M151's were usually secured using a single chain either welded to the
body or bolted to the body. Bolting is not the best idea because anyone
with a set of wrenches has a key to the lock. I high theft areas there
would be a chain or bar attached to prevent the gear shift lever to be
shifted. That seems to stop the thief who would tow the vehicle away
which I have heard of being done on a military base by another unit than
the assigned unit.
Larger trucks were normally secured in much the same manner as the
quarter tons.
Armored vehicles usually had provisions for a padlock on one of the
hatches. The remaining hatches were combat locked from the inside and
the lockable hatch locked from the outside with a high security pad
lock. Tracks also were issued with a keyed brass low security lock set
of locks for all of the exterior boxes that all used the same key
Radios were normally locked into their mounts with a length of chain,
not only on the quarter tons, but also inside of the tracked vehicles to
keep them from wandering away.
It was not uncommon to secure an ammo box to the floor of the quarter
tons with a lock to keep small stuff from wandering. I personally
removed the rear seat from my command jeep and replaced it with an issue
foot locker that was lockable that contained all of the things I needed
as a commander in the field. Not only was it water proof after a
fashion, but it provided an easy way to move the stuff from the supply
room to the jeep and still provided security for sensitive items like
field glasses and radio accessories, and still was a little large for
your average thief to cart off in the night.
I have heard of circumstances in the Middle East where the operator had
the chain and locks on both the gear shift lever and the steering wheel
along with another chain through the frame and around the front axle
discover that the thief had worked through two of the three locks and
was working on the third when the operator was finally awakened by the
noise.
German MV's have a cut out on the electrical system that can be removed
to deactivate the ignition. Unfortunately the cut out "key" is the same
on all German MV's so it is not a great deterrent to a dedicated thief.
Hope this helps.
Joe Baker
Major, Infantry
Formerly with the 1/2 ACR
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