CHAPTER IV.
MOTOR AND HORSE-DRAWN VEHICLES.
The punitive expedition into Mexico in pursuit of Francisco Villa marked the real beginning of the use of motor transportation for the Army, although for many years the motor truck had received some attention for military purposes.
In 1904 a few progressive officers at West Point made preliminary tests of 1½-ton trucks, but these tests, while demonstrating that the truck would doubtless be of value to the Army in the future, were not sufficiently successful to create any particular interest. A few trucks were in use in the Army in 1907, but no systematic tests were made until 1912. At that time officers were seriously studying the motor transportation needs and problems of the Army.
In 1914 the Society of Automobile Engineers, having learned from the experience of European nations then at war that motor transportation is one of the most vital factors in the success of any army, offered its services to our War Department for the purpose of making a complete survey of the automotive industry, in the hope that the interests of the industry and of the Army could be coordinated so that in an extreme emergency the industry might be able to provide the necessary motor equipment for the Army, and that the Army might be able to use such equipment in the most efficient manner.
Pursuant to this offer, on April 28, 1916, the War Department asked the society's cooperation in issuing revised specifications for the purchase of 1½-ton and 3-ton Army trucks. In May of the same year, a committee consisting of the engineers from five companies manufacturing trucks, from five companies assembling trucks, and an engineer from a truck company not making the types of trucks under consideration, was appointed to cooperate with Army officers in making plans to provide our troops with motor vehicles suitable to their needs. On this committee were representatives of the Locomobile Co. of America, the Packard Motor Car Co., the Peerless Motor Car Co., the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Co., the Kelly-Springfield Motor Truck Co., the Selden Motor Vehicle Co., the Commercial Truck Co. of America, the White Co., and the General Motors Co. This committee went over the Government specifications for the 1½-ton and 3-ton trucks, which had been proposed by the Army, and after a few changes had been made, the specifications were drawn up for what then seemed to be the ideal trucks for Army use in these two sizes.
Trucks at this time were urgently needed for our forces along the Mexican border and for the punitive expedition entering Mexico. Consequently rush orders for the first large quantities of trucks ever purchased or used by our Army were placed with the White Co., the Packard Motor Car Co., The Garford Motor Truck Co., the Kelly-Springfield Motor Truck Co., the Four Wheel Drive Co., and the Jeffery (Nash) Quad. It was with the trucks of these concerns that our Army officers obtained their first real experience on a big scale with motor transportation. The trucks themselves also received the most severe tests while in service on the border and in Mexico.
Not only did the Army officers secure valuable experience in operating this motor equipment but the manufacturer also took this exceptional opportunity to study motor vehicles in actual operation under Army conditions, and early in 1917 revised specifications for Army trucks were issued as a result of the numerous conferences that had been held between representatives of the War Department and the automobile industry.