US Towing Tractors

Hey guys. I’ve got 3 WWII towing tractors in my little stash. One came from a generous person at the ARC forum, one came from Accurate Miniatures’ Weapons set, and one is in the Tamiya Corsair w/ MotoTug. What color were these vehicles painted?? Each one tells me something different![%-)] The choices are Yellow, Olive Drab, and Grayish (In that order). So what’s correct?

For WW II, you can’t go wrong painting them OD. My uncle told me that in WWII they were told to paint all of their support vehicles OD. He was a B-17 mechanic in England.

The US Army definately fell in love with Olive Drab paint during WW-II and ever since. The Air Force was part of the Army at that time, so they painted just about everything on the ground in OD, including all aircraft support equipment. Soon after the USAF became a separate branch of the service in 1947, they started painting all of their AGE, Aerospace Ground Equipment, in bright yellow. I assume this was intended to be high visibility to lessen the chance of being run over by a taxiing aircraft or some other other ground vehicle. This yellow color continued through Viet Nam until the late 70s and early 80s when the USAF decided the high visibility was not a good idea because it made for a good strafing target. I think this started in Europe where there was a distinct posibility of the Russians invading Germany, etc. They transitioned back to a version of OD and it eventually spread to all USAF units world wide and continues to this day. The US Navy liked the gray colors for their ground equipment in WW-II and for a good many years there after. I have not seen any Navy equipment for several years, so I am not sure what they are using now.

Darwin, O.F. [alien]

Ok thanks for the Info Berny and Darwin. Even though the 1st two tractors I have are identical (AM and Revell sharing molds??) The 1st one I got came from a jet, so that explains the yellow color. Thanks again for the help

I painted USAF AGE back in the 80s, and it was painted a semi-gloss forest green, two part urethane.

B1, B2, B4 stands, high and low packs(air compressers), start carts, mobile lighting units, boarding ladders, are just some of the things I remember painting.

Like the guys said, USAF AGE was yellow at one time, but that was before my time. Ha Ha !! You “old” guys.

Leon.

The US Navy switched from gray to yellow although in resent years I have heard the ate going white because of the lead content in yellow paint(I don’t know how true that is though)

You’ld think they would just teach the swabbies to stop licking the tractor, wouldn’t you? [:o)]

HAHAHAHA oh wow I can’t believe I just read that. Nice zinger, Bgrigg!

I resemble that remark. [(-D] I was in SEA when the change from yellow to OD started. After a few night accidents, all AGE and support equipment had reflective tape placed all over them. Which would be worse at night, yellow or equipment that glowed in the dark? Sometimes I can’t understand the military way of thinking.

You’re right, Berny.

You could see those suckers all the way across the flight line, with all that tape on them, outlining the edges of all that stuff.

Hey, come to think of it, I still have a roll of that very same tape!

And you all heard me right, it was SEMI GLOSS, and not flat, forest green, and not Olive drab.

Leon.

They may be forest green today, but back in my time they went from yellow to OD. Even our AF blue trucks went to OD. And they were flat OD. We had to keep them clean but the day of waxing them came to an end.[yeah]

Oh I wasn’t doubting you Berny, I was just making sure that, for the people interested, that the AGE in the '80s was painted a certain color.

I though it was odd, that we were spraying a semi-gloss on them, but if I had to guess, I think they weathered better than a totally flat color would have. Besides, it didn’t take long in the Texas sun to kill any of the shine, a semi-gloss can provide, and turned it flat.

And our flight line trucks(step vans and mini pick-ups) were “Strata Blue” with yellow reflective letters on the doors.

Although, the bobtails,( usually an extremely short wheel base, two-wheel drive dually Ford) that pulled the AGE around for us, was a flat color close to, if not, O.D.

So was “Big Bertha”, the mobile crane, the Crash Recovery guys used. They were hangered right next door to the paint hanger.

Thanks for all the memories, Berny!

Leon.

When I researched “MD-3 TOW TRACTOR, A/S 32A-31” (I was concerned about the numbering on air station vs. carrier based units), I got the following from NAVAIR pub 19-40-44:

According to another source, the reason for the paint change was visibility (there was too much yellow in the operator’s field of vision). BTW, In the color-coded world of the aircraft carrier, tractor drivers, aircraft elevator operators, and plane handlers wear blue uniforms.

Actually the reason the Navy switched from Yellow to White on all their support gear was because of the high chromium and lead levels in the paint and it’s environmental impact. My Dad worked at NAEC Lakehurst when they initially tested the different paint formulations and it was always mentioned in the base newspapers he’d bring home. Ironically, at least recently AFAIK, they were still called “yellow gear” even though they were white.