Would you believe that documentation has been found at the National
Archives that shows the Army QMC had the cans marked "USMC" so that when
they eventually teamed up with Marine forces in the Pacific and the Marines
saw the Army supply dumps, the Marines would think it was already theirs and
wouldn't steal them.
Would you believe they were marked that way so that the Army guards at
the supply dumps would be more zealous in their duties to prevent the
Marines from stealing them back?
Would you believe they were marked that way to throw the Nazi's into a
tizzy, by misleading them into thinking that the Marines had already kicked
the Jap's asses and were now in Europe to revisit the WW1 Hun/Allied
Invitational?(Big Tongue in Cheek apology to Agent 86 and Mr. Rice)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Rice" <majrice@hotmail.com>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Monday, January 08, 2001 4:10 PM
Subject: Re: [MV] jerry cans
> Was there any documentation provide to support the USMC Museum's
supposition
> or was this simply what they thought? I really doubt this claim, despite
the
> USMC Museum's opine. Just because a museum SAYS something is so, please
> don't take it as gospel. Without documentation (contracts or spec sheets
> for the cans from WWII) I just can't believe this. With some some
> DOCUMENTATION, I would believe it as an anomoly. I really doubt though
they
> have any contract paperwork or Government specs on any cans, gas or water
> that were built for them. Unfortunately, our military museums are as, if
> not more, short staffed and overworked as anyone related to the Department
> of Defense these days.
>
> I know I am treading on dangerous ground here by applying logic, but tell
me
> why would only one company, building the cans to GOVT specs make their
> openings/mouths differently and mark them differently than any other
> manufacturer building to the same specs? Clearly, some other specs were
> around and these cans were built to them, but for who?
>
> Seriously, why would one can have have USMC embossed when both water cans
> and gas cans by all others had US, USA or QMC embossed. Even a Marine
could
> see it was a metal can. Does US mean UNKNOWN SUBSTANCE or QMC mean
> Quantitative Metal Can. I mean, it does hold a specified amount of liquid.
> The logic that it means United States Metal Can when all others had US for
> UNITED STATES or QUARTERMASTER CORPS doesn't hold much water (pun intended
> even though we are discussing gas cans). I suppose some cans today should
> have USPC embossed for United States Plastic Can.
>
> I know I got some ridiculour answers to questions I asked at the Ft Sill
> musuem. Heck, some of their displays were obviously wrong. They just
> didn't have the manpower, funds or time to do the research and correct the
> errors.
>
> If you can provide some OFFICIAL specs, I'd be happy to believe you.
>
> My 2 cents.....which won't change without some documentation.
>
> Jim
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Feb 05 2001 - 07:13:45 PST