Bryan came out of his hootch one morning to find that his jeep was gone, leaving an empty spot where about 1,200 pounds of steel and glass had been sitting the evening before. He thought to himself, “That’s it! I’m leaving this damn country!” That jeep was special to Bryan because he had been driving it for three years and it had become a part of him. His Jeep started as a standard M-151 U.S. Army jeep issued to Bryan so that he could travel around South Vietnam doing his job as a Boeing Vertol Technical Representative, a “Tech Rep”, for the big CH-47 Chinook helicopters Boeing had manufactured at their plant just south of Philadelphia. Chinooks were used throughout the country and being complex aircraft, sometimes required the experience of someone from Boeing to keep them maintained and in the fight. No, the jeep itself wasn’t unusual when it was issued, just another olive drab (OD) four-wheeler, but since Bryan had had it, it became perhaps the most unusual jeep in Vietnam.

This wasn’t the first time Bryan’s jeep had disappeared. The first time was when he was the Tech Rep to one of the Chinook companies in the central part of South Vietnam, what the Army called “III” Corps”. That time too he came out of his hootch to find the jeep missing. He reported it immediately to the company commander (CO) of “Big Windy”, call sign of the company he was supporting, and was a bit surprised to find that the CO wasn’t too concerned about it. “Maybe someone just borrowed it for a while and it’ll turn up”, he said.

Now the problem with that is, usually when someone steals a jeep, the first thing they do is to repaint the identifying numbers on the front and rear bumpers. Without those numbers you must check the manufacturer’s serial number to see if it’s yours and since there are so very many jeeps about and they all look exactly alike, that’s virtually impossible. Bryan shrugged and got on with his daily business. After all, the Army would have to give him another one so that he could meet Boeing’s contractual obligations if that one couldn’t be found. He couldn’t go from unit to unit to help them with their maintenance issues if he didn’t have transportation.

The CO was right. Bryan’s jeep did turn up – three days later. When he walked out of his hootch on the third morning, there it was. Only it was different now. Instead of the standard OD paint job, it was lipstick pink. Instead of an OD green canvas top it now sported a pink and white stripped surrey top, complete with a white fringe around the sides. Bryan couldn’t have been happier! While to some, driving a hot pink jeep with a pink and white surrey top in a war zone might be considered making oneself an automatic target, Bryan didn’t see it that way. As he saw it, it was the exact opposite. His one-of-a-kind M-151 jeep marked him as a non-combatant to anyone looking in his direction. It also had the added value that because it was so obvious, it would be difficult for anyone to steal since everyone turned their head when Bryan’s jeep passed by.

It seems that the maintenance crew at Big Windy liked Bryan a lot for all the work he saved them with his expert advice and knowledge of how to find the answer to obscure maintenance problems. To show their appreciation, they decided that he should ride in style. To help that along they stole his jeep, took it to the paint shop and using some “borrowed” painted, repainted it lipstick pink. While they were doing the painting, another shop was making the custom pink and white stripped surrey top. After giving the paint time to dry, they returned it to its usual parking spot for Bryan to find.

Eighteen months later, Bryan drove his jeep two hundred miles north to the city of Phu Bai and his new unit the Army and Boeing had assigned him to support. He would now be working with C Co, 159^th Assault Support Helicopter Battalion, 101^st Airborne Division (Airmobile), call sign “Playtex”. Playtex’s motto was either “We give living support” or “Support Extraordinaire” depending on who you asked. Like everyone else had done, when they first saw Bryan’s jeep, the men of Playtex were incredulous. Did he drive that jeep over 200 miles without an escort or even a weapon?  He did indeed.

Besides being an outstanding Tech Rep, Bryan was a very personable fellow. No one ever saw him in a bad mood. Besides that, he was always up for whatever was happening – say, parties for instance. The 101^st Airborne Division didn’t allow anyone assigned to the division off their base except for missions. While the vast markets of Hue City, where every wish could be fulfilled, were just ten miles up the road, there was no way for any of the Playtex men to take advantage of them. This is where Bryan came in. If a party was planned and some good French wine was required for that party, Bryan, being a civilian, could go where he pleased. It pleased him to go into Hue City and buy the wine and while he was there, to buy some excellent bread and pastries that the French had taught the Vietnamese to bake. No one ever bothered him on any of his unarmed trips into the city. Perhaps the Viet Cong were amused at the sight of a lipstick pink jeep. Parties were always better when Bryan contributed, so he had a standing invitation to all of them, which he was only too happy to accept.

In January 1972 Playtex stood down and returned to the United States, their part in the war completed. Bryan departed in his spectacular jeep for another unit further south, again driving the entire distance alone and unarmed. Eventually when the last of the U.S. military departed, he became Tech Rep to the South Vietnamese Air Force units receiving the Chinooks transferred from the US forces. That’s where he was when his jeep disappeared for the second time in March 1975. The North Vietnamese were on the march south then. Being able to read the tea leaves, when Bryan saw the jeep was gone for the second and final time, he knew it was time for him to leave too, so he did, one month before the country fell.

Bryan was no longer a Tech Rep in Vietnam, but he didn’t leave Boeing. Instead, he was assigned to Argentina to support their new Chinooks Boeing had just sent them. They were exactly the same model the U.S. Army used, so the transition was an easy one. After several years in Argentina, he was reassigned to Canada. While there, a broken-down Chinook kept him in a small town for two weeks where he met a local girl who eventually became his wife. In the fullness of time, Bryan and his new wife were on to the United Kingdom (UK) to support the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) Chinooks. While he was there, the Falkland War began, with Argentina capturing the islands and the U.K. sending a force to take them back. Part of that force was four Chinooks.

Unfortunately for the British, two Argentinian Exocet antiship missiles hit the MS Atlantic Conveyor, the ship with three of the four Chinooks onboard, resulting in her loss along with the lives of 12 sailors. The remaining Chinook had to do triple duty, meaning maintenance in many areas was not accomplished. She soldiered on throughout the war much to her credit and even more credit to the men who flew her and serviced what they could during the fighting. When the war ended, the British discovered that they had captured an intact Argentinian Chinook of exactly the same model they flew. They also captured the aircraft’s logbooks. Looking there, they found Bryan’s signature on many documents.

A quick call back to the U.K. and they had Bryan on the phone. It turned out that Bryan remembered that Chinook quite well. He told them all of that particular bird’s quirks and areas that might be of concern if the Argentinians hadn’t maintained it properly. With his help, the RAF took the former Argentinian Chinook and made it their own. When they returned to the U.K., they took their new Chinook with them and flew it until at last, it needed major maintenance, whereupon they and Bryan said goodbye to it and it was retired. Bryan had reached the end of his Tech Rep years and so he too was retired. He retired to his home in England and his second home in Hawaii. Life can be good to old former lipstick pink jeep drivers. No, his car in the United Kingdom was not lipstick pink, but I would like to think his original jeep is still over there, giving first class rides to whoever owns her now.

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