M37 Pics from Alaska Korean War Era

[creinemann]

Hi gang,
Just was visiting my father who had served during the Korean War 52-55 in the army, when we had a discussion about my green truck in the garage, and he remembers riding in the back of the M37s. It seems he was stationed at Elmdorf Air Force Base (on detached duty from the Army) when the motorpool was told to expect a delivery of 100 new vehicles, and the old (WWII) stuff was to be sent to the scrappers or given to the Army. The Army received about 50 M37's that were sent right to Korea by ship. My father, who was an engineer working on the Defense Early Warning System (DEW line), was one of the first groups to receive these 1953 military vehicles. He remembers the M37's because at night on bivouac they would leave the arctic heaters running to keep the engines warm. In the morning the cabs and beds would be covered in snow but the hoods would be clear. The jeeps (M38?) didn't come with the engine heaters so they parked them bumper to bumper with an M37 in hopes that the heat would transfer.

I am attaching a link to a some of the photos I scanned of his slides of theses M37's and bivouac.. I'll try and get more, he has a few hundred of his time in Alaska.

http://community.webshots.com/user/creinemann then goto 1953 Alaska

Carl

[Master Yota]

Thanks for the pictures! I would enjoy seeing more when you get the opportunity to post them.

Can anyone recognize the colour of the jeeps and M's in the photo's? It may just be the lighting, but they don't look OD green to me...?

[creinemann]

They are Strata Blue the Air Force color, with Yellow lettering

[Av8r]

Great photos Carl! Loved the photo of the C-47. That particular one was equipped for towing gliders and the canvas cover and tow mechanism appears intact from WWII. My first serious flying job about 20 years ago was flying auto parts in a WWII European combat veteran C-47. One thing I though you might want to know is that the photo of the C-47 is reversed mirror-imaged left to right. The truck is backed up to the cargo door but the cargo door is supposed to be on the left side of the airplane. I'm a little embarrassed by the fact that it wasn't the door that initially gave it away but the tail numbers. I was trying to read the tail number so I could look it up and see if that airplane was still flying when I noticed the 5 on the tail was backward. Anyway thought you might want to flip the image left to right. Again I loved the photos. I could look at period photos of MVs and aircraft all day long. And having some context to the photos from someone with a connection to them makes them even more enjoyable.

[creinemann]

My sister in law is scanning the images... I told her about the reversed slides, but only after she had scanned about 200 of them...oops. I flipped a few on my editor, but I missed some apparently. My dad remembers one plane that carried him and his crew to a site on a mountain, the left engine had caught fire, and the pilot had to land on an up hill strip. they made it ok, the plane spent the winter on the side of the runway, intending to be fixed... but they left it, and a crew came in in spring and cut the usable surfaces off, and them they Army used the fuselage for a tool shed.

[creinemann]

Found this Interesting

The DEW LINE
Construction Statistics

The following is extracted from the book "The DEW Line Story" produced by Western Electric Company in 1958

1. SURVEYING
Mapping teams traveled more than 1,000,000 miles and reviewed more than 80,000 aerial photos as part of siting and mapping activities

2. PURCHASE ORDERS
More than 113,000 purchase orders were issued to 4650 supplier companies in the US and Canada as follows:
Orders Total Amounts
U.S. 47,137 $148,849,000
Canada 66,295 $198,151,000

3. MATERIAL TRANSPORTED
By Aircraft 140,400 Tons
By Naval Convoy 281,600 Tons
By Cat Train 17,600 Tons
By Barge 20,300 Tons
TOTAL 459,900 Tons

4. PETROLEUM FUELS, OILS and LUBRICANTS
75,000,000 gallons of petroleum products were shipped to the Line, enough to fill 9375 tank cars in a train 65 miles long. Some 43,000,000 gallons of this was shipped in 818,000 drums, which would connect New York to Pittsburgh with a two-foot wide pipe line.

5. AIRLIFT
This is the largest commercial airlift operation ever reported, with 45,000 commercial flights in 32 months delivering 120,300 tons over an average distance of 720 miles per flight. Involved were some 50 Canadian and 31 U.S. commercial airlines.

6. CONSTRUCTION
Gravel produced was more than 9,600,000 cubic yards, enough to build two replicas of the Great Pyramid or a road 18 feet wide and one foot thick from Jacksonville Florida to San Diego California.

Airstrips in the Arctic covered 26,700,000 square feet, or 625 acres. 46,000 tons of steel were used - more than enough for a USS Forrestal. 1800 piles were sunk an average depth of 12 feet into permafrost. Generating capacity of power generation equipment installed is 155,000 kilowatts per day - enough to supply a city the size of Spokane Washington.

7. PERSONNEL
If all 4650 suppliers employed as few as 350 people each a total of over 1,600,000 people worked on DEW Line products. Three construction companies used a total of more than 20,000 people in two and one half years on direct work. Peak numbers actually inside the Arctic at any one time was about 7500 men.

8. MISCELLANEOUS
22,000 tons of food was shipped in 1,000,000 containers in 32 months; 12 acres of bed sheets; 6 acres of rugs; 3 miles of window shades; 100,000 copies of 600 different manuals prepared to cover operation and maintenance of the line.

[SOTVEN]

THANKS FOR SHARING IT SEEMS TO ME, AT THE CONVOY PICTURE, THAT THE TRAILER BEHIND THE M 37 ARE NOT M101, BUT THE BIGGER ONES THAT HAVE MATCHING WHEELS TO THE M35 (I DO NOT KNOW THE DESIGNATION). COULD IT BE SO, OR IS IT MY IMAGINATION?

[Lifer]

Carl,
I, too, loved the convoy pic (#54-55_0090) that everyone is talking about. Could you please post it separately so that (with your dad's permission) I might save it and use it for wallpaper on my computer? I get all misty-eyed when I see Strata Blue MVs, especially M37s!

[pwrwagonfire]

THANKS FOR SHARING IT SEEMS TO ME, AT THE CONVOY PICTURE, THAT THE TRAILER BEHIND THE M 37 ARE NOT M101, BUT THE BIGGER ONES THAT HAVE MATCHING WHEELS TO THE M35 (I DO NOT KNOW THE DESIGNATION). COULD IT BE SO, OR IS IT MY IMAGINATION?

I was just about to point that out! I believe the designation for those trailers is M105

Very cool pictures, I look forward to seeing more!

[cuz]

That early they may be M103's.

The problem with web shots is sharing the photos. Unless you join webshots you can't download any of them. There are many user friendly photo host web sites out there that are cheaper and easier to use. I use www.mypicgallery.com for only $9 per year and have unlimited storage space and can easily link or allow others to download.

[creinemann]

I Posted the pictures here http://g741.org/photogallery/main.php?g2_itemId=432 can you guys download them from here? I added a couple more as well

[cuz]

Those are great shots!

Blue Convoy sm.JPG (241.97 KiB) Viewed 2659 times

I sure hope you have more to add with vehicles?

[rixm37]

Thanks Carl. The pictures are great !! I added to my collection the line of Blue M37 's with the trailers and the Alaska earthquake black and white of the M37.