Posted by Jonas on Sunday, March 17, 2002 at 1:57PM :
In Reply to: What hooked you? When ? posted by Sean on Saturday, March 16, 2002 at 7:34PM :
I was a Crewchief/ doorgunner on Marine Corps hueys. Needless to say, they had some mechanical problems that left us out in the field a few nights. The ordinance department had a hummer that my shop (flightline) we could use only in emergencies, and we nicknamed it the "bummer" because it broke down more than the hueys did! Anyway, a airforce base in Ontario CA. closed down and the Marine Air Group bought each squadrons flightline shop a M-37 to haul helo parts and tools (and beer at 29 palms) around in. We turned it into a emergency reclamation vehicle. It never let us down, and went up into some pretty hairy country on Camp Pendelton. It came to it's final demise being sling loaded back from 29 palms to Camp Pendelton when a bird got a chip light in the #2 gearbox and lost the #2 engine close to home. They flew it in with the load, but had to pickle it over a range in Camp Pen to be able to land. I wish I had taken a picture of what a M-37 looks like after it's been dropped from 1500' AGL!
A few years later I was jeeping in the woods north of Seattle when I saw my first flatfender. Love at first sight. Thus began my Journey in PW. That first truck I saw actually sold on the Photo Classifieds page in the last year!
Follow Ups: