The Unknown History of 'Gun Trucks of Vietnam'

For Veterans Day, Smithsonian Channel is premiering a documentary about a generation of young service members who improvised a new kind of convoy defense. "Gun Trucks of Vietnam" premieres Sunday, November 11, ppm ET/PT.

The program tells the history of the U.S. Army gun truckers, innovative young men who were assigned trucks that were woefully under-equipped for protecting vital convoys. They scrounged whatever parts they could find to armor their vehicles and built some of the most effective and imaginative weapons used during the war in Southeast Asia.

You'll hear amazing stories from the gun truckers themselves and watch previously unseen color footage shot by the solders using their personal movie cameras.

Gun truck drivers were part of the first U.S. convoys to travel on the front lines and their legacy continues today in the official vehicles used in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Check out the opening clip from the show below.