Students from the University of Southern Mississippi are putting their stamp on the upcoming Moeller Military Vehicle Museum, with four groups of students from John C. Winters’ public history class recently giving presentations on their choice of vehicles to be displayed in the museum upon its opening.
During the presentations, which took place October 5 in the Liberal Arts Building on the Southern Miss campus, each of the groups displayed sideshows of one vehicle for the museum, along with information on that piece and why the students chose that particular vehicle. The vehicles discussed, which range from World War II to the Vietnam War, included the M718 ambulance, the M-42 command truck, the DUKW amphibious truck and the M274 “Mule.”
“We’re certainly very excited to have the students involved … and I think there’s a great future in us working with the history department, involving the students and creating a historically accurate, hands-on presentation (at the museum,” said Rick Taylor, executive director of the Hattiesburg Convention Commission, which will oversee the museum. “We want kids to really connect with the history that’s there and what we’re presenting in the museum.”
Information on the vehicles is as follows:
M718 ambulance
The Jeep M718 began production in 1966 and was a medical support variant of the M151 Jeep. It offered a longer body frame to accommodate soldiers, medics and patients, including wounded individuals on stretchers.
Stretcher racks were often installed to give the M718 more functionality in the field. Mostly known for its service in Vietnam, the trucks provided a rear sitting area for four personnel, along with the two front seats.
The additional mounts, rails and brackets allowed three military stretchers to be placed in the vehicle at one time.
M-42 command truck
The M-42, which also is associated with its use in Vietnam, was adapted from the basic M37 truck and extensively used by the United States Army Signal Corps. To manufacture the car, the Dodge corporation produced a special kit to enable the rapid conversion of a standard truck into a command vehicle.
It featured a new awning with side windows, a split rear end curtain and stronger internal lighting, which permitted consideration of military maps directly in the vehicle during field meetings. and a folding table in the middle of the car body.
The M-42 also was equipped with more powerful radio equipment for more reliable communications in field conditions.
DUKW
The DUKW is a six-wheel drive amphibious truck used in World War II and the Korean War to transport goods and troops over land and water. The name DUKW comes from General Motors Corporation nomenclature and signifies D as the 1942 production series, U as utility, K as all-wheel drive and W as tandem rear axles.
The vehicle played a significant role on D-Day in Normandy, as well as the the Battle of the Scheldt, Operation Veritable and Operation Plunder. In World War II’s Pacific battles, it was used to cross the coral reefs of islands such as Saipan and Guam.
Throughout those conflicts, the DUKW excelled in ferrying ammunition, supplies and equipment from supply ships in transport areas offshore to supply dumps and fighting units at the beach. The United States produced 20,000 DUKWs during WWII, and through the Lend-Lease Program the British were provided with 2,000 of the trucks.
M274 ‘Mule’
The “Mule” was a four-wheel drive, gasoline-powered truck that was introduced in 1956 and used until the 1980s. It was used primarily in Vietnam for carrying men, supplies and weaponry.
It was open and exposed, offering no protection to the driver or passengers, and so were used mainly as cargo carriers and medium-range infantry support vehicles rather than tactical vehicles. The driver's seat could be removed and the steering column moved forward, and the vehicle driven in reverse to accommodate more cargo.
If under fire, the steering column could be moved further forward and down, so the operator could operate the vehicle while crawling behind it.
“Mules” could be outfitted with several types of weaponry, including 7.62mm light machine guns, .50 caliber machine guns and TOW anti-tank missile systems.
The Moeller Military Vehicle Museum will be located on the currently vacant pad across from the African American Military History Museum on East 6th Street as part of the East 6th Street Museum District. The museum, which has been in talks for the last couple of years, will be made possible by Don Moeller, a Georgia physician who expressed his desire to put his collection of 13 rare military vehicles on permanent display at the museum.
Officials from the Hattiesburg Convention Commission expect to get the steel for the facility as early as next week, and will soon cut the slab and install piping.
“We’ve had an engineer look at it, and we’ll get those engineer drawings (this week), and then we’ll be able to go ahead and have that put in,” Taylor said. “Then we can hire a company to come in and erect the steel structure.
“At that point, we’re going to want to build out the interior and begin to move the exhibits in and get the students involved, get some veterans to help guide them and connect a couple of generations together to start assembling the museum itself.”
Although Taylor hoped the museum would open this year, those plans will most likely be pushed back to sometime next year.
“I’m really committed to doing it very well, not just putting vehicles in there and letting kids engage with those vehicles – I want to present that well,” he said. “So we’re going to want to – in addition to the students and the veterans – involve a museum design company to help us package each of those exhibitions in a way that people can understand not only the history of the vehicle, but how it was utilized in the history of American wartime efforts.”
Although commission officials had originally planned to house outdoor vehicles at the site, the pristine condition of Moeller’s vehicles will require them to be placed in a building. In fact, one of the vehicles - the very rare military ambulance - must be displayed in a climate-controlled facility.
“We’ve met with the neighborhood association, and they obviously don’t want, in the middle of their residential area, a big industrial, factory-type building,” Taylor said. “So we’re in the tail end of the process of identifying a metal building that will present very well, and we have some prototypes that we think will fit.
“We’ve already been working on design, and we’ve got some contractors that have been working with us. We’re a little bit down the path from the planning side of that."
in addition, the slab’s large size will allow officials to build a trailhead to the Longleaf Trace, across from where the trail ends at East 6th Street. The vehicles are expected to take up approximately 40 percent of the building, which will leave room for future growth.
Officials also plan to build a large courtyard at the current site of the outdoor movies on the other side of the museum.
“So that will allow the movies to continue, but it won’t be a drive-in anymore; people will have to park and walk in,” Taylor said. “We are going to add restrooms in this metal building, and we’re going to add a small food service location so that events can be held amongst the military vehicles, if that’s what someone wants.
“Or, out on the court deck, if they want to do something outside, or some combination thereof, (they can). We’ll see this as an annex, really, and we’re certainly going to recognize Dr. Moeller’s gift that really jumpstarted this plan that we have and moved it to action.”
