The GMC CCKW

Three of the four truck I bought were pained yellow,but as I was cleaning out the open cab the other day I found the truck was painted Air force blue at one point,under the seats and behind them is still blue,it must have been too much work to move the seat backs to paint yellow.When would the blue paint have been used? We are only three hours from Nellis AFB so it's a good possibility it came from there. It would make a very different looking truck.

The US Army Air Force became US Air Force on 26 September 1947, the WWII Vehicles that were painted Strata Blue seemed to appear around 1950. The Flight line vehicles appeared to start using yellow around 1948/1949 at Dow AFB across the street from our business. I remember that most Cargo CCKWs used at Dow during Kirean War were still OD, the last one at Dow AFB in 1956 was OD, and the Chevrolet 4X4 at the MARS Site was OD in 1961, and it was surplused later that year. I never saw a CCKW Fuel Tanker painted anything but OD or Yellow, unless it was Navy, and they were Gray or Yellow.
Joel

To support Joel's information.....

I have a 1942 WW2 Class 125 Crash Truck that was originally stationed at Dow USAAFB from 43 thru the late 50's.

There are numerous coats of paint on this vehicle starting with OD then Strata Blue, then a couple of coats of red.

It, of course, is going back to OD...the color that all fire trucks should be painted.



Bill

I got to thinking about other vehicles on my lot,I have a M-52,a 5 ton 6X6 semi tractor,it is dated 1953 , it is all blue,I scratched through to metal and it never had OD.

The M-Series 5 Tons began around 1951, and if it is Blue with no sign of OD, you may discover a USAF Registration Number on the Hood or Doors that will read something like 53K-4002 The 53 is the contract year and the 4 Digit number is the registration. The USAF started using 5-Tons in the early 50s to haul refueling trailers. The USAF used the WWII Registration on most left over WWII era Trucks, but it was common to find some that were changed in mid 50s to a 4 Digit number with the prefix indicating the year. The USAF at Dow had a 4-Ton Diamond-T Cargo in 1960 with a 43L-XXXX Registration Number. We kinda got away from CCKW for a moment.
Joel

My CCKW was still painted yellow when I got it from Mr. Keller. It had black numbers on the hood, and a white winged propeller with circle around it on the front bumper. It had been used at Kelly field during WWII, later Kelly AFB. As you probably know, all four of the Air Force Bases in San Antonio were training bases, therefore the winged prop with circle. The star in the middle of the hood was black also, but very faded out. The hood numbers were clear only on the left side. Apparantly when the truck had been abandoned in the sand pit I found it in, the right side was facing the hot westerly sun.

That would be very tempting to keep it that way.Have you been able to find any pictures of it or others painted that way during WW2?

I will input my $.02 again.

On Continental USA bases, fuel service trucks, Maintenance service trucks, and aircraft tugs were all painted yellow. Here is a picture I found of a scissors type truck loading an aircraft.



Toward the end of the war. Aircraft fuel trucks were painted yellow in England, although not in France and Italy. (see picture at this link)

http://www.cckw.org/airfeld_fuel_truck.htm

I have a friend who has a nice CCKW Aircraft refueler in restoration. Unfortunately he is too chicken to paint it yellow.

Bill

If I could find any trace that my open cabs yellow paint was done by the air force/army air corp.,I'd keep it that way but my yellow is over blue which is over OD,I've seen alot of discussion on ths G about this,people sanding off "follow me" signs and things like that,If I could find a good picture of an unusual CCKW I'd much rather have something different,OD is great but it's nice to see some of the other paint schemes used during the war.

I was tempted to re-paint it yellow, but opted for the OD. I do have Army Air Force markings on it and it usually equipped as a flight line maintance truck with a couple of 55 gallon drums marked with 50 weight aircraft oil markings with a hand pump, a couple of old brass bottle type fire extingushers and an aircraft tow bar.
In parades , however I turn her into an European theater truck with web gear, rifles in racks and German war prizes.
I have her named Betty Boop, with nose art of Betty Boop painted on the passanger side.
I believe the whole idea with these old warriors is to have fun with them and make them what you want them to be, even if means changing hats on them from time to time.