Hello has all .
I would like to know if there was M38 FOLLOW ME on airport in Vietnam, and if yes, are that I can put her in situation with a SANDY and the protections blast wall around the plane?
thank you in advance .
phil .
Here’s a Follow Me from the airport among the pictures. I can’t really help ya though. I was there twice. Coming and going.
M38’s would have been long in the tooth by then, more likely a 38A1, M151 or a pickup.
I remember those things stateside at commercial airports in the 50’s.
I agree that the M38 was long gone by Vietnam. Also, by Vietnam, the USAF was mainly using commercial (civilian) pickup trucks for base support duties, including “Follow Me” vehicles.
A brief history of post WWII jeeps…
The M38 was a militarized version of the civilian CJ3A built between 1949 and 1952. It was an interim vehicle as the Army started running out of WWII Willys MBs. Willys used up the remainder of their CJ3As as they had already begun changing their production line to the newer CJ5, which became the M38A1 in 1952 and was produced until 1957.
M38
M38A1
An M38A1 may have still been hanging around, but I have not seen any as “Follow-Me” jeeps other than the below museum piece. It is not really representative of a Vietnam vehicle though.
By Vietnam, the main “jeep” (it was actually built by Ford, not Willys) was the M151A1, which was fielded in 1959. I haven’t been able to find any M151A1s as “Follow-Me” jeeps though.
M151A1
I think the M38 was long gone by Nam but I may be wrong. While on vacation in Alaska a couple of years ago, I found this original Ford WWII Jeep with a delivery date of 7/31/43 parked on a side street in Anchorage and still being used. Double click on the images for closeups.
The MB’s and GPW’s are highly sought after as collector/restoration vehicles by the 4x4 guys. Sadly most of the ones left have been modified with v-8’s and stronger running gear in the 70’s and 80’s. Not too many of the originals left.
Hello!
Funny thing, I had a chance to work on a rebuild of an M38 in Poland. The M38 is a “MC” in that old nomenclature. The machine I worked on was an ex Greek Army one, built in 1951.
As for Vietnam “Follow Me”, I did a quick google search and it seems that at least in Tan Son Nhut they used Dodges a lot:
Darn Photobucket:
Phil - good luck with your search and have a nice day
Paweł
In the movie Green Berets, it was a yellow early to mid '60’s Ford p/u, stepside IIRC.
A lot of the Dodges were shop rigs for running people and equipment from the shops to aircraft. At Udorn we had a couple of those, one a six pack and the other a standard cab, and an old M37, along with the military version (5/4) of the Jeep Gladiator p/u, the M715. This was '73-74
Hi .
Thank you has all for your answers, I wanted to make this kind of thing because I have 4 jeep M38 in stock and thus one in FOLLOW ME on the tarmac would have put a little color, that would have been fun.
phil .
Flocks of them in pictures of the Berlin Brigade.
Just wanted to clarify. There is no kit of the M38 (CJ3A). I am guessing you have the AFV Club/Skybow M38A1, which was a later vehicle (see my post above).
There is an M38 conversion kit available from Plus Model to kind of make one look like an M38 from the Tamiya Willys MB kit. You actually need to kitbash it with an MK Models M606 (CJ3B) to be more accurate though. I did a build of one a while ago here: http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=SquawkBox&file=index&req=viewtopic&topic_id=240785&page=1
Thanks to PhotoBucket, the pics are gone, but they still can be found here: http://smg.photobucket.com/user/HeavyArty/library/M38%20CJ-3B%20Jeep?sort=9&page=1
Hi .
Hello.
And yes, heavy arty, it is good of M38A1 about which I speak who does not have nothing has to see with M38, thank you.
Otherwise, on my comment of the diorama Vietnam style “full metal jacket”, you had said me that it was not the good boxes of ration, MRE, I have to find the good ones, they were in the kit of GUN TRUCK which I did not build yet, I have too much stock, I don’t remember more of all that I have, hi hi hi.
phil .