[Milsurplus] Your tax dollars at work My stories

[Kmec at aol.com]

Hello All!
 
Been reading this thread with interest. I have a lot of stories. My first  
"real" radio (BC-455) was given to me by a sympathetic ham who saw me 
fooling  with a homebrew portable regen in a park.  My next was a BC-779 saved 
from  a "basement about to flood". So I grew up loving WWII surplus radios and  
electronics.
 
One of my first papers written for 7th grade English class was on an  
article I saw in LOOK or LIFE (circa 1969-70) on WWII surplus, its showed rows  
of 2-1/2 ton trucks out on Kiska in the Aleutians left over from WWII. Looked 
 like they had been brand new when parked at the end of the war, and still 
were  incredibly good shape.  Further research on my part led to an 
agreement by  manufacturers with the US Gov't  that material furnished at low cost 
for  WWII would NOT be repatriated as Ford, etc. did not want to compete with 
their  own product (now surplus) in the post war period.
 
Another: My Uncle Johnny, a great cook, was made a mechanic by the AAF (of  
course), and was in the Pacific. During the island hopping period of the  
war, as they were leaving an island airbase, they were told to go bury  their 
Snap-On and Proto tools sets, just issued, on the beach, at the waters  
edge. They would be re-issued new ones at the next island.  My old man, a  
mechanical engineer and backyard mechanic, used to shake his head and groan when 
 John (re-)told this story. Johnny also told of Bulldozer contests where 
they  would put tin can stack extensions on air inlet and exhaust stacks and 
run the  bulldozers out into ocean to see whos would make it the farthest.
 
Another: At the end of WWII, piers full of electronics, radars, comm gear,  
supplies, etc. were stacked up in Australia. The US Navy "offered" to 
transport  this material out into the Pacific to "help the Aussies out" by 
getting rid of  the leftover stuff. The Aussies said" That's OK mate, we'll take 
care of it".  This is how CISRO was started, on WWII stuff.  (From IIRC, "The 
Invention  that Changed the World, The invention of Radar", R. Buderi, 
1996).
 
Another: My good friend, John Jolly (no kidding), was a Navy lifer in Comm, 
 he told the story of decommissioning ships headed for mothball/scrappers. 
He  said they would throw everything they could over the side. He laughed as 
he told  of Tek scopes, HP spec an's, new drill indexes full, tool boxes, 
spare parts,  you name it, that they carried up and threw overboard.  The 
incentive: less  stuff to write up when the ship arrived, so a lot easier.
 
I spent 30 years buying Gov't electronic surplus, in LARGE volumes. when I  
lived in the Baltimore-Washington area: Ft. Meade, Belvoir, Pax, Dahlgren.  
Aberdeen PG, Mechanicsburg, and others. I knew & horse-traded with all the  
surplus dealers in the area.
 
I saw enormous quantities of wasted stuff. I complained. One old gal who  
ran Fort Meade DRMO said "You do not understand, we are not tasked with 
making  money or saving this material for civilian use. We are here to DISPOSE of 
 surplus material."   
 
I learned when I joined a Screeners and uses of federal  EXCESS material, 
what the definitions were and why.
"Surplus" means the gov't and all associated civilian organizations have  
had a crack at the EXCESS, and now it becomes SURPLUS (read: waste) in the 
gov't  mind.
 
I have more......
 
Regards,
Jeff Kruth
WA3ZKR
 
 
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