Bob continues his visit to the Sam Werner Military Museum in Tennessee with more vehicles including a look at the rare Mighty Mites that were a collecting passion of Bud.
Bob also gives an update on his current restoration of a 1942 Dodge WC-53 Carry All.
Full Transcript
This week Military Collectors is back in Monteagle Tennessee.
We’ve got more great stuff to show you from the Sam Werner Military Museum.
So much stuff, this is part two of Military Collectors this week.
[Music]
This week we’re back in Monteagle Tennessee.
Military Collectors is back at the Sam Werner Military Museum here and some of you all may recognize the vehicle that I’m leaning up against.
Some may not.
There weren’t very many of these made.
There’s not many of them left out there, as many of you collectors may know.
The M4 42 Mighty Mite was a Marine Corps lightweight aluminum body and I’ve got an expert here, a guest that’s going to be on our show, he’s been on Military Collectors before, but this is Matt Fox, Quarter-ton Military Parts in Chickamauga Georgia.
But this guy is going to talk to us about Bud’s Mighty Mite passion and his collection.
Matt, welcome back, tell me about the Mighty Mite and the passion here that..
[Matt] Well, the Mighty Mite was, was a one-time-use vehicle.
I mean, you, you basically, you transported it to its position, you used it up, before you left you destroyed it.
And they’re only maybe 3,500, give or take, made of these things and since they were so disposable and being Marine Corps Jeep, Marine Corps was rough on vehicles and when they were done with them they were done with them.
[Bob] How big was the Mighty Mite to Bud?
Just as a passionate collector.
[Matt] Bud wanted to be the king of Mighty Mites!
Oh, he, oh my gosh, he had so many of these things.
[Bob] How many, how many do you know, walking around the yard, I mean, gosh we saw hulk after…
[Matt] Oh, there’s, there’s probably….
the 60 left, but I mean, he had hundreds of them, I mean, he was, they got them out of Barstow, they got them out of Lejeune, they got them out of Aniston.
He wanted to be the king of Mighty Mites and he had this vision of being the king.
[Bob] Well, you know, the parts that he had, I mean, and new old stock and (Oh, yeah!) there still here and you guys have spent eight years just trying to sort it all out and you’re not even close to being done.
[Matt] We haven’t made a dent in it.
We’ve not made a dent in it.
[Bob] Well, with the Mighty Mite collection, I mean, I know these, this is very unique and rare because it is an original (Yeah, you don’t see them camouflage) and these, this is a longer version, the yellow, this is a One Mark V Marines, I mean, tell me, is it a passion of yours as well?
[Matt] Uh, I never have really been, yeah, really, I really haven’t been in the Mighty Mites but, you know, as the older surplus is drying up, you got to move up to the newer, newer things and there’s a market out there for these because they’re so rare and they’re very collectible and if there’s a market people need parts and so if we can provide the parts form we will.
[Bob] Well, I’m gonna ask you, a vehicle like this, to a collector just walking up to somebody and says, “Okay, how much you want for it?” What would it normally go today in the today’s market?
[Matt] A totally restored one, the top dollar on it just absolutely beauty, you’re looking 15 to 16 thousand.
(Right.) They don’t bring the huge amounts that a lot of your World War II Jeeps and stuff like that do because they’re just not, they just haven’t taken off.
They, they’re just, they’re so few out there people don’t really know much about them.
It’s kind of a unique little vehicle.
(Wow.) Air-cooled engine, aluminum bodied, quarter elliptical suspension, yeah, they’re they’re funny little vehicles.
[Bob] Well, with all the parts that he had and still the parts for you guys to uncover, I just think this is going to be the next thing that everybody’s got to have out there.
And you know as a collector, you know what I’m talking about.
You saw it here first on Military Collectors and Matt, (Yeah, man!) keep collecting, keep restoring, keep building and then hey, keep everything open out there.
And folks, when Military Collectors comes back, we’re going to talk to a special friend and board member here at the Werner Military Museum that really was close to Bud and I think you’ll enjoy listening to what he had to say a very special collector friend.
