Re: [MV] Water Buffalo

William R. Benson (Benson@eqe.com)
Thu, 14 Oct 1999 08:21:28 -0700

Funny how so many like to poke fun at the National Guard, but every time
you turn around, they're making a major contribution to the community.
When a major frost hit our Winter Jamboree (Boy Scouts) when I was a kid,
the entire events's food supply was wiped out. Just when we were getting
really scared, who shows up in their beautiful green trucks, but the
Washington State National Guard. They set up a field kitchen, fed
everyone, then set up a little tent city, heaters and the whole shabang,
(in short order) AND THEN turned to helping the Scout Masters and event
staff in putting on the best, bar none, Winter Jamboree anybody had seen in
a long time. As I remember, they did it with a smile too. I never forgot
that evolution, and to this day, even after living the life of a combat
hardened Marine, I refuse to look at what those folk do for their
communities in peril as anything less than spectacular. (Not only that,
but the best beans and bisquits I've ever had come from some of the
kitchens of the southern units of the Guard.) If you're in the Guard, good
on ya!

Now, onto business! Last night I threw caution to the winds, and, with
Chris Davis present as a command witness, dumped a load of gas in the gas
tank, cranked the engine a couple of times, and then fired the beast up.
The engine ran smoothly, "Like it wanted to go somewhere." says Chris. It
idled well, and behaved itsvelf to the point that I am not going to waste a
lot of time tearing down the engine at this point, just hit it with some
degreaser, change the plugs, filters, and figure out where the leak on the
water pump is. All I have to do now is get the brakes fixed up, insure and
register the beast, and BINGO, another MV comes back from the dead to grace
America's highways! Because of the bolt on construction of the truck, I
figure I'll drive it to the sandblast point, unbolt a section at a time,
blast and prime as needed, and pretty soon it'll even be the right color!

As usual, I have a few questions to pose for the list:

1) If my pick-up truck has the military troop seats, can I have passengers
in the back?
2) Chris Davis has a wonderful system he came up with for putting two
bench seats in the bed of his M-37 with seat belts for his kids. Anybody
else out there have similar systems?

Bill

===
To unsubscribe from the mil-veh mailing list, send the single word
UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of a message to <mil-veh-request@skylee.com>.