Army Airborne & The M274 Mule

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Army Airborne & The M274 Mule

Post by Guest 1 » Wed Aug 22, 2018 9:02 am

Interested where the Army Airborne used the Mule? Having been a young paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne in the early 70’s, I recall seeing motor pools full of the little trucks. I saw them with 106mm Recoilless and TOW’s mounted, but never knew who in the Division was authorized. After a couple of recent visits to the Center of Military History (CMH) in Washington DC, I found some documents where the M274 was authorized. Most were large and could not be copied in their entirety, so I did selected copying. My interest is where the Mule and 106mm come together, since that is what I have. I apologize in advance having not gone through each TOE and identified where each Mule was assigned within the Battalion or Company.
It is interesting the 1958 PS maintenance magazine issue 68 has the presentation of the Mule “Reporting For Duty, Sir”, however TOE, 7-31T ROTAD dated 10 August 1956 and TOE, 7-32T ROTAD dated 10 August 1956 have the XM274, Carrier light weapons infantry authorized at 110 each at full strength in the “Airborne Combat Group”. During this time the Mule was authorized, however in remarks code they were not fielded as of yet and sub-ed with ¼ ton jeeps & trailers. There was no line number for the M274 either at this time. XM274 means it was still experimental. This was during the time called the Pentomic era.
As you read through this information keep in mind I’m talking about mainly a battalion or company HHC, within the Airborne Division. During my time in the 82nd Abn. there were 3 Brigade’s, consisting of 3 Infantry Battalions within each brigade. With 41 mules authorized per battalion (TOE dated 30 June 66) that would be 123 mules within the Infantry battalions alone and that does not include authorizations of the mule with the Engineers, Communications or Cav units within the Airborne Division. Also during the time period of these TOE’s there were Airborne Infantry units in the 101st Abn, 1st Air Cav & 173rd Airborne Brigade that used these TOE’s.
I added the definition of MTOE, just to let you know there was another authorization document where equipment can be added, CMH does not have any MTOE’s. There are a lot of pictures of the 106mm Recoilless mounted on the M151A1C (Jeep), those A1C’s could have been authorized on a MTOE and only showed up on the TOE dated 1970 as all others have the Mule assigned to carry 106mm in the Anit-tank Platoon. Per a former 11H MOS Anti-tank gunner I know that was in 82nd same time period, “they had both configurations for either Mule or M151A1C for mounted106mm Recoilless Rifle”.

Pentomic refers to a structure for infantry and Airborne divisions adopted by the U.S. Army in 1957 in response to the perceived threat posed by tactical nuclear weapons use on the battlefield.

TOE: The Table of Organization and Equipment (TOE) is a document that prescribes the wartime mission, capabilities, organizational structure, and mission essential personnel and equipment requirements for military units.

Line Item Number: The Line Item Number (LIN) is a six-character alphanumeric identification of the generic nomenclature assigned to identify nonexpendable and type classified expendable or durable items of equipment during their life cycle authorization and supply management.

Modified Table of Organization & Equipment (MTOE) is an authorization document that prescribes the modifications to a basic TOE which are necessary to adapt its mission, capabilities, organization, personnel, and equipment to meet the needs of a specific unit or group of units. The MTOE gives the major Army command (MACOM) commander a way to modify the standard TOE for one or more of the TOE units under his command. The MTOE authorizes the reorganization of a specific unit to meet the requirements of the command to which the unit is assigned. A Department of the Army (DA)-published MTOE is the official authorization document for the TOE units and is the authority for organization property on hand in the organization.

The following are extracts from TOE’s
TOE 7-31D, Airborne Division Battle Group, dated 31 July 1958, has the mule with line number 405215, Authorized 87, “Carrier light weapons infantry ½-ton 4x4”. In layman’s terms this is equal to a battalion more or less. Rifle 106MM on Mount LIN:435950, 10 each.

TOE 7-36F Headquarters & Headquarters Company, Infantry Battalion (Airborne), dated 25 June 1965. Authorized 20,Truck Platform Utility ½ ton 4-4 W/E, LIN: 461206,at full strength. 6 were assigned to Anti-Tank Platoon along with 6 Rifle 106mm on Mount LIN: 435950

TOE 7-35G Infantry Battalion, Airborne Division or Infantry Battalion, Separate Airborne Brigade, dated 30 June 1966. Authorized 41, Truck Platform Utility ½ ton 4x4 W/E, LIN:X55627 & authorized 12, Rifle Recoilless 106 Millimeter: on Mount, LIN: R96758. Note: with this TOE, the LIN was changed from 461206 to X55627 for all models of the M274’s and reference is made to all models except the M274A5.

TOE 7-36G Headquarters & Headquarters Company, Infantry Battalion, Airborne Division or Headquarters & Headquarters Company, Infantry Battalion Separate Airborne Brigade, dated 30 June 1966. Authorized 20, Truck Platform Utility ½ ton 4x4 W/E, LIN:X55627 & authorized 6, Rifle Recoilless 106 Millimeter: on Mount, LIN R96758. Note: The Anti-tank platoon was authorized 6 of both Mules & Recoilless rifles, the 4.2 inch Mortar platoon was authorized 8 Mules and 4 of the 4.2 inch mortars.

TOE 7-35H Infantry Battalion (Airborne), Airborne Division or Infantry Battalion (Airborne), Separate Airborne Brigade, dated 30 November 1970. This is a two part authorized TOE, one for 106mm Recoilless Rifle or Guided Missile System Surface Attack Truck (Mule) Mounted TOW Equipment. Authorized 29 Truck Platform Utility ½ ton 4x4 W/E. LIN: X55627, authorized 8 Rifle Recoilless 106mm along with 8 Truck Utility ¼ ton, LIN: X61244 (M151A1C).
With the TOW authorization, Authorized 36 Truck Platform Utility ½ ton 4x4 W/E. LIN:X55627, and authorized 6 Truck Guided Missile Equipment MULE (TOW), LIN:X45554 Note: not sure if the TOW Mule LIN X45554 was a kit that was made to go on the 6 additional authorized Mules, reference the authorization went from 29 to 36 mules under the TOE for Guided Missile System (TOW).

Makes you wonder??? What happened to all those Airborne mule’s? It appears the Airborne and the M274 Mule had a good run, from 1957/58 through 1985 roughly 28 years, that is a long time for the life cycle of a military vehicle! In closing note this information is only from Airborne Infantry documents, I have no idea what conventional (Leg) Army units had or were authorized when it came to the M274!
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ltsimp
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Re: Army Airborne & The M274 Mule

Post by ltsimp » Thu Aug 23, 2018 4:23 am

Interesting reading. Thanks for doing the research.

338Edge
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Re: Army Airborne & The M274 Mule

Post by 338Edge » Mon Feb 24, 2020 12:50 pm

Guest 1 wrote:
Wed Aug 22, 2018 9:02 am
Interested where the Army Airborne used the Mule?
As I've bee restoring my Mule, I've been uncovering markings that show my mule was with the 101st Rakkasans. I'm trying to save the markings as I work on it.

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