True or not

[Al Harvey]

Over the last 24 years since the first Gulf War, yes, most of our stuff came back. I have a couple of deuces and trailers with shipping tickets from Kuwait. Going forward, expectations are that not as many are going to come back.

This 1970 XM818 was shipped back from Kuwait.

During Desert Storm most units took their vehicles with them and brought them back. In the beginning of OIF units were taking their vehicles and bringing them home until someone realized it was smarter to "fall in" on equipment. That's when a lot of the cargo trucks, 915s, humvees, etc stopped coming home. In 2010 when I passed through Kuwait heading home, there were storage yards after yards of vehicles just sitting there. Everything was there 5ton, 915s, PLS, Humvee, MRAPS, etc. Probably still sitting there today.

 

[Another Ahab]

, there were storage yards after yards of vehicles just sitting there. Everything was there 5ton, 915s, PLS, Humvee, MRAPS, etc. Probably still sitting there today.

Doesn't exactly warm my heart as a taxpayer, but:

- thinking outside the box, Uncle Sam could host one helluva Demolition Derby with all that hardware

And then maybe Treasury could recoup some of the loss through the ticket sales.

Deal? or No Deal?

 

[Al Harvey]

- thinking outside the box, Uncle Sam could host one helluva Demolition Derby with all that hardware

And then maybe Treasury could recoup some of the loss through the ticket sales.

Deal? or No Deal?

That would be one heck of a Demolition Derby. I'd pay to go watch it so I'll vote DEAL!

 

[Another Ahab]

Well, now that you mention it, I don't recall that there was a star on that Willys on my grandfather's farm (and how would you miss a detail like that). It's a good bet that your Mom's correct, I mean she got the idea from somewhere, right?

Maybe it didn't come from overseas. Wondering now where he ever got that thing?

Shoot, and the only real person left to ask is my Uncle, now 93 bless him, but he doesn't even really know who he is anymore sadly, much less where that JEEP came from.

Either way, it was fun to drive!

A round of emails, and a round of phone calls to siblings, cousins, kith, and kin and here's the consensus (not a confirmation but a consensus):

- late 40's/ early 50's after the war (WWII, of course), and there were depots all around the DC area (Meyer, Meade, Belvoir, Aberdeen, A.P. Hill, etc) full of JEEPS in crates. No one seems able to confirm if they were 1) domestic and never shipped overseas, or 2) crated post-war in Europe and shipped back Stateside.

- but it is confirmed that the old farm Willys, was 1) crated at purchase and also 2) purchased at a local area military depot (but no one knows what the location of the depot was).

- and apparently the purchase had nothing to do with my grandfather's separation at the war's end with the rank of general. Evidently these things were all available for purchase by the general public, and those were the conditions under which the farm JEEP was purchased.

 

[retired wrench]

There was tons of military surplus for sale after the war. Dad bought three jeep engines in wooden boxes. Quite exciting for a kid to unpack. There was a guy that bought a tank and used it to demo houses.

 

[Another Ahab]

There was tons of military surplus for sale after the war. Dad bought three jeep engines in wooden boxes. Quite exciting for a kid to unpack. There was a guy that bought a tank and used it to demo houses.

My hat's off to the dude, because THAT is some creative re-purposing. Yee-Haw!

Just wondering: was the demo by driving into the houses, or by shelling them?!

 

[Flyingvan911]

Sadly my grandpa passed when I was 3 but my dad said he told stories of aircraft, vehicles and various other equipment bring pushed off the ends of carriers on the way back to the sates since the war was over. I wish he was still around so I could here them first hand.

 

[retired wrench]

Ahab he drove thru them till they were a pile of splinters. Had to scout out the ones with basements tho. I believe life mag did a story on him. The govt had torched the crankshaft and he either found a crank or engine.
911 I heard these same stories that's what prompted the question.

 

[Another Ahab]

Ahab he drove thru them till they were a pile of splinters. Had to scout out the ones with basements tho. I believe life mag did a story on him. The govt had torched the crankshaft and he either found a crank or engine.
911 I heard these same stories that's what prompted the question.

This is a great thread, wrench; thanks for kicking it all off.

