The new stencils look great!
Thanks for sharing! I might be able to ask around and see if that unit has dragons that match on their current vehicles.
After some more research, it looks as though 5-5 is no longer attached to the 17th Field Artillery Brigade at JBLM, and has since relocated back to Fort Sill, Oklahoma in late 2017... Additionally, there appears to be a Military Police battalion still stationed at JBLM that call themselves either the "Dragon Crushers" or "Dragon Slayers", but I can't find any photos that seem to match the dragon on your truck. The 5-5 ADA challenge coin is the closest thing I've found so far.
As was noted by MWMULES and others above, each
battery or
company within a given
regiment usually has their own distinct flavor, and the original stencil very well could have been a one-time addition during a training or deployment... Just depends how far down the rabbit hole you'd like to go!
I replaced my driver's side seat cushion and the old cushion had a tag that was labeled 'HHC 1-161 INF (M)... I could not find any dragon clues from this as it led to Washington State Army National Guard.
What you found on the seat cushion bottom may actually be the most recent unit to have possession of the truck, as Guard units generally get the older hand-me-down equipment once the regular units upgrade to newer equipment. Guard units also don't seem to put a lot of effort into repainting equipment if they don't have to (probably due to time and cost restraints), so I'm sure they never bothered to remove the faded dragon logos... This unit may have some info on your truck, including previous unit ownership, so it might be worth a try reaching out to them.
1-161 is a mechanized infantry unit organized under the Washington ARNG, and the HHC operates out of the Spokane Armory:
---> 1st Battalion, 161st Infantry Regiment of the 81st Brigade Combat Team
Gary, by chance could you have an example of how the bumper numbers might read for this 5-5 unit?
To date, I've only found photos of 5-5's HMMWVs, and unfortunately, none show the full front of the vehicle.
The bumper numbers appear, left to right: "
32AAMDC 31BDE" ~~~~~ "
5-5"
However, after reviewing some photos of other Air Defense Artillery vehicles subordinate to the 32nd AAMDC, there is a more consistent pattern:
The bumper numbers appear, left to right: "
[Brigade] [Battalion]-[Regiment]ADA" ~~~~~ "
[Battery]-[Vehicle]"
Here are the bumper numbers before they got wire wheeled off and painted over. I couldn't quite make out what they said and the numbers were painted on at least twice on two different layers... If I stare at it crossed-eyed long enough I can kinda make out an 'A-14' on the driver's side and maybe a '9-3P-34' on the passenger's side... Do you guys make out anything different?
I'm following your cross-eyed stare for the most part. If we continue to subscribe to the idea that equipment in the PNW with a max speed of 50 or 55 never strays far too from home, theeeeen... I found a US Army
field artillery history book that shows a 34th Field Artillery that was active at Fort Lewis from 1972 until 1986, thus:
---> 3rd Battalion, 34th Field Artillery of the 9th Infantry Division
The "A-14" should denote that it belongs to Battery A and is the 14th vehicle in order of march... But in light of the above, I believe that the "P" is actually an "F" with some paint chipping or overspray causing the confusion.
TB 43-0209 establishes that the letter "F" denotes a service designation of Field Artillery, and per an example on
Olive Drab's website that I've quoted below, I think that an "F" makes more sense in this case than a "P".
U.S. Military Vehicle Markings said:
| 10 2F7 | C 2 | 10th Infantry Div., 2d Bn of 7th Field Artillery, Battery C, 2nd vehicle |
