TSgtWit
New member
- 1
- 5
- 3
- Location
- South Dakota, USA
Greetings fellow MV types. Many thanks for letting me in. For those who 'speak' Cold War and Desert Shield/Storm-era USAF, I served in SAC ("Best Job I Ever Had"), USAFE, ATC, and ACC, and ended up with quite a shopping-list of vehicles on my military driver's license, several of which I wish were leaving their occasional small oil-spot signatures on my garage floor today. Alas, after the military I finished my federal career in the USPS (ugh!), and a P.O. retirement does not a rich man make. Hence I have yet to make my first MV purchase. But I have lived and breathed O.D. Green, Strata Blue and Insignia Yellow my whole six decades, and by God, someday there will be a MUTT in my garage and/or a Deuce-and-a-Half parked outdoors (or an M-113, my bride SGT Cindy's ride in the Army) just for the hell of it…. We can dream, right?
Presently, as a Veteran historical consultant for the National Park Service's Minuteman Missile National Historic Site (MIMI) here in western South Dakota, and having been a Veteran of the 45th Missile Security Squadron ('82-'85) that once provided Minuteman II ICBM security out there when this ICBM wing was still active, the park has restored (to NPS standards, not U.S. G.I. standards) one of my own vintage rides from back in the day, a Cadillac Gage 'Ranger' 5-ton APC/Patrol car (better known in USAF parlance as a 'Peacekeeper') that they are hoping to create some tourist programming around, leaving me to develop as much of the narrative as possible. As much as we despised that old dog from our years roasting in it in the summers, and freezing to death in it during the South Dakota winters in the early 1980s, I do still have some endearing feelings for the old top-heavy, zero-visibility, shin-bashing, finger-eating beast and I wouldn't mind owning one of my own. Regardless, in order to assist the Park Rangers, I am in need of TMs, manuals, factory-origin stories, etc., to accompany several actual-end-user stories I have from my own experiences. Hoping I can find some of that information, other restoration photos, etc., here, as well as possibly converse with fellow USAF Skycops/Missilecops, and 'talk shop' over shared experiences in that rolling aluminum-armor-plate box.
As a reference for the type of vehicle I'm talking about, the image below is from one of the twin brothers of the PK (the one parked at MIMI) that I'm currently writing tour narrative about, another of the small fleet of these 1980-vintage PKs that used to belong to our 45th MSS motor-pool on Ellsworth AFB. I earned my qualifications to drive that 5-ton relic vehicle type in 1983, and it just so happened that the very vehicle you see in the photo below was the same vehicle I had that initial driver's training in. That vehicle now sits parked just 75 yards from our original Security Police HQ and its original motor-pool area, and is now part of a permanent static display at what remains of the former 44th Strategic Missile Wing Training Launch Facility (Minuteman), a walk-around location still visible to tourist visitors who take the base tour from the South Dakota Air & Space Museum near the Ellsworth AFB front gate.
Presently, as a Veteran historical consultant for the National Park Service's Minuteman Missile National Historic Site (MIMI) here in western South Dakota, and having been a Veteran of the 45th Missile Security Squadron ('82-'85) that once provided Minuteman II ICBM security out there when this ICBM wing was still active, the park has restored (to NPS standards, not U.S. G.I. standards) one of my own vintage rides from back in the day, a Cadillac Gage 'Ranger' 5-ton APC/Patrol car (better known in USAF parlance as a 'Peacekeeper') that they are hoping to create some tourist programming around, leaving me to develop as much of the narrative as possible. As much as we despised that old dog from our years roasting in it in the summers, and freezing to death in it during the South Dakota winters in the early 1980s, I do still have some endearing feelings for the old top-heavy, zero-visibility, shin-bashing, finger-eating beast and I wouldn't mind owning one of my own. Regardless, in order to assist the Park Rangers, I am in need of TMs, manuals, factory-origin stories, etc., to accompany several actual-end-user stories I have from my own experiences. Hoping I can find some of that information, other restoration photos, etc., here, as well as possibly converse with fellow USAF Skycops/Missilecops, and 'talk shop' over shared experiences in that rolling aluminum-armor-plate box.
As a reference for the type of vehicle I'm talking about, the image below is from one of the twin brothers of the PK (the one parked at MIMI) that I'm currently writing tour narrative about, another of the small fleet of these 1980-vintage PKs that used to belong to our 45th MSS motor-pool on Ellsworth AFB. I earned my qualifications to drive that 5-ton relic vehicle type in 1983, and it just so happened that the very vehicle you see in the photo below was the same vehicle I had that initial driver's training in. That vehicle now sits parked just 75 yards from our original Security Police HQ and its original motor-pool area, and is now part of a permanent static display at what remains of the former 44th Strategic Missile Wing Training Launch Facility (Minuteman), a walk-around location still visible to tourist visitors who take the base tour from the South Dakota Air & Space Museum near the Ellsworth AFB front gate.
