It was referring to the fact that judging is now being done as the state
of the vehicle as is rolled from the factory floor....if that is the
case that most WWII 1/4 tons should be judged in a crate!
Most military vehicles come without the accessories such as radios and
other equipment mounted on the vehicle... Jeeps were for the most part
shipped bare of those items and those items were mounted once they
reached the using unit... Radios and mounting kits arrived in a
separate crate from the vehicle... It was customary for the final prep
of the vehicle to take place in the using unit, so modifications were
applied before the first soldier took his first operational ride in the
vehicle...
Another good example is the ROPS kits... There was never an M-151(A1/A2)
that was ever delivered from the factory sporting that kit... It was an
MWO that was installed at the using units, well after the vehicles had
been in service...
In 1979 my Cavalry Squadron received a fresh issue of new M-60's. My
M-60A1 Passive Rise Tank arrived at the factory and as the saying goes
"needed some assembly before use". One of the first things we did was
install the sponson box from a 1950's era Chaffee Light Tank on the rear
of the bussle rack to keep things out of the weather. Every M-60 in the
Squadron sported one of these boxes...Of course they didn't come from
the factory with one. Then the vehicles were all painted using the
Squadron's camo scheme (to hell with the color scheme in the manual) and
put on the unit markings. That included a series of markings that again
will not be found in any FM, that was in the Unit SOP only.
To judge a military vehicle as it rolled from the factory is to ignore
the fundamental difference between military vehicles and your garden
variety civilian Ford. One of the fun parts of owning a military
vehicle is the various field modifications that were applied to
facilitate the accomplishment of the mission by the vehicle... It to me
is a celebration of the vehicle and the ingenuity of the folks that used
the vehicle to do their duty.
-- Joe Baker Major, Infantry USARFormerly of the 1/2 ACR (FRG) and the 418th Med Co (AMB)(RVN)
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