My own interest in restoring my own trucks is to make them look like they are
intended. Dave brought up a good question when he asked what "proper" is when
the Army wasn't too picky about color. I don't know how to answer that, but
SOMETHING has to be correct, no? As a Regular Army retiree, and long time MV
owner, I've walked enough motor pool lineups to know that the WC I mentioned
would have jumped out like a sore thumb among the other vehicles. Even the
Colonel's truck didn't look that good!
Assignments in the service were seldom long enough to follow individual trucks
and see how they aged. I'm always amazed when I acquire a new one, and see how
the years have treated it. Like I said before, you see every color of OD
imagineable, and it always made me curious about how the different paints
weathered differently. I don't believe that the military views paint in the
same ways a civilian truck maker does.
Paint to the military is a preservative, low reflecting, background blending
coating. LIke a lot of other things military, these coatings are made to a
spec, and it's possible that there is enough variation in the spec that all
these paints can be this different and still meet the written spec. As John
mentioned, very little documentation is available on a lot of these items,
because no one thought to keep records. I fear that once those of us who
actually drove these things in service pass on, assuming the military does
stop surplussing new ones, who will be left that knows what is correct or
acceptable anymore? I mentioned long ago on this list that field practices
produced trucks appearance that few of us would care to take to a judged
contest, but isnt it true that they are probably more correct than that WC? I
can recall looking down rows of new trucks of every kind, and no two were
exactly the same color. I recall being able, after working with them, to
identify a particular truck by it's odd coloration and markings. I can still
remember the troops out in the motor pool spot painting trucks with plain
white spray cans of issue paint, (Bob's Paint?) every can a slightly different
color. I remember men sitting there cutting bumper stencils from cardboard
cartons, newspaper, and brown bags, freehanding stars, and rubbing their
M151's down with jet fuel to make them shine. Correct? Who can say! If it
happened, perhaps it IS correct!
Jack, raising the white flag...
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