I found my USN Hood number!

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Jeff H
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I found my USN Hood number!

Post by Jeff H » Tue Sep 05, 2006 8:37 pm

Hello All,

My MB spent its post war career working at the Forrestal Airport at Princeton University.

I recieved 2 polaroids of my MB painted yellow with Forrestal markings in the papers I received when I bought it. But when I bought the MB it was painted O.D. , the previous owner did what I call a "rattle can restoration". He just sanded it all down on the exterior surfaces and painted it O.D. All of the markings got lost at that point.

See my MB in yellow here on this site (scroll down) http://www.airfields-freeman.com/NJ/Air ... #forrestal

I did find gray paint around the edges of as well as some of the yellow in places where he was didn't sand it too well, as well of the back of the headlight buckets still being all gray.

This trace of gray was all that I had as far as evidence that my MB night have been one of the 1310 Army MB's diverted to the Navy in late 1945.

And then just recently I made contact with one of the engineers that worked at Forrestal Airport. He did share with me his memories of the MB being gray when they receieved it, and then he was able to find the following photos of my MB. This was a very exciting revelation.

Photo 1 shows my MB in gray, the owner of the photo comfirms with looking at his original with a magnifier that he number reads USN 259554.
The MB is serving as a fire truck in this picture.

Photo 2 shows my MB in gray, last 4 numbers 9554 are even more legible but the beginning numbers are blocked by the blackout light. It is serving as a smoke generator in this picture and this picture has a date of 12-11-59. I still have one small drilled hole in the window cowl where that can is mounted in the picture! And it still has the rippled body panel above the drivers side grab handle, although it has been straightened somewhat.

Photo 3 shows my MB in yellow carrying a windmill!

So my hood is USN 259554, serial is 458802 and DOD 8-10-45.
:lol:

I am so happy to have this missing piece of the puzzle...... and how many others can say they have a picture of their G503 with a flying saucer!

OK, some questions for the experts.

The hood number is on a dark retangular background, I assume that this background is the original O.D. color and they just masked out a rectangle before they painted the gray? What color do you think the numbers were , white or yellow? The engine side firewall has its original O.D.., it does not appear to be USMC green. I cannot find any traces of USMC green. And what is very confusing is that there is a layer of dark blue sprayed on top of the original O.D. and beneath the gray. And the gray appears to have been brush painted on.

click the link for a larger version
Image http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/50 ... Jeep_1.jpg

Image http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/50 ... Jeep_2.jpg

Image

http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/50 ... Jeep_3.jpg

Out of respect for the gentleman that shared these photos with me from his personal collection, please do not post them elsewhere.

Jeff H


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Mark Tombleson
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Post by Mark Tombleson » Tue Sep 05, 2006 9:51 pm

Here is an old thread I search for on the topic.

http://www.g503.com/forums/viewtopic.ph ... y+grey+123

Just from the examples I have seen some photos of... your jeep may have come from the factory in OD without any markings at all or maybe a white USN I have seen in a photo or two that I cannot remember right now.

Since it was in 1945 and it was a jeep used in the states I would think it would be painted the medium gray #123 with black markings as directed in the U.S. Navy Preventative Maintenance Program for Domestic Transportation Equipment.

Too cool having actual photos of the jeep. 8) 8)
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Post by Jeff H » Tue Sep 05, 2006 10:06 pm

Hmmm, Bob N's pictures of USN Jeeps show the numbers on a black or dark rectangular area also........

I wonder if the black or dark area covered over the Army USA number?

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Post by Mark Tombleson » Tue Sep 05, 2006 11:34 pm

For a jeep delivered as the one in BobN's photo was, with a USA number, that sounds reasonable.
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Tom Wolboldt
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Navy numbers

Post by Tom Wolboldt » Wed Sep 06, 2006 3:56 am

Hi Jeff

Very Cool!!!!!!!! Great find!

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Post by Mike W. » Thu Sep 07, 2006 5:22 am

Jeff - Very neat find, especially since it is your jeep. I found the airport site a while back and have been looking through it researching local airports but it is slow going, it all started when I found the Goodyear (Az.) airport had been a Navy blimp base during WW2 and after. And a lot of Navy equipment including ships got painted with brushes. :lol:
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Post by Jeff H » Thu Sep 14, 2006 9:12 pm

Here are some pictures of the blue paint on my MB. It appears to be a sprayed on coat directly over the original O.D. Then the brushed on gray is over top of the blue.

The the previous owner hand sanded the exterior only down to the metal and spray canned it with O.D. again. So the evidence remains under the hood and other out of the way areas.

