The Bamboo Shoot, by James Wollner is a great little read if you are interested in Vietnam experiences.
The airboats used by the US Army 2nd Airboat Platoon were fiberglass AirCats manufactured by Hurricane Fiberglass, out of Hallandale, FL at the time, by Jim Combee and James Reynolds. (James' son JP continues the family tradition by operating Hurricane Harbor Marine.) The AirCats were 16 x 5, powered by a 160 Lycoming and a wood prop. A .50 caliber machine gun was mounted on their bow. The .50s were replaced with M-60s due to the weight of the .50 cal ammunition and the recoil the .50s produced.
The 2nd Airboat Platoon was small and short lived, but was later joined by the US Army 15th Engineers. For more information you will have to read Jim's book. If ordered thru the NJ Vietnam Veterans proceeds go to support the memorial. The book can be ordered by contacting the Memorial at:
http://www.njvvmf.org/osb/showitem.cfm?Category=78
The Bamboo Shoot is an interesting book about airboating in Vietnam.
Unfortunately, those poor guys had no formal training in operating an airboat. EVERYTHING they learned was by trial and error underfire in Vietnam. When speaking direclty with Jim, it was learned that there was a lot of error, which is described in his book.
WaterLizard 8)
