& Historical Club
Pictures
1953 M-37 Cargo Truck. Truck purchased three years ago.
Installed all new (NOS) wiring and retained the 24V system.
The truck was also stripped to bear metal and repainted
with original OD paint - John Carter
1945 MB, Owner Gary and Donna Park, Sherman, TX.
Frame off restoration approx. 2 yrs in the making. pic'd
with M-100 1/4 ton trailer.
Gary Park's latest edition -1941 WC15 1/2-ton Command Car
1942 Dodge WC53 Carry-All
FINDING OLD MV'S IN NORTH TEXAS
by featured writer
Gary ThomasThe great irony of this MV hobby is when you don't own an MV, you can't ever seen to find one for sale. But then after you finally buy one, fix it up and start driving it around… old MV's start showing up everywhere. I searched for years with no luck and then bought my first old jeep in 1995. During the first week of driving it around people started telling me of other old jeeps and MV's then seen or heard of around the county. By the end of the week I had three solid leads on other vehicles.
This strange phenomenon recently happened to REX REDDICK. Rex had been interested in the Dodge WC trucks he'd been seeing in the shows and MV publications. Then one day, the water meter man happened to notice Rex's jeep. "Hey, I've got an old Army ambulance I'd sell if anybody's needing one", the old meter reader said. Well, it didn't take long for Rex to follow up on this. Rex and his partner Buddy drove up the peninsula on Lake Texoma to visit with the old fella and see the truck. To Rex's surprise it wasn't an ambulance at all, but rather a more rare type of vehicle… a Dodge WC53 Carryall!
Only 8,400 Carryall's were made (as opposed to the WC51 weapons carrier with a production run of 123,541). "Stored" outdoors for who-knows how many years, all the tires were flat. The canvass insert top had long since decayed away, filling up the interior cargo area with leaves. Rex and the old man worked out a deal and the old man set about the next day to see if he could get the old truck running.
A few days later, Rex said the phone rang and the old man was on the phone saying "It's running! It's running! You need to come out here and see this!" With the deal squared up and the leaves all swept out Rex and Buddy drove the old truck up onto a trailer and brought it home where it now awaits its restoration. Another irony of this story is that this old truck and the previous owner were located only a short distance from where I store my WC 51. I probably drove right past it no telling how many of thousands of times and never saw it or knew about it… proving once again that there are still MV's out there to be found… literally right under our noses… diamonds in the rough so to speak. Rex's time and determination paid off. Congratulations Rex on this excellent acquisition !!
Field notes: The WC53 looks like a station wagon that's taken some serious steroids. With an enclosed body it has always been sought after as an excellent technical support vehicle often carrying anything from radio gear, to engineering and surveying equipment, demolition charges, photographic and film development gear and just about anything else you can cram into it's giant cargo area. Often used as a radio truck, these vehicles are usually found with extensive radio suppression equipment, filters, wire shielding, ground straps, body bolts and the like. They have a wooden plank floor, usually oak tongue & groove. It has a 2 piece rear tailgate - one folding up , the other down. During this time, truck manufactures did not have large enough die stamping equipment to press out a one piece body… so the top center section over the cargo area was a wooden lattice framework covered with a water resistance fabric. This same soft top construction principle was used on old automobile construction. As with all other Dodge trucks of the WC and M series the powerplant is the underpowered but indestructible 230 cu.in. flathead six cylinder, producing 92 horsepower at 3200 RPM. With a gear ratio of 5.83:1 it has tremendous torque and pulling power but this reduces the top end speed to about 54 mph. Or as the GI's use to say "…she'll do 80 m.p.h. … off the side of a cliff…."
Command Car Update
House of the Generals Article
by Gary Parks, pictures from the making of the movie
and link to the movie page.
Red River Valley
Affiliated Chapter of
Military Vehicle Preservation Assoc.
Charles Brown, President
3114 S. FM 131.
Denison, TX 75020-0724
(903) 463-4084
e-mail: broiris@airmail.net
Another site brought through the
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