Posted by Paul Cook in Kempner, Texas on Friday, January 26, 2007 at 13:33:53 :
In Reply to: Pw in Military?? link posted by 68427vette on Thursday, January 25, 2007 at 14:51:22 :
Vehicles procured by the US Army generally fall into two types - Administrative or Tactical. Manpower and equipment for tactical military units are authorized by the Table of Organization and Equipment (TOE). Each vehicle in a TOE unit is specified.
Manpower for garrison and other administrative (non-combat) military units is authorized by a Table of Distribution and Allowances (TDA).
Usually there are no vehicles specified for a TDA init. Vehicles needed by TDA units are dispatched to them by a central Administrative Motor Pool (Admin MP). In the past, a TOE unit might request a vehicle from the Admin MP for certain requirements such as carrying VIP's when the available tactical vehicles were not available. Many General Officers in TOE units had the use of a sedan from the Admin MP because their authorized tactical vehicles were not comfortable.
The vehicles in the Admin motor pool were almost exclusively civilian type vehicles procured from the various manufacturers. As always in the Army, there was a suggested list of vehicles to meet a standard set of requirements. Typical were sedans, station wagons, light pickup trucks, van and stake bodied medium trucks, and busses. These were generally two wheel drive vehicles.
When a unit or agency supported by the Admin MP had a valid, recurring requirement that could not be met by the usual vehicles, the Admin MP would go through usual procurement procedures and obtain these unique vehicles. Here's where civilian Power Wagons showed up.
Normally, Admin MP vehicles were painted gloss OD and were marked with the Army registration number on the doors along with the words, "FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY". Admin MP vehicles were not permitted to deploy with TOE units, so it is unlikely that any ever saw combat.
The fact that the Power Wagons in this discussion were marked as belonging to Fort Sam Houston clearly indicates that they were from the FSH Admin MP. After all, there was no Army tactical unit by that name.