why don't you nitpickers just ask a WW2 vet!

[rondo]

Been on here for going on 4 years now. Without the G my GPW would still be in pieces. I'm grateful to all of you. Now with that said...
I've always been sick of all the nitpickers. Between all the highly intelligent experienced 4 star generals that don't like each other (like in the real army) to all the mechanics around the world that can't agree, and most of all the nitpickers who nit every jeep that comes along and say things like "that was never used there in WW2" or "that doesn't belong in the Italian theater".

My biggest laugh was TP "tire pressure" stenciling on the wheel well asserted by some as used post WW2. then someone puts up a photo of it in WW2.

So my thing is I've always wondered why you don't just go ask a WW2 vet for crying out loud!! Go ask someone that's been there! Soooo, I ran into a neighbor who happens to be a WW2 vet. He helped build a bridge over the Rhine River, was a non-commissioned officer, served from 1942-46, and was a truck driver. He was admiring the GPW. In it I had a WW1 helmet. He said he wore that thing a lot! And talked about taking the liner out and how useful the steel pot was. Except he was talking about the M1 steel pot and didn't remember they were 2 different helmets. (I figured it was very possible he wore the doughboy helmet early in his training or something but it doesn't have a liner). Another example: he was admiring the star on the hood. Mine has no invasion star because it's a pacific theater jeep. but he could not recall any 'circle' around the star, or invasion stars as being there.

he did say several times $^#%@ that was a long time ago
rant 6, out.

[Joe Gopan]

WWII vets have a wealth of information, and love to share wartime experience and details of the equipment they were trained on. On the other hand, I've had some WWII Vets tell me my MB's gas tank should "fill from the side, not under the seat". We have to remember that not every WWII vet got to drive a Jeep or a tank nor served in combat or the field.
For years I used to call the Veteran's posts and ask for volunteers to drive my Jeeps. You would think that they never had KP, marched or did anything other than drive a Jeep. When it came time to drive my MB, the usual response was, "now where's the key, where's first and where's the starter". Some of us were lucky enough to have veterans in our family, or grow up among vets , or even serve in the service and be trained by WWII vets during the 50's-70's.

[Chuck Lutz]

You will also get some of the older guys from War Two who come up to an M38 or M38A1 and say they drove them during WWII. Guys who were there are getting on in age and don't always get the small stuff right after all these years.

Hell....the YOUNGEST soldiers in the ETO would have to have lied about their age and maybe got "in" in mid 1944. Let's say they were big for their age and only 16 years old...born in 1928 they are now 86 years old!

Does anyone REALLY think asking an 86 year old Vet who was cold, hungry, wet, muddy and being shot at if he can recall if the straps on the jeep he rode in twice in Europe in WWII had "C" tips or the "D" tips is "definitive"?

[Joe Gopan]

There are a lot of Jeep collectors who have gained expertise from WWII/Korean war Motorpool and Ordnance types, many WWII vets served thru the 1980's in the active army and reserves, or worked at Jeep or surplus dealers as parts men and mechanics. A lot of information was shared over the postwar years and there were many MV enthusiasts who were fortunate enough to absorb a lot of MV detail. Vehicle details did not die with the end of the war. Take VIXEN TOR, for example, SP-6 Hippensteel serviced it during the war and served thru the 70's as a technician in the Maryland NG and was still taking care of that same WWII Jeep.
The MVPA is full of collectors who learned fro association with WWII veterans.

[tamnalan]

Probably many WWII vets just never cared much about the vehicle details we obsess over today. They had other things to think about at the time.

I drive an F-150 pickup. I would probably struggle to describe particular details of my truck on demand, and I'm in that truck daily. I can't imagine trying to recall and accurately describe some detail of it 40 years from now.

[Destructo6]

I have to agree that asking a WWII vet may not get you much in hard facts about any vehicle they used during war or even during peacetime.

Heck, I drove 2 models of HMMWV ambulance only 20 years ago and about all I could tell you about them is that one was a 2-stretcher version that had some power and the other was a 4-stretcher that was gutless (998 and 1035?). I took care of and drove these for a year and even though I had to touch up the camouflage from time to time, I absolutely could not tell you about the markings with any certainty.

[Mark Tombleson]

My dad drove a jeep on Saipan and could not tell me if it was OD or forest green.

He said there were no tools he knew of and he was to drive it back to the depot if it had a flat.

