I haven't heard back from Ken Estes yet but did find this:
http://www.tank-net.com/forums/index...41155&hl=m48a2
"I think you forgot some of our conversations, Ray. The USMC was all M48A3 by 1964. It was the army that ran out of them and deployed the A2s to VN for awhile."
"On page 393 of Hunnicutt's Patton, there is a photo of an A2C, belonging to "1st Battalion, 5th Mechanized Division" [???] engaged in Operation Fisher, 6Jan69."
"Mike Green's Armored Warfare in the Vietnam War mentions "a number of M48A2Cs" deployed to Vietnam by the army in 1967 and 1968. [page 14]"
"P96 of Simon Dunston's Vietnam Tracks has a pic of an 11th Cav A2C, very pimped out. Page 90 has distant pic of A2C with 4/12th Cav, along with language suggesting army tank losses brought the A2Cs to Vietnam...."
"Once the war was in full tilt, it was probably difficult for the army to gear up. For the USMC the 421 medium M48A1 tanks would enter the M48A3 overhaul program in December 1962 at the rate of 25 per month, and the Anniston and Red River Army Depots also upgraded the 73 M67A1 to M67A2 at five per month. The 160 M103 heavies [of 218 on hand] cycled through their rebuild beginning in August, 1963 at the rate of 25 per month. I'd say the army was caught unprepared when MACV decided that tanks would be sent to RVN after all. The USMC sent theirs in right away with each brigade or division, but juxtaposed, it meant there was no army support for tanks in VN for the first year+. Our gear on Okinawa was always a bit poor, because it existed at the end of a very long and ineffective USMC supply & maint system chain. Our M48A3s ran out of road wheels in the 30 days according to most people I knew who were early deployers; track shortages followed soon and then all the rest. Of course by 60 days, the USMC ground forces became dependent upon the army CommZ or equivalent in theater. With no army tanks yet in theater, it became horrific, was already so for the poor M-50 Ontos and amtracs. These had never been provisioned properly in the USMC since inserv."
"Later, the USMC transferred all their A3s [originally acquired as M48 and M48A1] to the army for its A5 program. Our payback came when we received 50 and 132 M1A1s in FY94 and 95 from the army [48 common heavy armor, rest 7th year]"