[ARC5] Hamming of Surplus Equipment

[D. Platt]

Whomever passed this on is absolutely correct.  My Dad was the Camp 
Construction Officer in the 301st NCB on Guam.  Although not directly 
involved, in late 1945 and early '46 he regularly saw LSTs being back 
loaded with, typically, deuce-and-a-halfs with 3-4 jeeps or boxes loaded 
in them.  These LSTs would make daily runs out to the "trench" and drive 
their loads off the ramps.  If you've ever seen the "Victory at Sea" 
series, and noted the episode about Guam, you'll see all the tremendous 
stock-piles of materials designated for the invasion of Japan (You'll 
also see briefly a sign which says "There is no road here so keep your 
damn trucks out!" 301st NCB Agana).  Anyway, that's what they did and I 
understand much of it was to prevent American industry, concerned with 
return to civilian production, to be flooded with cheap surplus.  OK.... 
but what ever happened to all those "brand new jeeps in factory boxes" 
that were supposed to be available as advertized in Pop Mechanics, 
etc.?  Were they?

Jeep - K3HVG


snip-----------------

A SeaBee told me, shaking his head, of being ordered to unload the 
cargos of a large number of cargo vessels into the ocean after VJ Day. I 
have seen photos of perfectly good, even new, P-51s and P-38s being 
stacked up like cordwood by bulldozer and burnt, then the remains 
buried. I have also been told of an ship whose cargo was an entire load 
of AR-88s, being sunk in an accident off the coast of Washington State.
>> Given this example, I think we have to assume if there had been no
>> hamming of surplus gear there would be little or none around today.
>