Penton Fans,
I do not have a Penton, but I sure do admire them. I've got too many bikes in the garage now to add yet another. I had a per chance meeting with Tom Penton years ago and just wanted to share it with Penton enthusiasts. Some of you guys with military experience may get a charge out of it.
I was stationed in Da Nang, Vietnam with the Air Force from September 1970 to September of 1971 with the 15th Aerial Port Squadron. One afternoon in the fall of ''70 I was looking for a place to sit in the chow hall and saw this guy sitting alone at a table so I decided to sit across from him and share lunch. I just got in country and hardly knew a soul, so everyone was a stranger. I just made idle conversation with the guy and we chatted along and I noticed that the name tag on his uniform said Penton on it. I was a total gearhead at the time and just lived for motorcycles and happen to mention that there was a high quality off road motorcycle made in the US named Penton. In a rather understated way he said "Yes, my dad makes them". Right about then I almost choked and after regaining my composure we had a long conversation about motorcycles. I had known of the Penton motorcyling family and was rather stunned to be accidentally sitting across the table from a rather young but obviously great rider. We exchanged a few off road stories and of course, he had _real_ stories to tell. In the course of the conversation he had mentioned that he was preparing to go compete in the coming ISDT. At about that time I took a back step and thought that about the only way you leave Vietnam was for "offical business" (such as invading Cambodia), but personal reasons were limited to #1. your tour of duty in Vietnam was over, #2. R & R, (Rest & Relaxation), more commonly refered to as Rape and Run where GI's got 7 days off for every 12 months in Vietnam for in-depth study of the bars and cat houses in other parts of Southeast Asia, #3.death in your immediate family or other family emergency. #4. your own injury required more sophisticated or long term medical treatment than what was available in Vietnam such as stepping on a landmine and having your remaining stump reshapped for a artifical limb, #7. You were captured by the Viet Cong and were dragged off to rot in a prison camp someplace. #8 You went AWOL but could not get very far or option number 9, and that was to ship your remains home in a body bag. If you did not fit into those situations, you did not leave Vietnam... period!...end of story!.......except this story.
It seems that Tom had been chosen to represent the United States in the coming ISDT at the Isle of Man and when he went to his commanding officer, a full bird Colonel, (right up there close to God in the miltary) to request leave to go race motorcycles, the colonel blew a gasket. Well the colonel read Tom the riot act and informed him that his duty in Vietnam was to kill and not go off to race motorcycles and to just forget about it......period! Well soon thereafter Tom contacted his father John, and informed him that his commanding officer was being rather difficult. Well then John contacts his local congressman and the congressman in turn made a few phone calls and not much later the 'ol colonel changes his tune and Tom gets to go off and race motorcyles. That was one of the few correct decisions I saw implemented while I was in Vietnam I might add.
Tom was not in my outfit so I did not see him much on a regular basis, but I did see him after the ISDT and found out that he did do quite well racing. He must have been tranferred out of Vietnam soon after as I never saw him after that again.
Speed forward about thirty years to the year 2000 and I went to Sonomafest, the two week AHRMA / AMA event held at Sears Point raceway north of San Francisco and there was a huge Penton booth with John and Jack Penton, lots of historical pictures, bikes, racing luminary's and John signing a biography of him by Ed Youngblood. Tom was not there, but I did find Jack in the crowd and I toldl him the above story about meeting his brother Tom in Vietnam. He recalled some of the details and he could remember some strings being pulled to allow Tom to go racing. Well, at least he got out of Vietnam in one piece and did get to tweak the nose of some colonel and win a gold medal while he was at it. That's my Penton story.
Larry Orlick
Oakland, California
I do not have a Penton, but I sure do admire them. I've got too many bikes in the garage now to add yet another. I had a per chance meeting with Tom Penton years ago and just wanted to share it with Penton enthusiasts. Some of you guys with military experience may get a charge out of it.
I was stationed in Da Nang, Vietnam with the Air Force from September 1970 to September of 1971 with the 15th Aerial Port Squadron. One afternoon in the fall of ''70 I was looking for a place to sit in the chow hall and saw this guy sitting alone at a table so I decided to sit across from him and share lunch. I just got in country and hardly knew a soul, so everyone was a stranger. I just made idle conversation with the guy and we chatted along and I noticed that the name tag on his uniform said Penton on it. I was a total gearhead at the time and just lived for motorcycles and happen to mention that there was a high quality off road motorcycle made in the US named Penton. In a rather understated way he said "Yes, my dad makes them". Right about then I almost choked and after regaining my composure we had a long conversation about motorcycles. I had known of the Penton motorcyling family and was rather stunned to be accidentally sitting across the table from a rather young but obviously great rider. We exchanged a few off road stories and of course, he had _real_ stories to tell. In the course of the conversation he had mentioned that he was preparing to go compete in the coming ISDT. At about that time I took a back step and thought that about the only way you leave Vietnam was for "offical business" (such as invading Cambodia), but personal reasons were limited to #1. your tour of duty in Vietnam was over, #2. R & R, (Rest & Relaxation), more commonly refered to as Rape and Run where GI's got 7 days off for every 12 months in Vietnam for in-depth study of the bars and cat houses in other parts of Southeast Asia, #3.death in your immediate family or other family emergency. #4. your own injury required more sophisticated or long term medical treatment than what was available in Vietnam such as stepping on a landmine and having your remaining stump reshapped for a artifical limb, #7. You were captured by the Viet Cong and were dragged off to rot in a prison camp someplace. #8 You went AWOL but could not get very far or option number 9, and that was to ship your remains home in a body bag. If you did not fit into those situations, you did not leave Vietnam... period!...end of story!.......except this story.
It seems that Tom had been chosen to represent the United States in the coming ISDT at the Isle of Man and when he went to his commanding officer, a full bird Colonel, (right up there close to God in the miltary) to request leave to go race motorcycles, the colonel blew a gasket. Well the colonel read Tom the riot act and informed him that his duty in Vietnam was to kill and not go off to race motorcycles and to just forget about it......period! Well soon thereafter Tom contacted his father John, and informed him that his commanding officer was being rather difficult. Well then John contacts his local congressman and the congressman in turn made a few phone calls and not much later the 'ol colonel changes his tune and Tom gets to go off and race motorcyles. That was one of the few correct decisions I saw implemented while I was in Vietnam I might add.
Tom was not in my outfit so I did not see him much on a regular basis, but I did see him after the ISDT and found out that he did do quite well racing. He must have been tranferred out of Vietnam soon after as I never saw him after that again.
Speed forward about thirty years to the year 2000 and I went to Sonomafest, the two week AHRMA / AMA event held at Sears Point raceway north of San Francisco and there was a huge Penton booth with John and Jack Penton, lots of historical pictures, bikes, racing luminary's and John signing a biography of him by Ed Youngblood. Tom was not there, but I did find Jack in the crowd and I toldl him the above story about meeting his brother Tom in Vietnam. He recalled some of the details and he could remember some strings being pulled to allow Tom to go racing. Well, at least he got out of Vietnam in one piece and did get to tweak the nose of some colonel and win a gold medal while he was at it. That's my Penton story.
Larry Orlick
Oakland, California