Giant Coors Can Invades Military Encampment
Sp/5 Tom Tucker and his "Coors Rocket Pod"
Photo Provided By:
Dave Speer
Never underestimate the power and ingenuity of our men in Vietnam. The following story offers fitting proof of this statement.
Our story began in 1967 at Fort Carson, near Colorado Springs, Colo, when a small group of soldiers from this base made a trip to Denver and a subsequent tour through the Coors brewery in Golden. Such a good time was had by all that several of the men were converted to Coors Beer.
Later, in 1968, these same men were re-assigned to the 189th Assault Helicopter Company in Pleiku, Vietnam. Though they were unable to get their favorite liquid refreshment in their new and foreign surroundings, their loyalty to Coors did not diminish. This loyalty was manifested in the re-design of some of their Company's combat equipment.
Sp/5 Tom Tucker, from Tucson, Arizona, wrote his parents asking that they send him an empty Coors "Tall Can" and the matching enamel paint to go with it. His father, also a loyal Coors customer, spent the next three weeks visiting paint stores in the Tucson area--with Coors can in hand--in an effort to secure the right paint.
Within two months, the "Tall Can" and paint arrived in Pleiku. From here on it was "easy". Specialists Tucker and Robert E. Johnson of San Antonio, Texas went to work painting an exact replica of the Coors can on their helicopter rocket pods. The rocket pods hold several rockets each, which are fired from the pods when the helicopters are in flight over a combat zone.
Thanks to these two ingenious young men, Coors has become a distinctive part of the 189th's flying fortress. It is conceivable that the newspaper headlines in Hanoi occasionally read now, "GIANT COORS CAN INVADES MILITARY ENCAMPMENT".
We are indebted to Burt Humphrey of Buxton-Smith Mercantile Co. of Tuscon for making the above story available for our use.
Another Coors Please