[Milsurplus] Crated Aircraft - painted aircraft ID on radios

[Kmec at aol.com]

I was re-reading some of the posts about why specific aircraft numbers were 
 painted on certain radio gear, and read the speculations as to why this 
might  be.
I have a surmise: The crew chief, when turning in his gear for routine  
maintenance or repair, wanted to be sure he got his unit back. He didn't want  
someone elses sour tuner, or cranky receiver, intermittent transmitter, etc. 
If  he had a piece of gear that was issued to the aircraft, and worked well 
when  operating, he wanted it back when repaired, rather than get someone 
else's  problem child issued to him. A painted number on the case would help 
prevent  that.  Having had a lot of surplus stuff over the years, I have 
found  manufacturing defects like cold solder joints (found one recently in a 
pristine  ARC-5 rx), etc that would make for intermittent gear, seems 
repaired but craps  out again in the field, to be returned to depot for repair, 
etc.  Maybe  just marking their territory, like dogs.
YMMV
73
Jeff Kruth
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