CARNAC's Historical VIN INFO Thread

Early deuce

5 ton crane truck

For all of you lucky Mule Skinners

M291, M292, M343

M543 trucks

For the young man in SW Virginia. M656 types

M715

Misc Stuff

Some other misc stuff.

Deuce lists will take some additional work before I can post them.

This is pretty amazing. I found my truck. I'm not seeing a UIC column in these files, though. Am I doing something wrong?

Weeeelllll, that really sucks. You're correct and looking back at my originals, there's not much I can do now. I can't type the number nor content of the words I've just released. Dang folks, sorry about that. I guess about the good it will do is ensure they're in the system so you know LOGSA has a record of it. This means a FOIA request to LOGSA requesting the DA Form 2408-9 Equipment Control Record for your vehicle.

CARNAC said:

Weeeelllll, that really sucks. You're correct and looking back at my originals, there's not much I can do now. I can't type the number nor content of the words I've just released. Dang folks, sorry about that. I guess about the good it will do is ensure they're in the system so you know LOGSA has a record of it. This means a FOIA request to LOGSA requesting the DA Form 2408-9 Equipment Control Record for your vehicle.

Click to expand...

That's ok. I appreciate your effort. The record keeping is a massive undertaking.

In my case, I've actually been able to build a timeline from approximately May, 2000 until February 2011 when it was sold at auction by reading through all the unit markings on the truck. It might be cool to do the FOIA request just to have it in writing.

I'm 95% certain that my truck was down at Ground Zero on Sept. 11th, assigned to the 642nd DASB (Divisional Aviation Suppt. Battalion)

Thanks Carnac, this is incredibly valuable information for anyone restoring a M series vehicle. Even if your truck’s serial is not listed, you can easily extrapolate to get either close or spot on to your truck’s registration number (hood number=USA number=Army registration number). No more excuses for wrong fake numbers painted on trucks (peeve of mine).

I should have done it correctly 12-13 years ago. I should be punished...I'll let CHoW know. It'll probably be the best thing that's happened to me today.

Rounds out, rounds out. Info sent.

If you need further info, please don't waste your nor my time. I've passed on all my info to firefinder for the excel spreadsheet.
Here's the info I posted reference the FOIA. If you need further info reference the FOIA, I haven't done one in roughly 3 years. I would highly suggest searching the LOGSA and/or TACOM websites to get their FOIA process and follow their directions. It's been a pleasure to have done what I could do for the hobby. Here's a link to my FOIA post..... https://www.steelsoldiers.com/threads/vin-info-via-foia-freedom-of-information-act.191986/

Carnac, great work, this will be a help for all of us, thread should be a major sticky.

For one moment, I was hoping this would help me further with solving my mystery, but , no such luck.

The only good thing I found is that the trucks listed immediately before and after mine are yr mfg 1972, both from the unit WVKYAA, while mine is 1973, WS5FAA. Interesting, the other trucks before and after are all 1965. I have proof my truck was overhauled in March 1973 according the overhaul tag on the dash. Sequence of serial number and hood number also indicate that the truck was from 1965. The engine was overhauled in 1973 as well; the original was from 1965. So the year of manufacturing in my case is clearly wrong, as already mentioned that this is possible.

I will try contact the US-Europe and the Dutch military again, because the US records show the truck went out of active service in 1986, but the real history shows this truck was stored in the POMS depot Ter Apel, Netherlands, at least in 1999.

To help some others, CARNAC in his 2010 VIN thread informed me that the unit owning the truck was the 368th Engineer Battalion stationed at that time in Manchester, NH, in 1999 transferred to Londonderry, NH. So probably the UIC WS5FAA probably links to that battalion.

412th Theater Engineer Command. 368th Engineer Battalion (New Hampshire, UIC: WS5FAA). Found this in open source so yep, that info is correct.

Just to emphasis this for others; as mentioned earlier by Carnac and Dave Doyle, vehicle information can be incomplete or even sometimes wrong.
Case in point is my M51A2. Almost certainly it was manufactured and brought into service in 1965 in the USA, and sold as surplus in 1999 or early 2000 in the Netherlands. However, the available documentation only describes the period 1973-1986. If I ever find more information on the missing periods, I will share it here in my thread on the truck and reference it also in this thread, but don't hold your breath.
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