As Princeton U received the MB from the military in gray, has anyone a theory on at what point in it's military career would it have been painted blue?

from right to left, original O.D., sprayed on blue on top, brushed on gray on top of that
Image


blue showing through were brushed on gray chipped off, notice previous owner only bothered to remove the headlight ring and repaint it O.D. and left the arm and bucket alone
Image

inside glove box
Image

more blue right over the O.D.
Image

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USN jeep

Post by DieFledermaus » Fri Sep 15, 2006 1:59 pm

Jeff,
Great find! Cool to see pictures of your jeep in action. I like the hovercraft. Also, my hood had black numbers. Are you going to Gilbert? -Mike
AUG 1944 MB, US NAVY
MAR 1952 M38
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Post by Jeff H » Sat Sep 16, 2006 2:28 pm

This layer of blue really has me intrigued. So I started searching the best source on G503's , the G503 website!

I found some references to Navy blue over O.D.

http://www.g503.com/forums/viewtopic.ph ... ep&start=0

http://www.g503.com/forums/viewtopic.ph ... =blue+jeep

Does anyone out there have any period pictures of a blue jeep?

Jeff H

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Post by Mike W. » Mon Sep 18, 2006 4:33 am

I know the Navy used black and dark blue on some of their base vehicles at the beginning of WW2 but I never saw a WW2 era jeep tht color. However I have a friend that restores Navy Ford GTB's and he told me that once he open a box with a NOS Ford part in it and it was painted dark blue, plus one of his GTB's was dark blue. So the color was used, just when and where I don't know.

In the second link that Mark posted on blue jeeps there was also a discussion of Military Police vs Shore Patrol on Navy vehicles and the thought was that Navy vehicles would always be marked Shore Patrol. This is not true as I have a 1956 picture of a gray Navy truck marked Military Police on the tailgate, granted there are Marines standing next to it so maybe they drove and marked it. :lol: But Navy Shore Patrol personnel could be assigned to a multi-service group like the HASP (Hawaiian Armed Services Police) and it may have been mandated that all their vehicles no matter what branch be marked MP.
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Post by The Fireman » Mon Sep 18, 2006 12:22 pm

Yo Jeff,

What sticks in my feeble mind cells is when (year) did the university acquire the jeep and where did it come from. Was it a ROTC jeep on campus or was it attached to some branch of the service that was at the campus or at a nearby military installation. It is the cop thing that goes off every once in a while, kind of like inquiring minds want to know.

But it is really neat to have the photos and history of your jeep.

Outstanding !!!

Frank
The Fireman
NRG

Jeff H
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Post by Jeff H » Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:15 am

Hi Frank

With the one picture being dated 1959, I now know they had it at least since then obviously. They disposed of it around 1989, I have documentation on that.

From the little information I have I can assume that it was purchased from, or accepted from, the military to be used as a support/utility vehicle at the Princeton's Forrestal Airport Research Facility. I don't think ROTC had anything to do with it.

As one can see looking at this information on this website http://www.airfields-freeman.com/NJ/Air ... #forrestal it appears that the facility was primarily involved in aeronautical research for the military.

Maybe the Navy just gave it to them? Lakehurst NAS is not far from Princeton.

Jeff H

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Post by Mike W. » Wed Sep 20, 2006 1:56 pm

I would think that it was just transferred from the Navy when they were done with it as that is done today with other govt. organizations. But...since it still has it's Navy numbers on it I have to wonder if the Navy was involved with the facility because if not I would have thought the numbers would have been painted over.
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Re: I found my USN Hood number!

Post by Jeff H » Sun Nov 17, 2013 4:11 am

If you have done internet research some time in the past, my suggestion it do it again! You never know what you may find!

I have found a newspaper article from 1981, The Daily Princetonian, about the decay of the Forrestal Campus, that included a photo with what I believe to be my jeep with the windmill mounted on it.

http://theprince.princeton.edu/princeto ... estal----#

AND ................. saving the best for last! .........................

A youtube video from the 60's with a glimpse of my jeep in it! The USN markings on the rear can be seen at about the 55 second mark in the video. The number is not clear unfortunately......

http://youtu.be/oKwxdC40ucs

That vertical piece of metal or whatever it is that is bolted to the left rear quarter panel seen in the hovercraft picture above is also in the video.

Very exciting stuff!

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Re: I found my USN Hood number!

Post by Jeff H » Sun Jun 19, 2022 8:52 am

The link in my first post has changed and I cannot edit the post.
Here is the current link.
http://www.airfields-freeman.com/NJ/Air ... #forrestal


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