Posted by Bert on February 16, 1999 at 09:41:34:
In Reply to: LETS SEE WHO CAN GUESS IT CLOSEST TO ACTUAL NUMBERS... posted by PRODUCTION numbers ON 57,58,59 TOWN WAGON POWER WAGONS on February 14, 1999 at 20:34:17:
In that case a bunch of them joined the USN. I was a avaition ordnance from 58-62 and we were assigned a carryall for our arming/dis-arming truck. It was always a bare bones civilian Dodge "Carryall" 4X4, 4spd, 6 cylinder, no heater, no power this or that, with a pintle hook and painted the gaudy yellow of all aircraft support equipment. We ALWAYS overloaded them with towing and our gear, tools, test equipment, hoists, radio's, food, water, etc. etc., taking more than we needed, the carryall would be down on the axels when pulled out, the idea was to make every trip count. We also towed two trailered generators and 2 or 3 empty bomb trucks which were usually loaded with gear we couldn't get in or on our carryall. For safety sake the arming pad was always as far away from the main part of the base as it could be and still have the planes taxi out to us. We would be out there until the exercise was finished sometimes a couple of days, so the carryall became our only home. When we had a aicraft, "no start" we even towed them with the carryall. As for an estimate of how many 4X4 Dodge carryalls the Navy bought in 57' or 58' every NAS(Naval Air Station) that could have ordnance activities had one carryall for every squadron stationed there. For large NAS I would say 10 carryalls, thats just a WAG(wild ass guess) though. This makes me think your figures didn't include the Navy contract carryalls, and who knows what happened to them afterward, the goverment has been known to "dig a hole" for excess equipment. So if you have a Dodge carryall with a little yellow paint showing through, and no frills, she might be a Navy Vet., treat her with respect she's "errraanned it." Happy four wheeling, Bert