M915 visit to Gulf Coast WWII Bases

[NDT]

On the way back from the scrap yard today I took a detour to two local second world war base sites. The first picture is the Administration building for the "Blimp Base" in Hitchcock, TX. At one time there was a huge wooden hangar on the property that a blimp could fit into. It was destroyed in Hurricane Carla in 1961. The blimps were used for submarine patrols in the Gulf of Mexico. The site is privately owned and is currently being used for storage of wind turbine parts.

The second picture is about 3 miles away from the first, also in Hitchcock, TX. This was the site of Camp Wallace, which was an anti-aircraft training base. The concrete beams in the background are the foundations for the original buildings, which were moved off the base in the 1950's and were used for school buildings all over the area. The base is now a county park.

As has become the usual, the M915 ran great and enjoyed the wind in it's radiator. Trailer is a 1980 Rogers 25 ton from the USMC.

 

[drgreg]

Good stuff, thanks.

 

[M920]

Nice looking M915 and trailer! Do you still use the 7155 cat transmission? If you or any other M915 series truck owners need any tranny parts.....I have 3 of the7155 transmissions for parts and one good recently rebuilt valve body for it.

Soni

 

[NDT]

Thanks for the compliment and offer Soni, My truck is the A1 with Allison transmission. If I ever pull that out I will go with a manual like you did.

 

[4x4 Forever]

Thanks for posting this NDT. I always enjoy looking at old building or structures and wondering what they were and what they were used for. Again, Thanks!!

 

[Alredneck]

Sweet, its good to be able to get away and appreciate our history sometimes!

Nice looking rig!

 

[PorscheTech911]

Very cool NDT, nice looking truck!

 

[Isaac-1]

There once was a blimp base on the south side of Houston, I don't think any major structures survive there now, the last I heard the concrete runway areas were being used by the city as a police driving training course.

Ike

 

[mkcoen]

Tillimook, OR still has an intact blimp hanger. They've turned it into an pretty awsome air musuem. When I was there they had 2 flying P38s (have heard since then one crashed and was destroyed), a PBY, several Nam era planes, and a LARGE pile of B17 parts.

So NDT, when are you going to start the upgrades like M920 did?

 

[saddamsnightmare]

November 29th, 2009.


NDT:

Nice M915, I don't even want to guess what one of those goes for as compared to my humble old M35A2. As to the Blimp base admin. building, note the cupola, probably used as a control towre or some such, and the other base, well, that was common in Texas as Camp Maxey has few or no WWII buildings left on a Texas ANG base. Fort Ritchie, up by Frederick, Md, had all its WWII buildings untill decommissioned by BRAC in the 1990's, the developer was required to preserve the WWII structures, but all the two floor wooden barracks bit the dust, along with other significant structures, so much for "Preservation"
in Maryland. My mother served as a Quartermaster Captain there in WWII interogatting high ranking German officers captured in north Africa. Theres a documentary out about the base called "The Ritchie Boys", which I recommend highly.

Thanks for the look at a truck that isn't nearing 40 years of age, keep it up and happy driving,

Cheers,

Kyle F. McGrogan

 

[Isaac-1]

Here in DeRidder, LA our local airport was originally a WW2 bomber training base (B-25's mostly I remember there were a handful of them still sitting there until about 1975-1980), of the original buildings only the main hanger is left. The others being slowly demolished, used by the local fire dept. for training fires, etc., 20 years ago there were probably a couple of dozen buildings left, but all were in poor condition, if used at all it was for storage, around that time Waste-Management leased a portion of the land at the airport for their local vehicle yard and operations, probably due to the smell most of limited use of the old buildings stopped around the same time.

 

[srodocker]

fort warden was a sweet anti-ship base and the museum there is sweet, i've also been to the tillamook air museum and man that hanger is HUGE! so cold in there and tons of planes!

 

[Barrman]

The Goodyear Blimps were based on I-45 North of Houston until the early '90's. Planet Ford is where it used to be.

Here is a good listing of abandoned fields:
Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields

 

[KI4GSN]

How does the M915 handle interstate traffic compared to the 6x6 tractors (sorry, can't think of the nomenclature right now)? It seems like it could run a bit faster and maybe more agile too.

 

[pistonring]

Outstanding looking MV hauler. What model is the trailer? 15" tires? 8 foot wide? It looks about what I would like to hang behind my M818. Perfect for moving heavy green stuff around.