g741.org

Hey Crew.
Sorry about going A.W.O.L. again for so long. Been one doozy of a winter here at the Powell Motor~Pool.
Picked up an old Chevy C30 1 ton to haul firewood and thought since the Army used them for a while a
new coat of paint was in order. I am no painter nor body worker so a $50 paint job will do. It's only firewood right?
Anyway, hope your all well and gearing up for spring. I know we sure are. Tim & Lori. Removed the grill guard and front bumper yesterday. Only have a few minutes a day to play in the shop.
Like I said, been quite a year so far. To be continued!

I think, for me, military greens and OD's are the best colors anywhere. When I bleed, it seems to seep out in OD, not red. Your truck looks like a fine place to start. I drove a really cherry CUCV last fall, gas motor, and considered adding it to my garage. But realized that I really can only have and work on one vintage vehicle at a time. Let us know how it comes along.

NV

NAM VET wrote:I think, for me, military greens and OD's are the best colors anywhere. When I bleed, it seems to seep out in OD, not red. Your truck looks like a fine place to start. I drove a really cherry CUCV last fall, gas motor, and considered adding it to my garage. But realized that I really can only have and work on one vintage vehicle at a time. Let us know how it comes along.

NV

That must have been one of the old 76-77 Dodge 880's. I hated those trucks! We had a few of them where I worked and they put plows on them. No power steering and a plow on a vehicle that should have really had power steering OR a bigger steering wheel! If I remember correctly they had manual brakes too. The 318 motors were not bad but the front differentials with the unit bearings were total garbage. It was a very poor attempt to over simplify a civilian truck. They did much better with the 1000 series Chevy's with the exception of that absolutely GOOFY electrical system! At least they had power steering and brakes and decent differentials.

I don't have enough time to get everything done on my M37 nor enough room, let alone grab another vehicle (but like everyone else I scan the websites and such to see what potential finds might take over my common sense and follow me home)
Congrats on the new addition, Lori/Tim!
Gary

I too like the O/D green color.
We looked at Dodge 880 but sort of like the Chevy a bit better.
Don't have the time, money or the room! Gary, I just ain't smart enough to say no!
I guess when the Willys and one of my Ford rangers sold we needed a truck to haul firewood???
That's my story and I'm sticking to it. To be continued.

Out in my wife's small town in south east Nebraska, there is a military surplus dealer, mostly with army vehicles. Things like M114's, military UmiMogs, wreckers, army flatbeds, and five tons, and so forth. I was out there a year ago, and drove one of his surplus CUCV's, the diesel GM's, like the ones my EVAC hospital had in desert Storm, 25+ years ago. We had trucks, and some loaner HUMVEE's, and an assortment of the CUCV's. I had a driver's license for HUMVEE's, which we had just for that war, and the CUCV's. The NE dealer, "Painter Paul", because he was also a painter, showed me the really cherry CUCV, he had a half dozen, and I drove it. Just like old times. NO rust, and even had the military seats and rifle holders, radio hookups in it. It had been converted to a gas motor. I think it was about $3 K or so. But having at that time my "awaiting restoration M37" parked in her mom's driveway just up the road, decided I just couldn't embark on a two-vehicle restoration.

A little story: One dark and stormy night, I and a good friend, another then LTC, needed to make some sort of run up 'Tap Line Road, just below Kuwait, to do do some task or another. He and I used to hunt pheasants back in our home state of NE. So I hopped up behind the wheel of a HUMVEE, and off we went into the wet, dark night. A bit later, me driving, we hit some large object in the road, and our HUMVEE literally went flying thru the air! When we landed, and realized we were still alive and on the road, decided to circle back and see what the hell we had hit, and get it off the road for the next vehicle coming along. So turned around, and found the object was a tire/rim from a 5 ton army truck, we had kicked it off to the side of the road. It probably weighted two hundred pounds or so. Got our flashlights, and checking under our HUMVEE, found we had bent some of the frame and other parts under our HUMVEE to the rear of the vehicle. But it seemed to drive fine, and of course, the driveline in HUMVEE's are tucked up high in the frame. Continued on to complete our mission, and turned the vehicle back to our motor pool, and said no more.

But we reflected if we had taken one of the CUCV's instead, we might have rolled that much lighter vehicle. Was another lucky day for both of us. Here are some of my EVAC's CUCV's outside our billets at Ft. Riley, KS, before taking them to Saudi Arabia later. I will be back to "Painter Paul's" place this summer, and just might, just might, end up with one of his cherry CUCV's. Or the M114 he drives around......

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Oh Hal.............you had to bring up M114s. When you take your trip we will need pictures of the available tracked equipment that is out there. I have always wanted one of those.

Bert

Good looking truck Tim, I can't wait to see it when its all OD.

Bert

well, how about this M114....
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rolling incinerators!

They sink, too! When I was with the 3d Infantry, Germany, in '71, we had to float our tracked vehicles once a year. As a young newly minted 2nd LT, my mech platoon had three rifle squads, with about a dozen men with M14's, and two E2 M14's, and a fourth weapon's squad, i think with M60's. My company had three rifle platoons, and a weapon's platoon, with 81 mm mortars in M113's. Plus a maintenance platoon. My battalion had three line companies, a HQ company, and a heavy weapon's company, as I recall, their M113's had 4.2 mortars. We may have had some 106 recoiless rifle jeeps too. Plus a heavy maintenance CO, and other assorted support units. And a jeep mounted antiaircraft platoon, with RedEye's. Their 2nd LT was this goofy looking chap, who always wore goggles like Rommel in North Africa.