[break]
If you are interested in preserving and collecting military vehicles, whether you’re a military veteran or just have a love for military vehicles in general, then you may be interested in joining the Military Vehicle Preservation Association. The MBPA is dedicated to providing an International Organization for military vehicle enthusiasts. For more information, and all the benefits a member receives with joining the Military Vehicle Preservation Association, go online at MVPA.org.
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[Music]
[Bob] We’re here at the Sam Werner Military Museum and I’ve got a very, very special guest, a lifelong friend and actually grew up around Bud and his dad over in Tracy City and that’s Freddie Cunningham.
And he’s also a board member here of the Sam Werner Military Museum Foundation.
Freddie, I want to, I want to welcome you to Military Collectors this week but you, you know, I tell you, you’ve got a special story that you want to tell all these folks about this, this MB here.
(Yeah.) Okay, tell me a little bit about the history behind this, this belonged to Bud and his dad, right?
[Freddie] Bud and his dad.
And this is a, was a Jeep, was hid for years.
And I was over there from 1971 up until he, Bud’s passing.
And in every Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening, we’d be sitting in the living room eating popcorn and Mr.
Samuel would say, “Bud, you turn that motor?” And it, Bud would say, “No.” [Bob] So, you’d be turned the motor with the crank.
[Freddie] Yeah, no, turn to, turn the motor with the crank.
(Yeah.) Just like that.
Like that, that’s all of it would take and this went on for years, for long as I can remember, that was a daily or monthly thing they would do to make sure this motor would not stick.
[Bob] Well, in the chicken coop, well, what, why did, why did he put it in there?
[Freddie] Hide it from somebody.
Really, keep from somebody finding and all was showing, is see, it’s all, it’s all original…
(Cosmoline.) Cosmoline.
Cosmolined up the plugs and everything.
(Oh, my goodness.) And, we call this the barn find.
(Wow!) and, and it was hidden on Carl’s chicken house and I never found it till we pulled it out the trailer two years ago.
(Really?) Yeah, and that was about what the one of the stories that I could tell but there’s a lot more that I could tell but it’d take a long time.
[Bob] Well, Freddie listen, and, and I want to say folks about Freddie here, Freddie’s a cancer survivor God bless you.
For all of that and the Good Lord has healed you, although you lost your leg.
(Yes.) but you’re still here as an active participant and you know, I know, I know Bud is looking down (Oh, yeah!) on you guys, of what you guys are doing here with his collection.
(Yeah) and carrying on his legacy.
[Freddie] That’s what I want to do.
(There you go.) I mean, I, I really want to carry on what he wanted us to do and that’s what I’m doing!
[Bob] Well, hopefully folks will come here and see this they’ll come see you and they could hear more stories, okay.
[Freddie] Yeah, and there’s more stories I can tell about him, his dad and my grandmother, they some, some pretty good ones.
[Bob] Well, I tell you what I’ll do, when I come back, I’m gonna bring some popcorn.
(Yeah!) I’ll bring a portable TV, we’ll come in on Sunday and tell stories.
[Freddie] Yeah, yeah sir, that’d be great!
There you go, well folks, listen, when Military Collectors comes back we’re gonna have more great things to show you from the Werner Military Museum in Monteagle, Tennessee.
[Announcer] If you have missed any past episodes of Military Collectors be sure to go online at militarycollectorstv.com and you can see, not only past episodes, but also read in-depth features on the people and their passion of their military collections.
[break]
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[Music]
[Bob] Well, before we head on back over to the Sam Werner Military Museum in Monteagle, Tennessee, y’all write me all the time, you send me email notes, “Bob, we’d love to see more restoration projects on Military Collectors.” Well, I’ve got another one for you and it happens to be one that I just acquired about a year and a half ago.
It was a 1942 Dodge WC 53 Carry All.
Now again, if you’re familiar with the Dodge WC series, you will know that a lot of them were made by Dodge back during the war.
Some will estimate that there was over 600,000 Dodge vehicles made during World War II.
Well, the WC 53 Carry All was kind of a special deal.
