Showing posts with label Automobiles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Automobiles. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Wednesday, January 22, 1975: Mercury Bobcat goes public


January 22, 1975 – Mercury Bobcat goes public

It was the Mercury variant of the Pinto.

The United States ratified the Geneva Protocol of 1925, officially the "Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare".

A bit late. . . 

Landsat 2 was launched.

Last edition:

Friday, January 17, 1975. Chinese political turnover, French infanticide.

Monday, January 6, 2025

Equipment of the Vietnam War, National Museum of Military Vehicles, Dubois Wyoming.

A reader might feel that today must be Vietnam War Day here on this blog, and not without good reason.

For one thing, we've started what will undoubtedly be a series of posts of the closing months of the Vietnam War, with this daily entry:

Monday, January 6, 1975. The Vietnam War resumes in earnest.


For another, I bumped up this old item, or reran it:


And now, of course, the following from my visit to the National Museum of Military Vehilces.

UH-1 "Huey", a helicopter synonymous with the Vietnam War.

Hueys came into use in a major way during the war, and remained in use for many years thereafter. They were still the predominant helicopter when I was a National Guardsmen in the 1980s, and even now I'll occasionally see an Air Force example in Cheyenne in operation.

They remain one of the greatest helicopters of all time.



I wasn't even aware of the M-422's existence as a actual service item.  I've seen them on a television series from the 60s and assumed they were just a studio item substituting for a real Jeep.  Offhand, I think that was from The Lieutenant which only had one run, that being in 1963.






Gun trucks, depicted here, were a Vietnam War thing adn were produced in theater.  








The "Gamma Goat", an incredibly unstable vehicle.  One of the guys I was in basic training with was latter killed in a Gamma Goat roll over.

The M151 Jeep.  Also very unstable, but long serving.  It was the last 1/4 general purpose truck of the US Army used on a widescale basis.








M109 howitzer.  I trained on one of these at Ft. Sill, where I had the "No 1" position on the gun.  A much updated version is still in service.
























Last edition: 

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Thursday, November 20, 1924. The marriage of my father's parents.

Which was oddly a Thursday.  I think of most weddings being on Saturday.

At least they are now.

The wedding was in Denver, where they had met and where my grandfather was working.  They'd live there until 1937, when they'd move to Scottsbluff.  In that time they had all of their children save for one, who would be born in Scottsbluff, the first one being born in 1926 and my father being born in 1929.

They were both 23 years old.  He had been on his own since age 13.  She was living with her parents in Denver, where they had moved after her father had closed his store in Leadville.  Her parents were of 100% Irish extraction, with her mother being from Cork.  His parents were of 100% Westphalian extraction.  They were both Catholic, although I don't know what church they were married in.  Likey one of the Catholic churches downtown.

The American Automobile Association of State Highway Officials approved a resolution recommending that states agree to a consistent system of numbered highways.

Last edition:

Tuesday, November 18, 1924. Adding to the public domain.