Com-Central.net

Some terrific stuff here, if these interest you....quad fifty mounts, too.

www.mystae.com/reflect...tosc2.html

www.mystae.com/reflect...otosc.html

www.mystae.com/reflect...hotos.html

So what brought on this interest in M42 Dusters, might it be the 40mm casing you aquired? While M42's might not be as glamorus as tanks, they hold a fond memory for me. It was 1976 or so, when my father took the family to Camp Perry, Ohio, (where the NRA holds its national matches) during his two week summer camps with the Ohio National Guard. At the time, he was a Major and we stayed in a cabin on the lake, on post. He took me out to watch the Dusters and 20mm Vulcans shoot at towed targets that were pulled by remote control planes out over Lake Erie. My dad got me 4- 40mm casings and 2- 20mm casings, as souveniers. Good times. Late that next year, I took one of the 40mm casing to music class in 6th grade and tapped on it with a drum stick as all the kids were told to bring some sort of item that would make a musical sound to class. It was a huge hit, kind of like "show and tell" as well. Can you imagine a kid today bringing a 40mm casing to school for music class in todays world?! My lunch box was a 30cal ammo can, which I still have!!!

Jeff,
M42 Dusters are just wicked cool, basically like a sawed-off shotgun version of an M41 Walker "Bulldog", itself a mighty pretty tank. And most saw their only real "duty" not in ADA, but in various forms of perimeter and/or convoy defense in Vietnam. Pretty regular sight on the firebases, and spectacular to watch in night fire.

Here is a well-known one from the museum located at the Citadel in Hué, Vietnam....and not altogether unlikely to be one I had seen during the war in the same region. What is especially notable about this one is the presence of the two spare barrels still in their mounts on the fender.

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This picture is from the 4 July 1997 parade in Norwalk, Ohio. Below is a cut/paste I found on the M42 Duster from the Fort Snelling site;
The "Duster" as it's called, is a self propelled anti-aircraft defense weapon system. It is a fully armored vehicle with the engine at the rear. Although designed for deployment with armored divisions as a means of providing mobile anti-aircraft defense, their rapid rate of fire has proven to be an invaluable infantry support weapon against ground targets. Two Swedish Bofors 40mm fully automatic cannons are mounted in the turret, and can fire 240 rounds per minute. The chassis is based on an M41 light tank model with a flat opposed 6 cylinder air cooled gasoline engine, providing 500 hp. The gun system was used in World War II on a similar vehicle, and later upgraded to this model. It is manned by a crew of six men, and has a top speed of 45 mph.
ling site;

- SFC_Jeff_Button

! My lunch box was a 30cal ammo can, which I still have!!!

Ah ha! The root of all evil has been identified! If it had been a pink plastic one, you'd probably have become an interior designer; if it had been diamond plate stamped steel, a high steel ironworker; etc ....

FYI, you may want to check out the "American Experience" episode on the PLO hijacking of four airliners and landing them in the Jordanioan desert in 1970. They have footage in the program of Jordanian Amry Dusters and M113s which were brought up to the scene to secure a perimeter around the area. The PBS website may enable those with fast connections to see the program online.