They had half-ton Carry Alls early in the war and then in 1942 they come up with a 3/4 ton that was on the same frame as this WC 57 and the 54 Ambulance behind me.
They put it on a 3/4 ton frame and I was, well, I was lucky enough to acquire one of these about a year and a half ago and I’ve always wanted a Carry All and it is just one of those vehicles, again, between six and seven thousand were made.
Other accounts, there may have been eight thousand but it was a particularly vehicle that they wanted to carry, uh, command and staff as well as General Officers to use it as a staff car.
Well, like the WC 57 and the 56 Command Cars, it became readily known as carrying somebody of prominence and the enemy bombed them every time they saw them out on the road.
So, it probably was not one of those vehicles that was safe to ride in during the war.
So, they didn’t make them, they stopped and I was lucky enough to get a Carry-All.
Now, a little bit of story about this one.
It came from the Southwestern desert area in California.
So, it was relatively rust free as you can see, once I got it, I put it on the trailer and I had to carry it down to a friend of mine in Eustis, Florida, Mr. Lindsey Orr. And on another series that we do this season on Military Collectors, Lindsey is my go-to guy when it comes to doing paint and bodywork on these old Dodge vehicles, but this is going to be Lindsey’s first crack at doing a Dodge WC 53 Carry All or actually I guess any Dodge WC 57 or 50 series.
So, with that, this thing was in relatively complete assembly, again no rust, I had all the bells and whistles with it, an engine that was, well, it ran but it was not the right engine for the truck because these trucks originally came with a T2 14 engine and here later in the restoration of all these military vehicles that T2 14 flat head 6 engine is one of those highly sought after not many of them still out there.
There’s a lot of them that are sitting in some of these old trucks.
You might see them on the side of the road, folks used them for logging vehicles back in the day, especially way out west, because a lot of these came from that desert environment where there wasn’t a lot of rust and that’s the only reason that many of them survived.
Mine, well, you might say that, “Well, why Bob, did you do the paint and bodywork first?” Well, sometimes you have to go with the guy that takes you to the dance and Lindsey had an opening in his schedule and doing the paint and bodywork, I had to get it done, so that’s why I took it on down to his place.
As you could see the disassembly of this vehicle it was relatively simple except with a couple of exceptions.
The wood in the back had to be all disassembled, the bolts had to be cut, all the glass was broken so, that had to all be replaced.
All the window crank mechanisms, all the door mechanisms, all of that stuff had to be disassembled.
Now, Lindsey took off a lot of the engine parts for me and the old engine he sandblasted because I’m going to save it, but in a later episode of Military Collectors, we’re going to talk to the folks down in Jacksonville, Florida who actually are going to rebuild and do the T2 14 engine that I found from a friend of mine who actually owned my Command Car, okay, so, I guess what I’m saying here is, this family of collectors is a really small net and there’s a lot of guys who collect these vehicles who are known to others.
They sell parts, they buy parts, vehicles, they sell parts and so the eye of that needle, not only is it small, but what goes around comes around, because a lot of these guys have done it for years and you’ll get to meet some of those guys on later episodes.
Well, back with me now is Parker Lowdes, he is the Chairman of the Foundation here at the Werner Military Museum and you know Bud, he loved wheel vehicles, okay, and all that, but he also loved armor too and so tell me about this row right here because this is this is kind of a unique piece here.
[Parker] All right, so we have three pieces here the first one is an M5 Stuart tank.
We are in the process of making it a static display.
When we found it, in his collection as we saw earlier in one of the episodes, this had trees growing all up out of it, so, it was in the woods.
We had to cut all the trees out, get it moved over here, so we’ve sand blasted it and painted the outside to make it a static display.
We’re eventually going to try to go inside and restore it from the inside out and then try to get it running eventually.
[Bob] Well Parker, let me ask you a question, out all of the armament, all the turret, all that was on here.
[Parker] Everything’s on there, just like you saw, other than the…
(Engine?) This still has two twin Cadillac engines in it.
The ah…
everything was here and in place just as you see it.
Other than not quite as pretty on the outside.
(And this one is serial number?) Serial number 961, so as we were (Early production!) So, we were, sand blasting and we found the serial number on it.
