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STATEMENT of PURPOSE
I came to reenacting from antique and military vehicle collecting, my original goal being to have fun restoring and driving old vehicles in parades and to vehicle display events. In those days we restored WW II vehicles to their original OD glory complete with stars and stenciled numbers, but we did not wear uniforms and had no purpose other than to drive trucks all over Creation (on one occasion we drove a convoy of 30-40 wheeled vehicles around the track at the Indianapolis Speedway.) . My initial military vehicles were a GPW, then a WC-63, followed by a WC-51. When I fell among re-enactors it quickly became apparent that vehicles such as mine didn’t belong to an infantry rifle company, and I began to cast about for some rationalization which would explain the presence of my vehicles on the scene of an encampment or in a column of march. I discovered that a regimental Service Company, which had the missions to transport supplies and to operate the regimental Motor Pool, would be the place to find all the odd vehicles. Further research revealed that a typical Service Company was actually authorized only a fleet of CCKWs for supply services. Since this seemed rather boring, I arrogated to myself the prerogative to determine my own TO&E, and came up with the Vehicle Roster which appears in these pages – totally arbitrary and fictitious but providing an interesting collection of vehicles which covers the most common types you are likely to have. If you have something authentically WW II which isn’t on the list and would like to participate, let me know and I’ll use my connections with higher headquarters to have the TO&E changed to suit the occasion. In addition to supporting the regimental rifle companies, the Motor Pool supports all units attached to the regiment (103rd Medical Battalion and its WC ambulances, for example, or the Weasels of the 103rd Engineer Combat Battalion), and is also the assembly point for vehicles of higher supporting units (728th Ordnance Maintenance Company which operates the 28th Division Motor Pool), which explains why an M1A1 Heavy Wrecker of the 728th might occasionally appear, or a regimental-level staff or Command Car. The purpose, then, is to provide a rationalization for having vehicles other than Jeeps on the scene when an infantry company (in our case, K Co. of the 110th Regt.) is displayed in the field, or when we appear in a parade as a company on the march. A secondary purpose is to establish a clearing-house for the assignment of appropriate bumper markings on participating vehicles so that we don’t end up with, for example, 3 Jeeps all marked K-2. If you would like to join up and add your vehicle to the Roster, contact me at devans367@earthlink.net. If you would prefer to use these pages as a form for creating an impression of a Service Company supporting a different regiment, please feel free.
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