Summary of vehicle painting and maintenance instructions from AR 850-15 from Army Motors, Vol. 6, No. 6, September 1945.
THE NEW AR 850-15
The law on “Miscellaneous—Motor Vehicles” gets a major overhaul for the first time in two years. This’ll help you get hep to what’s what.
Changes that affect you—because they affect vehicle operation and maintenance—blew in with the newly-revised AR 850-15 (1 Aug. 45). New do’s and don’t’s, new words like “semigloss” and “full gloss” have been written into the regulations. And a lot more, too.
NEW PAINT
Good news for maintenance men who’ve long been bitching about lusterless OD breaks out in par. 7, which prescribes approved semigloss olive drab for vehicles (certain ones excepted). The new paint is Enamel, olive drab, rust-inhibiting, U.S. Army spec. 3-181, amendment 3, type V—Fed. Stock No. 52-E-7574 for a 1-gal. can, 52-E-7574-75 for a 5-gal. can. But don’t start requisitioning it now—the stuff won’t get into supply channels for 60 to 90 days, and anyway, you only put it on when the vehicle’s due for a repaint. ASF Circular 291 (1 Aug. 45) says: “The new painting procedure… will be applicable to U.S. Army motor vehicles now in use, other than those excepted… when the vehicles require complete refinishing in accordance with established maintenance schedules and upon the availability of the semigloss paint prescribed.”
On busses, ambulances (except 3/4-ton 4×4’s), and passenger sedans, the AR goes whole hog on gloss. It says they may be painted a full gloss OD—but not until a repaint is necessary.
DRIVER’S RECORD
First to hit the driver’s eye is the business about recording accidents in his “201” file. The antics of the careless driver are a matter for the record now. He doesn’t get off to a fresh start when he transfers to another station—his past performance as a driver follows him in his personnel file, wherever he goes. Accidents and scores and ratings on drivers’ examinations become part of the personnel record.
SAFETY RULES
There’s new SOP for the driver in the Fire and Safety Precautions (par. 26). As a precaution against fire, among other things, the law says “No vehicle will be operated unless entirely free of gasoline leaks.”
New safety precautions also take the form of guards, flares, lights, or flags to be posted when the vehicle’s halted in a dangerous position—and warning devices for loads protruding beyond the body of the vehicle. The AR doesn’t specify what these new devices will be, or when or where you get them—but that’ll come along soon in some other WD publication. (AR’s have done their job when they tell you to do this or that. The WDC’s, FM’s, TM’s, SB’s, etc. tell you how to carry out the regulations.)
Also under “safety,” you’ll notice in par. 25a(2) that the new AR follows the old AR’s lead by requiring you to furnish “…the identification card attached to Standard Form 26.” But leave us remain calm and read to the end of this paragraph: There still is no identification card attached to Standard Form 26; none is being printed now and there’s no sign that it over will be; but it’s still okay to devise and reproduce the required card locally. Lacking any kind of printed card, drivers of vehicles involved in accidents may use any old scrap of paper to give the other party their name, their CO’s name, the vehicle number, and their station.
MAINTENANCE MUSTS
Under the new law, all 1st- and 2nd-echelon maintenance must be accomplished before a vehicle’s turned in or transferred by a using unit. 1st- and 2nd-echelon maintenance is a must, and higher-echelon maintenance should be performed, too, wherever 3rd-, 4th-, or 5th-echelon personnel, supplies, and time are available. In other words, you pass your vehicles on in tip-top condition.
In pars. 35b, 35d, and 37e of the new AR, there seem to be some changes concerning technical inspections of vehicles, but interpreting them is beyond the scope of this review. Since you people in the lower echelons don’t perform TI’s anyhow, losing sleep over same is not recommended.
From now on, pulling assemblies and passing ’em back to the 4th or 5th echelon for rebuild is taboo when repair will restore the assembly to a serviceable condition—the repair’s made with the assembly in the vehicle whenever it’s practical.
Protection of assemblies against damage or corrosion in storage or in transit within the continental U.S., and the turning in of complete assemblies (except in active theaters where conditions prevent), both appear in the new AR.
These are just a few of the things you’ll begin to do and not do—for the whole story, see the AR itself. It oughta be in your mail any day now.