He could not even remember if it had a windshield on the one he drove, but remembered one of his buddies had his shot through the windshield skin just missing him.

Father was 17 in 1943 when he entered the USMC and was on Kwajalein, Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima as well as a mechanic installing fording kits in jeeps just prior to Saipan on Maui.

He was 78 when he died in 2003... and told me how could you expect a teenager getting shot at so much over a 2-1/2 year period to remember anything so minor as if there is an electric wiper on the windshield?

[signsup]

Whenever I have a question about what to do on my 42 GPW, I go upstairs and knock on the door. Or wait for him to walk down the driveway for his morning walk while I'm working under the hood.
Dad served in the 2nd Army Headquarters here in the US from 43 to 45. He was drafted but could not serve overseas as he was born in Scotland and was not a US citizen. So he inspected troops that had completed their training and were being shipped out.

He can't remember some of the bases and forts he served at, can't remember his Battalion or Division number, but I ask him anways. I keep refering to my jeep as MFJ class. But it's really his jeep.

And I could care less what the nitpickers say about it. It's not for sale, so I'm not trying to sell it. It's been called "hideous" and my advice makes people "cringe"., but at the end of the day when I say goodnight to my 92 year old veteran father, I could care less about the jeep police.

[signsup]

Sorry, clicked on the wrong image. Here is my son driving his Grandfather in their jeep.

THIS is why we fight!

[signsup]

It's not easy being me. . .

[Marty, SoCal]

My dad was a medic in the Korean war, he was put in charge of the motorpool without any official training, only that he knew how to maintain vehicles as taught by his Dad. He told me they mixed OD paint by blending black and yellow when they couldn't get the official paint, painted vehicles with a brush, and rubbed them down with diesel fuel before inspections to make them shine. Pictures of the vehicles in his unit show very crudely applied unit markings, I guess they didn't have stencils or a good sign painter.

Can you imagine if you brought your "Motorpool" MV to a meeting, painted with home mixed paint applied by a brush, with hand painted markings?

He did say that the only real "jeep" is the WW2 model. His unit received new M38-a1's, he didn't like them as they were harder for him to maintain, not having been trained.

My dad working on a WC-64 ambulance:


New M38-A1 in 1953, my dad reading the TM, the Chinese prisoners of war were his helpers:


KMAG jeep being worked on in the Motorpool, I wonder what the jeep police would say about the jack that's being used?

[Mark Tombleson]

The jeep police would say that is kind of jacked up!

[lucakiki]

While I absolutely agree , with all due respect owed to them, that asking a WWII veteran is not such a reliable way to reach correct information, I would like to spend some words about nitpickers or about whom we should define as a nitpicker.
True, the guys that cannot wait to nitpick about a jeep or other military vehicle proudly posted by someone who just finished restoring it are unpleasant nitpickers, but let us not forget how often people, not necessarily newbies, do ask questions about what is correct or what might be wrong on their jeep.
If they ask questions, they should be grateful for any correct documented answer they get.
Be it marking, hardware, finish, earlier or later part.
If one doesn't care, he should not ask.
But if, for whatever reason,a guy wants to know what is the correct choice for a given d.o.d. or time frame, he should be grateful for polite answers, even when the answers point out something that was thought to be correct but is not, rather than be pissed if the fantasy factor in their restoration is duly underlined.

I wonder how many who entered their vehicle for judgment relied on the information from veterans, or on information from those who were trained to maintain and fix vehicles using the parts actually available post war, because they were army mechanics and not restorers.

One would wonder why Jon spent so much time , with the help of collectors worlwide, in updating his famous list of part color and finishes, if he could have done it by merely asking a veteran.

[W. Winget]

I recall the History Channel show on Bastogne or such where a WWII interviewed Vet said he saw a Lt. trying to hand crank a jeep and stated emphatically on the show that cars didn't have hand cranks for years prior to that and the Lt was suffering from shell shock trying to crank the jeep to start it.....
Yep, 'he was there', and they never issued a hand crank for a jeep according to him (whom now instructs little kids via re-runs about this over and over again for years to come...)

Memory is fleeting, especially if you don't know much about what the piece of equipment is in the first place.
Maybe he was a cook.

V/R W Winget

[Joe Gopan]

I have been trained by, worked with and asked WWII Vets about MV's and Aircraft for 69 years. They are still keen on the equipment they were trained on.