau Tieng and An Loc. Soldiers in the Big Red One and the 25th Inf. Div. referred to QL-13 as "Thunder Road." The cars in these pictures were used as everyday taxis and were not uncommon. They show post-WW2 Ford and Plymouth sedans.
Now this last set of pictures pertains to "The Cadillac Story." Late in my time in Vietnam, around Jan. - Feb., 1972, I rode around a bit with our unit supply sergeant as my time was winding down. He had a weekly laundry run to Thu Duc and on the way, we passed through a village called Binh Trieu. On one such trip, I looked out the window of the Dodge M37 truck and spotted a 1953 Cadillac. My neighbors when I was growing up had one of these and it was a wonderful car. I asked Sergeant Kittel to stop so we could have a look. As a real adult now, I would never stop and start snooping around on private property in gooner country. Because I know better. But then, I didn't yet have the maturity nor common sense not to. We drove up the path to where this car was, and the building looked like a restaurant, which it was. The covered dining area was built out over a large pond. They were closed during the day as they did an evening trade. I got out of the truck and walked over to look at the Cadillac, which was partially covered with a tarp. By this time, two very healthy-looking young men came around with unfriendly demeanor. I don't think they spoke English, but when I gestured toward the car, they went back into the building. Shortly thereafter, a wizened old guy came out in his pajamas; he spoke some English. We talked about the car for a while. He told me it ran, but the battery was no good. He allowed me to open the hood and I could see that it was set up for a large, later battery. If you've been under the hood of these old Cadillacs, you'd know that they took a long, narrow battery that slipped down into a rather awkward compartment behind the right front wheel under the right hood hinge. Someone had fabricated a welded steel shelf and bolted it to the firewall to accept a more modern-sized battery. The man explained that batteries were rationed and he was unable to get one. He told me his name was Minh and he owned the car and the restaurant. As we were leaving, I told him that I'd see about getting him a battery and that we'd be back.
My assignment was with an ordnance battalion, and one of our missions (Project Keystone) was to ship military vehicles offshore for rebuild, etc. Vehicles to be shipped were to have all fuel, oils and lubricants removed, also all ammo, and the batteries (acid is corrosive). Consequently, we had an enormous pile of those big, square 12v batteries recently removed from 2-1/2 and 5 ton trucks. Each truck had two ganged in series to give 24v. They were big and heavy and had rope straps built in for hefting them around. Since most of the trucks were driven into the compound, you could figure that most of the batteries in this pile were good. So, on the day of the next laundry run, we drove by there and I kiped one.
We took the route through Binh Trieu and stopped at Minh's place on the way back. When he saw our truck, he came out right away. I gave him the battery and he was grateful to get it. Very soon there was free beer for us on the table in spite of their being closed for business.
The third time we stopped there, Minh had installed the battery, the car was uncovered and he'd been driving it. He turned out to be a kind of interesting old coot. In addition to his restaurant business, he owned a bicycle shop in Saigon. His claim to fame was that he'd been a champion breast stroke swimmer. He explained that he'd trained for the olympics, which was to be held in 1940 in Japan. Because WW2 had already started (for some of the world), the 1940 Olympic games were cancelled. However, the Japanese sponsored an East Asian Games in 1940 and it was there that he won a medal for the breast stroke.
Thereafter, it was free beer for us but since I was very short I didn't get to take full advantage of the reward.
'53 Cadillac when I first saw it.
Picture taken after Minh got the car running again with the replacement battery.
Sergeant Otto Kittel, Minh and I enjoying a cold one over the pond. Which, incedentally, was stocked with fish used by the restaurant. All the food waste from the establishment went into the pond and fattened up the fish for meals. Kittel a second enlistment soldier, who'd done a prior tour in Vietnam. He had a Colt Commando .38 in that shoulder holster. Nice jump boots, starched jungle fatigues. I was in my usual rumpled, crappy jungle fatigues, skinned-up, greasy issue boots only partially laced, needed a haircut, blah, blah.
Same place, Kittel must've taken this picture. I've got my Smith & Wesson .38 revolver hanging from a GI pistol belt. I still have that gun; I brought it back in the bottom of my duffel bag. Note the brands of beer on the table, Carling Black Label and Vietnamese Beer 33.
I haven't put any of these pictures up on the web before, and I know they'll turn up elsewhere now. It amazes me to do a search sometimes and see where some of my pictures have gone online. However, I don't resent it because sharing them is better than them dying in a scrapbook.
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...mebbe we should make this a sticky here-or move it to the Vietnam section and sticky it there... 
