M944a1

[12Bravo]

I was digging through some old pictures of mine and found one of the machine shop I operated while stationed in Germany. It is a M944A1 truck chassis with the Shop Equipment, Organizational Maintenance, Truck Mounted machine shop AKA "bat mobile" . We were setting up the canvas sides on the shop set at the time. I miss my "RV" LOL! I thought I would post it for everyone to see.

 

[319]

Cool, never saw one with the canvas deployed, just with the wings open. Any more photos?

 

[BKubu]

Very cool to see pics of these trucks in actual use! Thanks!

 

[12Bravo]

That is the only photo I have found so far. I did find the TM for the shop set along with the TM's for the 800 series and trailer mounted shop sets. We didn't set up the canvas too often because it was such a pain to do plus you had to have a large area for the truck. I argued with my Lt. once over setting up camo netting with the canvas set up. Shortly after the picture was taken, we had to set up the camo netting over it. I argued that the enemy would know something was up when one minute there is an open field and the next a small tree grove showed up. If I remember right it took 4 or 5 hex and 5 or 6 diamond netting sections to cover everything.

 

[papercu]

Thanks for the pictures.
I'm curious about these trucks in military service, anything you mind sharing?
What type units (major corps/divisional/brigade) was these assigned to?
What kind of work did you perform on a daily basis. TIA Wayne

 

[12Bravo]

The M944A1/SEORTM was mainly assigned to Engineer units. Direct and General Support units had the trailer mounted shop sets or sometimes used a M109 van. Some separate Engineer Brigades had both the truck and trailer mounted sets. Combat Engineer Battalions had the truck mounted sets. I was issued the M944A1 in Engineer units only. The Direct Support unit I was in had a M109 with a lathe in it. The SEORTM had a lathe with milling machine attachment along with an arc/mig combo welder. I made a lot of parts for obsolete equipment that engineer units got stuck with along with other projects including working on small arms mods. Most Army mechanics have a maintenance allocation chart saying what they can/can't do at what maintenance level (organizational/DS/GS/Depot) but there wasn't any for machinists. I did higher maintenance level work that the other mechanics couldn't do according to allocation charts. There wasn't always machinist work to do so I spent time working on other equipment from small generators up to the AVLB and CEV and everything in between. I was a combat engineer when I first enlisted and then re-classed to a machinist after Desert Storm with the hopes of getting away from engineer units and I still got stuck in them LOL.

 

[Arn369]

That is the only photo I have found so far. I did find the TM for the shop set along with the TM's for the 800 series and trailer mounted shop sets. We didn't set up the canvas too often because it was such a pain to do plus you had to have a large area for the truck. I argued with my Lt. once over setting up camo netting with the canvas set up. Shortly after the picture was taken, we had to set up the camo netting over it. I argued that the enemy would know something was up when one minute there is an open field and the next a small tree grove showed up. If I remember right it took 4 or 5 hex and 5 or 6 diamond netting sections to cover everything.

I'm a millwrite engineer who is currently disabled but I happen to have one, the truck mounted one but have almost no tm's for it so any help would be much appreciated please email me @ arn3692000@gmail.com

 

[Arn369]

I happen to have one, the truck mounted one but have almost no tm's for it so any help would be much appreciated please email me @ arn3692000@gmail.com

Also want to find info on the 4 prong cord for aux power on driver side? Trying to find one but no luck...