03091

New “Life” for Damaged War Vehicles
FORT LEWIS, WASH. – The casualties in vehicles and other equipment in the highly mechanized war, is high. But, shattered steel and machinery is not left on the battlefield to rust and much of it is rebuilt and put back into action—very little is wasted. At the U.S. Army’s Mount Ranier Ordnance Depot, one of the many such Depots in various parts of the country, combat, and service and transport vehicles are repaired, reclaimed or salvaged. Here, the vehicles, collected in the far-flung battle areas of the world, roll in from ports of embarkation on flat cars. They are unloaded and classified and machines which can be repaired to a degree that will restore them to from 95 to 100 per cent as efficient as when new, will be rebuilt and returned overseas. Those which can be repaired but not to as high a degree of efficiency, will be shipped out to training centers, and those beyond repair will be dismantled for salvageable parts. What is left over will be sold for junk and will find its way back into the war effort through scrap. This series of photos, made at the Mount Ranier Ordnance Depot adjacent to Fort Lewis, shows how damaged vehicles are “given new life.”
New York Bureau
Thousands of reconditioned U.S. Army vehicles, from 95 to 100 per cent as sound as when they were new, are parked in a storage yard at the depot, waiting to be returned to action.
Credit: (U.S. Signal Corps Photo from ACME)