When I joined the army in the 70’s my first duty station was Fort Ord California. I was a generator and vehicle mechanic (I had two MOS’) assigned to the motorpool. The 7th Division was just reactivated and I was in the 127th Signal Battalion.
As this was when Vietnam was closing up shop, we got a lot of the discards from that and earlier wars. Not everything we got was garbage, some of the small generators were new.
For rolling stock we had M151’s, M35s, M715’s and M35s. I was a budding wrench that still had mother’s milk on my breath. Things I immediately learned: mechanical governors on generators sucked, deuce and a half’s cannot go anywhere and the M151’s don’t fly (story for another day).
We also learned the M715’s weren’t well loved, but the M37’s were worshipped. I ordered all new rubber and canvas for the 37’s and spent my days installing as many new parts as I could get away with.
We had commo vans in the back of the 37’s and the 715’s and the higher ranks always chose the 37’s first. No sooner had I got the fleet of 37’s into tip top shape, we got a fleet of M880’s to replace them.
We were ordered to pull the commo vans out, drop them into the 880’s and turn them into to the DRMO for scrap. Every 880 listed to one side as soon as the weight was put in. They were utter junk bought by Uncle Sugar to bail out Chrysler once again.
I suppose fire departments and civilian bidders all got the 37’s I had refurbished (never knew) but somewhere some lucky new truck owners got a piece of history for a few hundred bucks and they were perfect.
BTW, for those of you who go to the gym…you ain’t shit until you backed up an old (pre-power steering) deuce and a half pulling a water buffalo into a tight area over rugged terrain at night. That is a real man’s workout.
As this was when Vietnam was closing up shop, we got a lot of the discards from that and earlier wars. Not everything we got was garbage, some of the small generators were new.
For rolling stock we had M151’s, M35s, M715’s and M35s. I was a budding wrench that still had mother’s milk on my breath. Things I immediately learned: mechanical governors on generators sucked, deuce and a half’s cannot go anywhere and the M151’s don’t fly (story for another day).
We also learned the M715’s weren’t well loved, but the M37’s were worshipped. I ordered all new rubber and canvas for the 37’s and spent my days installing as many new parts as I could get away with.
We had commo vans in the back of the 37’s and the 715’s and the higher ranks always chose the 37’s first. No sooner had I got the fleet of 37’s into tip top shape, we got a fleet of M880’s to replace them.
We were ordered to pull the commo vans out, drop them into the 880’s and turn them into to the DRMO for scrap. Every 880 listed to one side as soon as the weight was put in. They were utter junk bought by Uncle Sugar to bail out Chrysler once again.
I suppose fire departments and civilian bidders all got the 37’s I had refurbished (never knew) but somewhere some lucky new truck owners got a piece of history for a few hundred bucks and they were perfect.
BTW, for those of you who go to the gym…you ain’t shit until you backed up an old (pre-power steering) deuce and a half pulling a water buffalo into a tight area over rugged terrain at night. That is a real man’s workout.
