The Amazingly Versatile, Multi-Purpose Dump Truck

Sep 18, 2024 - one year ago

All Seabee truck drivers and equipment operators carried holstered Colt 45 handguns and M-16 assault rifles. Thankfully, none of us ever fired them during combat, even though we did work in hostile territory mostly every day.

A Trucker's Tale - The Amazingly Versatile, Multi-Purpose Dump Truck — *Me, standing beside one of the dump trucks we used to haul sand to the Army soldiers. Ed Miller photo.*

Those times that we were required to do construction in an area of ongoing enemy activity, or when we replaced highway culverts while working during the night, we were guarded by either Army or Marine troops. Both groups literally “had our backs,” and we will always be indebted to those guys.

Although the Army’s Camp Evans sat adjacent to the Seabee’s Camp Haines, Camp Evans frequently came under fire from rockets and mortars. This was likely due to Camp Evans being an operations base for Cobra attack helicopters. We had heard some of the Army soldiers saying they wished they had some dump trucks of their own so they could stockpile sand, which would enable them to fill sandbags to build stronger bunkers. The nightly rocket attacks scared the soldiers. Hell, when they were hit, we were also likely to be hit and it scared us, too. The “incoming” warning sirens also sent us to our bunkers.

One way to thank the Army soldiers for providing our security, even though they never asked us to do so, was to use some of our time off Sunday afternoons to deliver dump truck loads of sand to numerous locations throughout Camp Evans. After we had dumped the first load of sand, word quickly got around the base, so all we had to do was drive through their gate with another load of sand and soldiers would suddenly appear to direct us to a delivery point. One Sunday afternoon, we had so many dump trucks on Camp Evans that it looked like a Seabee camp. The Army dudes acted like Christmas had come, and we were glad we could do this for them.

Most of the Army soldiers tried to outshine each other, just as we Seabees did with balancing 110 ft telephone poles on the forks of a forklift, which led to many of their bunkers being quite elaborate, which, of course required many sandbags. When our initial supply of sand was depleted, the Army soldiers requested more sand by letting us know that they would love to trade items for more truck loads. We had the sand they wanted. They had the things we wanted, such as jungle boots, boonie hats, and poncho liners. We quickly learned the barter system worked damned well in Southeast Asia.

One night during a mortar attack on the Army base, Camp Evans, we Seabees ran from our beds and dove into our bunker located on the side of our hooch. When we noticed one of our guys missing, a friend and I ran back into our hooch, where we found Bob trying his best to crawl into his own clothes locker. We think this action may have been caused by him spending his evening at the enlisted men’s club. Nevertheless, we grabbed him and dragged him out to the bunker. The following morning, Bob didn’t believe our version of what actually happened during the night, and although he did remember having been in the bunker the previous evening, he wasn’t about to admit that he had tried to paw his way into his own locker.

Every trucker knows that dump trucks basically have only one purpose, but a friend of ours found another use for his dump bed during lunch one day. This fellow had pulled his truck into position to be loaded first after lunch, and it was parked alongside a dirt wall. A bulldozer would push the dirt over the top of the 20’ high wall, and then a front-end loader would load each dump truck. The dozer driver stayed on his equipment while he ate his C-rations, which provided him with a view of all personnel and trucks below him.

We all watched the driver of that first parked dump truck as he climbed from his cab. He walked several yards to greet this nice looking, 18- to 20-year-old young woman who had come to visit him. The driver helped the girl up into the bed of the dump truck, and he had come prepared by bringing his poncho liner (blanket).

I suppose our Commanding Officer just loved keeping track of how we were performing our duties, because he drove-up in his Jeep just after the driver had taken his girl into his bed (dump bed that is). The CO asked of the missing driver’s whereabouts, and someone told him that he had gone behind some bushes to do his “business.” After speaking with the rest of us for a few minutes, the CO drove away.

After lunch, the dump truck driver had a big smile on his face as he helped the girl down off the rear of the dump bed. He walked with her for a short distance before he returned to his truck. Before we started back to work, the dozer operator hollered down at us to get our attention. He asked that we not label him as Peeping Tom, but due to his position on top of the wall, he had watched the driver with his girl while the CO was on-site. He also said that the soldier, who had told the captain about the missing driver doing his “business,” sure as hell knew what he was talking about, because the driver had certainly been giving the “business” to the girl the whole time the CO was talking to us a few feet away in his Jeep. The dozer operator said he damned-nearly laughed out loud when the dump truck driver looked up at the dozer operator, grinned at him, and shot him a “thumbs-up.” We all applauded the dump truck driver for “unloading on time.”

I was driving supply runs back and forth from Danang, so I did not witness that particular driver having other clandestine meetings with the young lady, but other drivers related that the couples “get-togethers” happened frequently for several weeks.

Ed Miller ([email protected]) has more than 40 years of management and ownership experience in the trucking industry. Today, he is a part-time tour bus driver, published author of “A Trucker’s Tale”, and regular contributor to Supply Post. He is a father of three and a grandfather of two, and lives with his wife in Rising Sun, Maryland.