It’s a neat piece.
(Yeah, okay, and now and this one the next one.) Here was a Greyhound.
Is a M20 Ford Greyhound and likewise it’s uh, you know, it’s of course is a wheeled vehicle instead of a track vehicle, but it still has what…
(Its armor!) It is armored and in Bud liked this one, because he could get in and out of it a little easier.
[laughs] And then the one behind it is a 114 all aluminum armored scout car and…
[Bob] These were used heavily in Vietnam.
[Parker] These were in Vietnam.
[Bob] So, was he fond of the Vietnam because I know in his collection there’s a lot of 151 vehicles and that sort of thing or did he care?
[Paker] I think he was fond of anything that was OD green would be perfectly honest with you.
This particular one, you can walk around the back.
When we started on it, it had about 16 or 18 inches of sand and leaves and we have, we’ve cleaned it out to try to make it a display model and this one actually ran back in the seventies when he originally got it.
[Bob] Wow!
Okay Parker, we moved from the one one four over here Vietnam and now let’s take it back to step okay kind of where it all started, huh, yeah, and you got Hambone the mule.
Right?
[Parker] So, before, of course, all the armor pieces, the military had a lot of mules and horses and matter of fact, Camp Forest down here, which was the local base in the early 40s, had 2,800 horses and mules even during the 1943 Tennessee maneuvers that they were doing they had that many in stables down there.
This is a 1907 Studebaker.
You can still see U.S.
written here on the side (Oh, yeah!) Non- restored, but we’re proud of, proud of going on back in history and then also as we start off in one of the other segments we have in 1915 White and as we talked about earlier some of the old Liberty trucks from from World War I came out and became, this one became a log truck up here.
And was one of the things we talked about early on with the Werner family, going back to the saw milling business and industry.
[Bob] Well, now, are any of these still left on the property you think?
[Parker] There are a couple remnants of the old White truck still over there in the woods.
[Bob] Wow, that’s just, that’s just unbelievable…
(Yeah.) …at this guy’s collection.
[Parker] You can look on the inside of all the things that were in here.
[Bob] Wow!
I mean, it’s just amazing that this survived, it really…
(Yes, it is.) You know, and of course, it’s, it’s all right here at the tribute to Sam’s collection and you, you all have done a tremendous job.
So, I would just have to tell you, thank you so much for showing us around on this here piece because, I’ll tell you folks, Military Collectors, we’re out there looking for that unique collector and these guys have kept Sam “Bud” Werner’s collection alive right here in Monteagle, Tennessee.
So, again, log on to Werner Military Museum .com or go Military Collectors Tv.com and you can come up here and see this wonderful collection.
And again, if you’re a veteran, you need to come and stop by.
We got more stuff to go look at, listen, (Yes sir!) you just keep looking.
[break]
For 50 years, Ranger Boats has been paying tribute to America’s armed forces and their families. Not only in the United States, but those men and women who serve all over the world. At Ranger Boats, we appreciate the dedication that these men and women do each and every day. Protecting and preserving the very foundations of our freedom. Ranger Boats wants to give back to America’s real heroes with our operation troop salute program. For more information visit RangerBoats.com today.
Every soldiers training is the same but their story is their own. From the fields of Gettysburg, to the tanks rolling across the sands of Kuwait, the story of the mounted soldier is a story of mobility, speed and the historic power to shift the mighty tides of war. The National Armor and Cavalry Heritage Foundation is asking for your help in keeping the legacy of the United States armored and cavalry and telling the stories for many years to come.
If you are interested in preserving and collecting military vehicles, whether you’re a military veteran or just have a love for military vehicles in general, then you may be interested in joining the Military Vehicle Preservation Association. The MBPA is dedicated to providing an International Organization for military vehicle enthusiasts. For more information, and all the benefits a member receives with joining the Military Vehicle Preservation Association, go online at MVPA.org.
[Music] [Bob] Well, welcome back to Military Collectors.
