Military Stuff Everywhere

This is mostly a FORD post, sorry.
I'm trying to make a point about our beloved trucks, IHC, Chev, Ford, Dodge, Stude, etc of the mid 1930s to 1970s.
SOOO many started out military, got purchased surplus by dollar stretching farmers, business owners, utility companies, private owners, etc.
Many, many more than you'd believe.
So far I've owned a USMC IHC D-2 flatbed, US Navy IHC K-3 pickup, US Army Dodge pickup. The ex-military list keeps growing.
My favorite by far was a 1939 Ford CA National Guard Ambulance.
I've posted a picture of it off Ford Barn.
Does it look like an ambulance? No? But it was.
Found hood and rear door " USA-W" numbers starting with the number 7. That's US Army lingo for an ambulance.
Never meant for a war environment. Rather, it was meant mostly for state-side military installations.
The crazy cabinet treatment was done by the utility company that purchased it surplus. It was used to install natural gas meters.
All it takes is a little sandpaper to find those hidden hood numbers on YOUR old truck.
But not on nice paint...

You know what's really sad? All the vehicles that never made it back to the states after the war. The USN & Marines may have been the worst,digging holes and pushing cars,trucks and planes into them and burying them!

Here's a Chevy National Guard Ambulance that was purchased surplus by a school dstrict or local gov't years ago.
I think I see the military-style spare tire brackets on the runningboard.
I would've been all over this if it was anywhere close.
I hear Angels everytime I look at it.
I have pre- WWII National Guard Yearbooks with this model ambulance in it.
The US War Department must've bought a large amount of these new.

Scott, I'm old enough to have taken automotive classes with WWII vets.
One man told me he was on a US Navy ship coming back from the Pacific Theater just as WWII ended.
He said they PUSHED airplanes, jeeps, generators, etc off the ship into the water!

That still happens today. In a lot of US "service" type areas.