 

[Another Ahab]

- late 40's/ early 50's after the war (WWII, of course), and there were depots all around the DC area (Meyer, Meade, Belvoir, Aberdeen, A.P. Hill, etc) full of JEEPS in crates. No one seems able to confirm if they were 1) domestic and never shipped overseas, or 2) crated post-war in Europe and shipped back Stateside.

I'm thinking that the comment by the mom of Trailboss (no star/ no combat) has substance:

- nothing scientific, but having watched my wife work the bamboo network with her buddies over the years convinces me that the network is extremely effective (all those myriad moms "chatting over backyard fences" grow a real detailed picture about what's going on - anywhere about anything). The mom's know the straight skinny (and ALL the sordid details that might go along with it too, but of course that's part of their fun).

Based on this (total gut feeling), I'm figuring that the old farm Willys was unused military surplus that never shipped beyond the American shore.

 

[retired wrench]

About those cheap jeeps, I had a guy that stopped at my shop who attended govt auctions years ago. He said they would sell a whole field of jeeps as one lot. The big boys would pool their money,buy the lot, then devide them up. The individual had no chance.

 

[iatractor]

There was tons of military surplus for sale after the war. Dad bought three jeep engines in wooden boxes. Quite exciting for a kid to unpack. There was a guy that bought a tank and used it to demo houses.

That sounds more like fun than work. He might be the reason they no longer let us buy surplus tanks.

 

[Warthog]

Warthog were jeeps ever crated?

http://wwiijeepparts.com/Archives/WW2JeepsInCrates.html

 

[retired wrench]

I have a picture in my mind of vehicles stacked in a ships hold,but it must have been trucks.

 

[Another Ahab]

Those U.S. Jeeps couldn't be beat. Just how versatile was the old Willys JEEP?

Here's one of the comments to me from a cousin (after questioning if anyone knew where it came from):

I also remember the power take off being used to saw lumber out behind the raspberries. It was also used at the hog slaughtering days to hoist up the hogs for butchering and bleeding, but I can’t remember how it was applied for this task.

Of course the question is "did they ship back?", but this is just offered as a sidebar to the main topic (kind of a savory to the main course). OK, back to the dinner table….


​

 

[retired wrench]

There were all kinds of tools made for jeeps. One around here had a chain trencher on it. Several were used to pull hay balers. They would go slow in the field yet speed to the next job on the road. Saw one pull a plow that an IH tractor couldn't get traction enough to pull.

 

[Another Ahab]

About those cheap jeeps, I had a guy that stopped at my shop who attended govt auctions years ago. He said they would sell a whole field of jeeps as one lot. The big boys would pool their money,buy the lot, then devide them up. The individual had no chance.

But my family got a hold of one (and just one), somehow.

One cousin though tells me that the tenant farmer on my grandparents MD farm served in theater with my grandfather, and that the story of where the jeep came from might be connected. But no detail, so I have to disregard that.

 

[Robo McDuff]

Haven't read all posts in this thread yet (too tired to do it now) but I know that in the 70s in the Netherlands it was quite easy and cheap to buy US army surplus. The local story goes that each unit sent over brought its own equipment but when returning to the USA would leave the equipment here. I now know that reality was a bit more complicated than that, but fact is that a lot of stuff stayed here.

This habits and use of equipment will actually be part of our exhibition on the US Engineers I am now gearing up again to get ready before May 2014: how US surplus vehicles and equipment helped restore Europe after WW II. This was not a question of 8 May 1945 war in Europe is over, 9 May lets go home. With the Cold War starting almost immediately, a lot of vehicles kept coming into Western Europe and surplussed off here. Sometimes immediately, mostly after being used or stored here (in Pomcus Depots). I am a newbie on the details, ask me again in a few months, than I will be an expert.

Definition of an expert: person from a different village who knows just one page more of the manual than you do and asks a lot of money for it.

I remember my late brother sometimes lamenting that he decided not to buy two brand new US Army Harley's in parts in crates mid 1970s. He thought that 750 gulden (about 300 EUR) was too expensive (expletives removed by poster).

 

[Another Ahab]

Definition of an expert: person from a different village who knows just one page more of the manual than you do and asks a lot of money for it.

Good post, Robo, please keep them coming.

And over here in the Good Ol' USA esteemed experts like that are referred to reverently as consultants.

 

[retired wrench]

I always heard " ex is a has been and spert is a drip under pressure.