There are a few things to consider here.
First, there were literally hundreds of companies in the US before WWII,
much as there are today, which did custom work on trucks to configure them
to customer specifications. If yours is olive-drab painted, chances are it
saw its way into military service, but that is not an absolute. OD paint
was available in spades after WWII, and if a less prosperous company had
this truck they may have painted it OD to save money.
Second, trucks built for the AAC or AAF were not all built to go out to air
fields and maintain airplanes. Air bases, as well as other Army
installations, were full of electrical power grids, steam heating systems,
coal fired systems, railways, etc. There were certainly trucks acquired to
perform maintenance on these facilities. If anybody is familiar with the
Federal 2G Dump truck, of which there were 750 built, its cousin was the 2B
utility truck (which I have never seen). This truck supposedly had a large
utility body and was used for telephone and electrical line maintenance.
The only person who I ever spoke to familiar with this truck was a person
who performed heavy electrical maintenance for a Navy shipyard (I don't
remember which one he worked in).
Third, the yellow and black lines were commonly painted on State Highway
trucks in Pennsylvania after WWII. I have seen two former military vehicles
painted like this on the front and rear bumpers.
The key thing to look for is evidence that the OD paint was painted during
WWII. I would do this by looking for repairs made during that period with
OD paint on them that wouldn't have been painted subsequently by the
post-war owner.
1939 was a year in which the Army began to buy more vehicles. I know that
their purchases of Indian Motorcycles mushroomed at this time, so I'd guess
other vehicle makes would have been picked up in greater numbers. And since
their base expansion plans began at that time, it makes sense that they
would have acquired vehicles to maintain their facilities.
Good luck, and keep us informed of what you find.
-----Original Message-----
From: Carol Kenyon <Da-Kenyons@webtv.net>
To: Military Vehicles List <mil-veh@skylee.com>
Date: Friday, July 07, 2000 10:22 PM
Subject: [MV] Is It Army Airport Veh. Or Ma Bell?
>Thank you for your great replies. I'm so green
>that I didn't know about the Army airport stuff.
>I can tell you that literally hundreds of Bell
>Telephone retirees (Telephone Pioneers) have
>looked at pictures and descriptions of my big
>panel and NOBODY NOWHERE REMEMBERS
>NOTHING! If it was a public utilities truck, it was made in very small
>numbers. Most of the
>tel. trucks, for example, are made according to
>a formula. A line truck or I/M truck looks pretty
>much the same whether you're in New England
>or California. The yellow stripes on this thing is
>just another curveball!
>Imagining this thing on one end of a runway
>trying to rescue a (olive-green) C-47 just puts
>a smile on my face.
>However, if it turns out to be more pedestrian-
>that's OK. I can't e-mail pictures yet so just
>give me your address and I'll send what pictures I have. Thanks for
>your input. I am
>a MVPA member, by the way! Don Kenyon
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Aug 07 2000 - 22:15:56 PDT