Bob and his Mustang have made many enduring memories over these past five decades, including dating, marriage, children, and vacation trips. This story not only reveals how our servicemen returning home from Vietnam have contributed to the Mustang’s proud product legacy, but also serves to say “thank you for your service” to all our Vietnam veterans. There are many untold stories of Vietnam vets who bought Mustangs and Shelbys when they got home, as well as those parents who held on to the Mustangs and Shelbys of sons that never made it home. By sharing Bob Wright’s story here, we hope to honor those Vietnam vets, too.



Bob Wright was born and raised in Oakland, California. One month after graduating from high school in June of 1962, he immediately volunteered to join the U.S. Marines, on September 9 of that same year. As Bob looks back today, those next four years were a whirlwind experience.

"I was ‘1-A’ for the draft, so I joined the service,” he told us. “If you enlisted, you got to choose your service branch -- Army, Marines, Air Force or Navy. If you were drafted, you were only going into the Army. So I chose the Marines. I went through boot camp at Camp Pendleton near San Diego, then went into the C-111 First Battalion Marines. I served with the 105mm Howitzer Battery for one year, then the L-112 Battalion with the 155 Howitzer. Then I got orders to go to Okinawa, Japan, with the 3rd Marine Division and spent 13 months there.


“In the middle of 1965, the Vietnam War was just starting to pick up. I was sent to Vietnam with the 1st Marine Division, arriving in March of 1966 at Chu Lai, a Marine airbase on the coast. There I was part of the 4-Deuce Mortar (4.2) group for three or four months on two different hills (#54 and #35) overlooking the base. Many other operations followed with the Second Battalion, 11th Marines.