Our company commander, incidentally a young CPT who had survived 23 AK wounds in one battle in his Vietnam tour, had an M114. So one fine day, my battalion road marched out to this big deep lake, where all our tracked vehicles lined up to swim across the lake. I found it interesting that at the water's edge, two mechanics went under each track to check and usually install the drain plugs. I wondered about our troops who were about to swim their tracks, not even checking themselves to see that their drain plugs were in! You would think....

When it came time for one company to swim their CO's 114, it splashed into the water, and a short distance from the shore, the motor died. All our tracks had water pumps to keep out the smaller assorted leaks. As soon as the 114 stopped churning, the driver, who had water lapping at his glass view ports, was out and standing on top, and refused despite orders from the shore to drop back in and restart his motor. As the 114 gently bobbed every so lower in the water, a small power boat attempted to run a wire retrieval line out from one of the tracked recovery vehicles at the shore, but as we all crowded around the shore to see who was going to "win" this little drama, the 114 settled lower and lower. The driver was not about to get back in and crank his motor and continue on. The water won, and before they could get the line attached to a topside bracket, with a final gurgle, the 114 disappeared from view. Only the tip of the whip antennae poked out of the water.

All of us young officers were told to wait for a briefing, and were then informed that HQ, US ARMY GERMANY, was to be immediately informed if a track sank. But since the tip of whip antennae was still sticking up out of the water, that, technically speaking, the 114 was not actually sunk, and therefor, no notification to Army HQ was necessary. And we were to keep our mouths shut about the whole adventure. So, as the rest of the tracks made it across the lake, and we lined up to road march back to our Kasserne, (Schweinfurt), the maintenance guys were parking their recovery tracks at the lake edge, and beginning to lay out their cables to the sunken track.

In my army career, I got to experience many interesting events and adventures. For instance, how my M88 heavy recovery vehicles does it take to pull an M60 tank out of the muck when it skids off a road at the edge of a marsh? Hint, more than 3.

As for 114's and 113's burning, that is so true. When I would ride topside of my own track, when all of our 113's would charge across these great fields and valleys to "take" some distant hill, at places like Graf, (no matter the season in Germany, it snows there every day!), Wildflecken, or Hoenfels, I kept thinking that the Russians have all the artillery in the world, and how could anyone expect us to survive the assault...

All the best, guys.

NAM VET

Getting off topic here, but a sad story. Just before I got to my first duty assignment, Dec, '69, Schweinfurt, after completing infantry officer basic, airborne, and ranger school at Benning, signed into A Company, First BN, 3d ID. The Company was still mourning a just killed Lt platoon leader. He was respected by the men, unlike the rest of us rookie LT''s as he was a prior enlisted solder, then via OCS to his commission with several combat tours in Vietnam to his credit. They had just had a training exercise, and he was riding standing on the jump seat of the track commander's seat, wearing his web gear, his upper body outside leading the training attack. But his track had gone up some steep hill, and then flipped over backwards, and wearing his web gear, he could not duck down into the M113. When the track went backwards over onto it's top, the hatch had closed on him, cutting him in two. So after that, were were instructed to never wear our web gear when riding partway out of the track commander's hatch, but sling it over the hatch lid. I never knew him in in person. Soon thereafter, one of our company's mechanics walked behind a truck in the track park, and it rolled backwards into another truck, and he did not duck in time.

Not every one of my army adventures had a happy ending....

NV

Holy Cow.
Some of these stories from you "Vets" put tears in my eyes.
My Lori & I are eternally grateful to all of you. You have our never-ending support.

Thanks Tim. Love your Flag motif. Not long ago was talking with my son about how I look back at my life, just so filled with travel and adventure, and experiences. And I told him that even after a 40+ year career as a physician, a flight surgeon, that I still feel that how I see my own life is that of an American Soldier. With my own Agent Orange illness, what I want on my stone at Arlington is my name, rank, awards, and the engraving Special Forces. Nothing about being a doctor. I had my own dad's stone at Arlington engraved with the simple word Pilot, as that is how I think he saw his own life.

Here is a picture of my body guard squad in Vietnam, deep in the Delta of IV Corps. Tuff, remorseless and absolutely fearless fighters, ready to go out again for a few bucks a month. Some were X-VC, like the second one from the left, note the silencer on his XM 203, a prototype with a 40 mm grenade launcher under the barrel. By the way, in my second war, Desert Storm, I carried a small sewn American Flag in my wallet, in addition to the "Attack Flag" on my right shoulder. So when I read about someone trampling on it, or otherwise disrespecting it, I reflect on my friends who died with the Flag on their uniform, or in their pocket.

Thanks again,

NV
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That is one ornery looking bunch!
My hat is off to all of you Vets. I only hope we don't revert back to the past and not learn from our history.
Great picture. One to be remembered with pride.