These are paintings Jerry did from photographs he took during his
tour of duty in Vietnam in 1969-1970, in the Qui Nhon port area.
He went from 1st Lt to Captain while he was there.
He came back to the University of Wyoming and got his masters
degree in Art and a teaching certificate.
He spent his career in Lexington, Nebraska as the art teacher.
He is now retired and active in Vietnam Veteran activities.



 
1Lt Jerry Barnes on convoy in his gun jeep in 1969.
 The company patch for the 444 Transportation Company. 
A goat was a company mascot.

 

 
Jerry would see the girls from the Catholic school in Qui Nhon heading home as
he would be driving to the port. He did this watercolor from one of his pictures.
 Jerry was a convoy commander in an armor plated gun jeep. He ran convoys from the port city 
of Qui Nhon to the highland town of Pleiku. This is a color pencil drawing, taken from a photo 
he took at Checkpoint #88, an assembly area east of Pleiku where the convoys would reform. 
Many 'coke girls'(sitting by the jeep) were there selling things the drivers would want.
Jerry rode on the Huey helicopters a lot in Vietnam, piloted by some very crazy warrant officers!
This is an etching that he did from one of his photographs.
This watercolor depicts a common sight in Vietnam, the rice farmer
continuing his trade as the helicopter flies overhead.
This gouache(opaque watercolor) painting depicts the most important 
morale booster there is for a soldier-mail from home.
A watercolor of the local market, near Jerry's compound in Phu Thai
A touching watercolor of a Montanyard native at Checkpoint #88 east of Pleiku.
A gouache(opaque watercolor) painting of the markets by the road going
through An Khe on highway QL19, between Qui Nhon and Pleiku.
To show reverence for the dead, they would bury them in the most
valuable property, the rice paddy,  as this watercolor shows.
This watercolor shows the APC armored 5-ton M-54 gun truck 
'Sir Charles' going up An Khe pass-a frequent ambush site.
This watercolor shows the M48A-3 tank that Jerry took a picture of as they met in An Khe.
In the center of Qui Nhon you would see this traffic cop keeping
all the vehicles going. It is watercolor and pen and ink.
This color pencil drawing depicts two of the gun trucks in the 27th Trans BN motor pool.
A watercolor showing the refugee shacks along the bay in Qui Nhon harbor.
Jerry would see this old rice farmer in his field, near the junction of highways QL-19 and QL-1, when he was heading out on his convoys in the early morning.  This pastel records that memory.
Jerry may use this scratch board of the gun truck King Cobra for a T shirt design.
It was one of his favorite gun trucks when he was running convoys in Vietnam. 
Jerry made this scratch board for a Vietnam Vet friend, he was on it for several tours in Vietnam.
Jerry did a gold scratch board of the gun truck Brutus. One of it's crew members, gunner Larry G. Dahl,  received the Medal of Honor for throwing himself on a grenade that was thrown into the truck. The medal is shown draped around the truck. Jerry's model of Brutus is in the Transportation Museum at Ft. Eustis, VA, where his paintings now hang.
Nancy was a quad fifty gun truck on a deuce and a half chassis, in his company. Jerry drew this imaginary night scene. Gun trucks were used as perimeter defense at night on the compounds. 
He has also made a model of it.
The silver scratch board is of Satans Chariot. He did it for a crew member that he met on the
internet and has since formed a strong friendship with. Jerry made the figures transparent to show how Vietnam Veterans are fading away, many of his friends have died from
Agent Orange and other causes related to the war.
Jerry did a watercolor from one of his photos of the Union Pacific's 'Challenger' steam locomotive coming through town. It usually comes by on an excursion once or twice a year. UP also has another live steam locomotive still on it's roster, #844. It just had it's boiler rebuilt and came by this summer.
Jerry made up this picture of a couple from the 1940's dancing in front of an old Wurlitzer 950 Jukebox. The colors were added on the computer, as was the background effect.
This painting Jerry did from memory. It is of a teen hangout in Cheyenne, Wyoming that he went to in 9th grade. It was across the street from his junior high. He had lunch there and played the pinball machine and fed nickels into the jukebox-the start of his love of those machines and cherry cokes.
Jerry is shown the Transportation Museum at Ft Eustis, VA, he donated all his 
Vietnam paintings to the museum, here he is standing by some of them 
while at the reunion for Vietnam Truckers in June, 2006.
Jerry designed and printed the gun truck shirt he is wearing.
Quite a few guys were wearing them at the last reunion he attended.
Around 60 of them were made and sold.
We have had a number of requests for the T Shirt the Jerry had sold in the
past but he has a new design seen above, prices are the same as the older design.
It can be order by e mail at the following 
*Guntruck T Shirts designed by Jerry Barnes*
*Black ink on gray shirts as shown.*
*Sizes M-XL   $15*
*XXL               $18*
*$6 shipping for one in the U.S., $1  extra for each over one. Overseas to be determined on an individual basis.*
*
*PAYPAL payment to:  juking@atcjet.net
*or check/MO to:    Jerry Barnes*
*                               75495 Road 436*
*                               Lexington, NE 68850*


Return to Jerry's Garden Railway, The SCRR


Pictures that Jerry took during
his tour of duty in Vietnam


Building a model Gun Truck


Jerry's Jukebox


Jerry's Model Ships

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