Vehicle bumper markings

Does anyone have any idea what the 5th Army would have put on their vehicle bumpers. I was with the military police company stationed on Ft. Sam Houston/Camp Bullis, before the Air Force Security Police took over. We used off the shelf cars supplied by GSA. I'd like to put something that reflects in some way my old unit on my CUCV and M109a3.

5A XXXMP or it might have been MP CO on the front passenger side and rear drivers side

Company level would be on front driver side and rear passenger side (example A-11)

Ask Mr. Bagwell from Greenville, SC. He is a bumper markings extraordinaire and is very emotional about it. (sic)

Funny Andy.

Bumper markings WWII vehicles: A small % of vehicles had the ends/tips of the front bumper painted white. What did this signify? CO's vehicle?

bathead said:

Bumper markings WWII vehicles: A small % of vehicles had the ends/tips of the front bumper painted white. What did this signify? CO's vehicle?

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I think what you are referring to are the white tips for low light visibility. Civilian vehicles did this also. Some good examples of this covered in the World at War series and more specifically the Battle of Britain one or might have been Battle of France one.

I have been told that these are 5th Army markings. Not MP but may give you an idea.

USMC, that'd be about right, 5th Army, 816th Quartermaster Battalion (possibly company) and vehicle designation X-13... not sure where you'd have an X-Ray company in the Army, but the pass side makes sense.

bikeman said:

USMC, that'd be about right, 5th Army, 816th Quartermaster Battalion (possibly company) and vehicle designation X-13... not sure where you'd have an X-Ray company in the Army, but the pass side makes sense.

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Concur.

A quick search found info on 816th Quartermaster Battalion.

bikeman said:

USMC, that'd be about right, 5th Army, 816th Quartermaster Battalion (possibly company) and vehicle designation X-13... not sure where you'd have an X-Ray company in the Army, but the pass side makes sense.

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I believe the markings are original. The truck was purchased out of Ft. Leonard Wood on July 17, 1972. I have the SF-97 that came with it. The previous\first owner after the truck came from the Army would not have changed them. He brought the truck home and there it sat until I bought it a few months ago. Such a waste to have been left in the woods like it was. The previous owners son-in-law said they drove it to where it sat when I got it. Not good for much but parts now.

I'll have to try to look up info on the 816th Quartermaster.

TB 43-0209 - Color, Marking and Camouflage Painting of Military Vehicles, Construction Equipment and Materials Handling Equipment dated 31 October 1990, Section III – Identification Markings, paragraph 9 – Unit Identification, sub-paragraph n – Typical Examples, has the following example for Fifth Army shown in sub-sub-paragraph (14):

5A-531T TRK-7 Translation: Fifth Army, 531[SUP]st[/SUP] Transportation Company, 7[SUP]th[/SUP] Vehicle

The bumper number in the photo shown above, 5A-816-O X-93, is most likely for vehicle number 93 of the 816[SUP]th[/SUP] Ordnance Company assigned to the 5[SUP]th[/SUP] Army. Internet searches turn up references to the 816th Ordnance Company. TB 43-0209 says the designator for Ordnance is the letter “O” preceded by a dash. The dash is to separate it from the numbers so it won’t be miss-read as a zero. In the photo, there seems to be more space between the 6 and the “O”, just no dash. In Separate or numbered companies, “X” was often used in position 3 as the unit designation was already located in position 2, different than letter Companies organic to a Battalion in which the letter designation, A, B, C, D or HHC would replace the X.

TB 43-0209 says the designator for Military Police is the letter “P”. So the bumper number of a vehicle assigned to a Military Police Company under 5[SUP]th[/SUP] Army would be: 5A-123P X-25 for vehicle 25 of the 123[SUP]rd[/SUP] MP Company assigned to the 5[SUP]th[/SUP] Army.

X-1 would be the Company Commander. X-2 through X-9 would be Company Headquarters, Supply and Operations Section vehicles. X-10 through X-19 would be 1[SUP]st[/SUP] Platoon with X-10 being the Platoon Leaders vehicle, X-20 through X29 would be 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] Platoon, ditto 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] Platoon and 4[SUP]th[/SUP] Platoon. This numbering system seemed to be used by many Combat Support and Combat Service Support units, different than that used by Combat units where the Commander is always in vehicle 6, i.e. HQ-6, HHC-6, A-6, B-6, etc. and HQ-1 being the S-1, HQ-2 the S-2, HQ-3 the S-3, HQ-4 the S-4, HQ-5 the XO and HQ-7 the Sergeant Major or First Sergeant.

This Technical Bulletin can be downloaded from: TB 43-0209 The information about bumper markings is on pages 15-17.

The 29 October 1976 version of this Technical Bulletin is in the Steel Soldiers Miscellaneous TM section of the TM Forum.

Just in case I inserted the above link wrong: http://www.dmkf.dk/Filer_manualer/Camo/TB 43-0209 color marking.pdf

I just got my M35A2 WO/W and I scraped the paint from the front bumper and on the passenger side was V1193BDE and on the right side was H5. I did some digging but I'm not sure if I'm correct. The 1193 was for the field artillery division during Vietnam. I'm not sure what H5 is. Any help is appreciated. Thanks

Sorry it's H54 on the driver side bumper.

Depending on when you were at Ft. Sam will determine what markings you want to use. The tactical vehicle currently assigned to 5th Army have ARNORTH stenciled on the passenger side and company with vehicle number on the drivers side. ex: ARNORTH BD-6. My unit as Sam has the only tactical vehicle currently assigned directly to 5th Army(ARNORTH). Or you can use: ARNORTH
##MP CO ##-##.

Just my 2 cents. And I just noticed that this post is 2 months old, oops.

Ratchetop said:

I just got my M35A2 WO/W and I scraped the paint from the front bumper and on the passenger side was V1193BDE and on the right side was H5. I did some digging but I'm not sure if I'm correct. The 1193 was for the field artillery division during Vietnam. I'm not sure what H5 is. Any help is appreciated. Thanks

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Check 193rd brigade. Probably under fifth corps at the time.

Could someone tell me what these bumper markings mean? They are off of a GMC M135.

ATC AD (passenger side) and HQ68 (driver side)

Careful Carnac. You may have started something! The 2016 bumper number thread!

airbornebandsman said:

Depending on when you were at Ft. Sam will determine what markings you want to use. The tactical vehicle currently assigned to 5th Army have ARNORTH stenciled on the passenger side and company with vehicle number on the drivers side. ex: ARNORTH BD-6. My unit as Sam has the only tactical vehicle currently assigned directly to 5th Army(ARNORTH). Or you can use: ARNORTH
##MP CO ##-##.

Just my 2 cents. And I just noticed that this post is 2 months old, oops.

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No sweat. The post is now almost six months old. I was assigned to Ft. Sam from April 1993 to April of 1995. So much has changed on base since I was there. The law enforcement is now Air Force security police. My barracks is now a pre-deployment medical clinic of some sort. The new BAMC? Holy cow what a facility. Not sure what the old BAMC is being used for. Even the med training area is all new or at least still under construction. New houses in the old "area 4" housing area. So much change.