I'm your Huckleberry-Longwinded post

[salt6]

If the military doesn't give it a name then officially it doesn't have one. M60 Patton, M1 Abrams, and the UH 1 Iroquois for example. Now what the troops call them is something else.

[GerryM]

The mechanics called them 151,s the drivers called them Jeeps. I called mine a 151 due to being in the same platoon as the mechanics.
The co,s driver called it a jeep so did the CO. A Rose by any other name is still a Rose.

[Cobra5]

On the cover of a PS magazine, issue 146, dated Jan 1965 the cartoon character refers to the M-151 as a jeep. Looking through these magazines they refer to it as a 1/4 ton truck. Here's a link to a site called radionerds and they have most of these magazines loaded on their site. You can pick through and down load any of them for free. Worth a look if you have time and good internet. http://psmag.radionerds.com/index.php/Main_Page

[Emmett]

I guess I can toss my 2 cents in here as well In "78-'79, Patrick AFB, we had the 2nd MOB stationed there. I was an OV-10 Crew Chief.
The MOBsters were always driving around their vehicles. Of the many vheicles they had, the ones I remember most were the Deuce and a half (M-35) and the cool Jeeps (M-151). I always wanted to drive both and they wanted to play with the OV-10s.
So, as an ignorant A1C OV-10 Crew chief, we refered to them a Jeeps.....
I never got the whole MUTT thing. Probably just another "rewrite history" issue.

[retiredpara]

Emmett,
I haven't thought about that plane is quite a while! I got to jump an OV-10 once. Fun! You fly along, then all of a sudden the pilot takes it straight up in the air, and you and two guys fall out the tube that you were scrunched into. Good memories!

[whiterabbit]

I came into the Army in 86' near the end of the M151A2 service period. We had 'em in the states and in Germany and I was even assigned to a few. It was always called "the quarter ton" or the "jeep". I never heard it called a MUTT while in the service.

[Mr. Recovery]

I joined the Army in 1960, I was in Germany from 1961 till 1964, the 151 1/4 ton was issued to us "NEW" in 1961, we called them 1/4 ton's or jeep.

This photo is from our year book.

[muttguru]

Folks, it's now a week ago that I asked if anyone had evidence that the Mil used the term "MUTT". So far, the nearest was Mark, who mentioned the article in Ford Times in 1961. Unfortunately, that magazine doesn't count as a military source.

But there WAS a military-issue document that did use the term "MUTT" and that was a US Army "PS" magazine. This is usually the document that owners use to confirm that the Mil used the acronym. But is it the FULL story???? More to come soon.............
Ken

[rickf]

Well, you know it is an older one since it is before Connie became PC. (Politically Correct for those OLD guys.)

[retiredpara]

Yeah. I never trusted that single page as a good source. The artist would use different font for Connie's point, then use an asian font with asian characters? It almost looks like the name of an Asian company at the bottom of the page. Does anyone have an actual hardcopy of this? And yes, I see the dudes in the background with the conical straw hats...

Ken, love ya brother, but let's see what you got. No need to wait. I spent almost 25 years in a uniform and never saw the term, and I would be one to remember it. Post it up. If it is official anything past it's development phase, I will be surprised.

[Mark]

Ken; did it have anything to do with the vrc-12 series?
mark
ps I think there is a tm about it

[Doug Black]

This 1963 Army training film for the VRC-12 radio family clearly states "M151 Jeep".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUh2jSvvBVM

[muttguru]

But there WAS a military-issue document that did use the term "MUTT" and that was a US Army "PS" magazine. This is usually the document that owners use to confirm that the Mil used the acronym. But is it the FULL story???? More to come soon.............
Ken


Ok, so no-one has come forward with the "MUTT" evidence? Well, the short answer is.....there isn't any. Despite Ford's repeated use of the term, and still persisting with it as late as 1963, there is no evidence in any of the correspondence I've seen between Ford and the military that the term MUTT was used by the Mil. In fact, all the documents I've seen from Ford to the Mil have not used the term "MUTT", instead referring to the vehicle as "The M151 1/4-Ton Truck".

Ahhh....but what about that "PS" reference to the Mutt shown above? It doesn't count. For those of you fortunate enough to have a copy of the Japanese book "Farewell M151" by Yasuo Ohtsuka, you will know that he used an extract from "PS" magazine.....the "It's Your Baby" clip.....but he translated the words into Japanese. He also added the term "MUTT". It was Yasuo's use of that well-known commodity...."artistic license".

Here's what the REAL PS issue looked like before Mr Ohtsuka's enhancement:-


So there you have it. No evidence yet.........but the challenge is still on..... if anyone has proof of use of the term "MUTT", I'd love to see it.

Ken

[retiredpara]

Ah Ken, You sly 'ol dog you!

The sad thing is that Dave Doyle, Steve Turchet, John Adams-Graf, all of MV magazine, and all of the 503ers will never concede this point. And they are the ones who picked up on the obscure Ford reference and then used it as military terminology.
I am sure that all of the above are great guys, love to have a single beer with them, ( I quit drinking). But Mr Doyle used the Ford piece as "Proof", when it never was. He even cites it as proof in his "book" when he refers to "controversy surrounding the name", (my paraphrase).

If you want to you call your jeep a mutt, go for it, but it is not historically accurate. Whenever I see someone use the term, I figure they are too obstinate and ornery to care about the truth, or just a newer guy into the hobby who has fallen for the propaganda. I couldn't blame the latter, but come on guys, who knows better what these were called then the men who were accountable on paper, in the supply chain, for them, drove them, maintained them, ordered parts for them using formal Army/USMC/USN/USAF systems, etc. We all saw the hand receipts, the property books, the TACOM letters, the PS magazines, the driver's licenses we were issued, etc. And we have been saying for years that MUTT was NEVER used. It is a made up, phony term!

I personally would hope that people that post here would want to be more than MV owners, but rather, students of history. Part of that is squashing the use of the term MUTT like a bug! There are many guys who accumulate things, not many who are true collectors in the sense that they know of the development, fielding, use, modifications, variations, etc. In regards to the M151 series of 1/4 ton trucks, learning about how they were issued, maintained, the publications that pertained to them, the why's behind the what's, so to speak, all make someone a knowleadgeable collector and a true ambassador of these little jeeps and the men, and some women, who used them, maintained them, etc.

And wow! How priviledged we are to have guys on this site that know these little jeeps inside and out! Ken with his in-depth knowledge and copies of the actual records, Rick with his Tier-One operator status on the mechanics of these things, as well as Fil Bonica, Mr Recovery, and others who are give great mechanical advice. The guys doing their restorations that keep posting updates like Aswayze, Vinzike, (sorry if I got the name wrong Sir), and others who fabricate and weld and do amazing things. You can go to a lot of enthusiast type web sites, and never have a group of similar experts that we do here, all for free!

Great job Ken! And now, when will you be changing your screenname to simply, "Guru", or Swami", or something?!

[Rainman]