I’m back here with Parker Lowdes, he’s the chairman of the Sam Werner Military Museum Foundation here in Monteagle, Tennessee and as we’re doing an overview of this wonderful museum and tribute to Sam “Bud” Werner, you know, Parker, this week we’ve focused on some great things on the show and of course even last week we saw where it all started and we’re at the compound so I want to give the folks…
It’s hard to do justice to this collection in 30 minutes or even an hour or many hours!
You could do a documentary.
But as we walk and talk here, Sam’s legacy is all right here plus there’s more that you haven’t even got out yet.
(Right.) So, let’s kind of what do you think Sam would want us to see as we close out show number two this way.
[Parker] So, in a, in a quick summary of this, the museum is set up with basically War War II going down this aisle.
Korea going across the back, Vietnam and then in the Desert Storm.
See here beside us, we have a Ford GT B.
A lot of people know it as a Burma Jeep but it’s a bomb truck.
(Yeah.) We go on into several Jeeps here, one a navy shore patrol Jeep.
We also have something fairly unique, that we really like, and this is a Chaplains Jeep.
Complete with all of the communion set for going out and serving sacraments in the field.
Along with all the manuals.
We have a variety of different religious books that have been collected with this.
A pump organ so they can, can, can fold out and go play music.
This Jeep is very unique.
It actually has a graphed plotter in the back.
There is a GPS of what we would know today but this one is set up to keep up and track and make small plots that we lay over the top of existing maps.
We have, of course, a Command Car here and it’s great because this was came back from the lend-lease program out of Switzerland long with some of the other vehicles saying today.
This is an MT Tug.
There were 15 of these built this happens to be serial number six.
As you spin on around the backside over here, you’ll see the vehicles that were typically used during Korea time frame and from the M38 up through the M38 A 1s.
The big thing sitting in the corner is called High Helen.
Light armoured division made three of those and basically it’s an M 38 A 1 with adapters on it so they could try to have a vehicle that would track along with track vehicles as far as width of track in heights.
Because if you were following a 38 81, you’re always falling off into one of the ruts on one side of the other.
As we turn the corner, we have some Mighty Mites that were built for the Marine Corps.
(And again, Bud’s favorite, the Mighty Mite.) He had a lot of these since this was one of his favorite jeeps.
He, I think he tried the corner the market on collecting them as well as, collecting all the parts for ’em.
(Okay, on this side?) Okay, on this side, we have several pieces.
This is the Sparrow Hawk Missile Launcher without the upper structure on it.
We’re in the process of getting ready to restore it.
We have three Mules here.
Two-wheel, four-wheel, steer and we also have a diesel-powered one in the back one a few that I think that they converted over trying to go with with a new diesel engine in it.
Across the way over here we have the series of M15 1s all the way up through all the different series including hard tops, military police.
We have a couple Humvees in here.
This is a this high-top part one is one of the few that we’ve seen with that particular body style and then the other one over here is one of the early first ones they came out for testing and, and go through and see what, you know, how the vehicle performed.
There were a lot of changes.
This particular one, they found out that it had a flaw where it would pop up and get the old pan.
And crossing over certain ditches.
[Bob] Well, you know, I’ll tell you Parker, it is a beautiful facility, okay, and, and I know as a tribute to Bud, you guys are going to keep this collection alive for history.
The kids that come in here, the educational benefits and values, that’s really what we’re trying to do is well with you, and so, Godspeed!
I will tell you, I know Bud’s looking at all of you all and he’s very he has to be proud.
(Well, thank you.) And so with that, folks, I will tell you on Military Collectors, we’re always trying to bring the unique and Parker has done that with all of his Foundation here in Monteagle, Tennessee.
If you’re headed to Nashville, you’re on I-24, stop on in.
It’s not very far from Chattanooga.
Log on the Military Collectors Tv.com.
You can also go to their website there or you can log on to Werner Military Museum .com.
Come on up here, it is worth the time to stop.
Bring the kids bring the family, okay, if your a veteran out there, come on up, because I will tell you, you’ll find something here that’s unique for you, like me, there are some of these things that I have put a lot of “butt time” in, okay, and I know you will as well.
We’ll see you next week on another episode of Military Collectors.
