Such accidents would plague the convoy across the country, as truck couplings broke, axles cracked, engines overheated, fan belts snapped, and accelerators failed, among other problems. Several other venues have been unable to confirm that their previous commitments will be allowed to proceed. Army Truck Convoy Teaches Many Lessons; Automobile Transportation Factor in Progress.” The Salt Lake Tribune, 17 August 1919, p. 1. More than 50 historic military vehicles will be on display Aug. 20 at Cantigny Park as part of the Transcontinental Motor Convoy, sponsored by the Military Vehicle Preservation Association. The first Transcontinental Motor Convoy set out from Washington on July 7, 1919, with 24 officers, 256 enlisted men and 17 observers. Eisenhower during a brief stop in Boone, Iowa during the 1919 Transcontinental Motor Convoy. The 1919 Motor Transport Corps convoy from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco used the incomplete Lincoln Highway. We took a leisurely ten days to cross the continent, stopping at historical sites along the way, including Promontory Point, Utah, where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads met in May 1869. The genesis of the convoy was the new era in military transport engendered by technological advances in World War I, which had ended just the year before. Personnel numbered nearly 300, made up of enlisted men, officers and War Department observers. Just outside the fence on the South Lawn of the White House is a squat granite monument, usually surrounded by tourists snapping shots through fence and awash in discarded soda cans and plastic water bottles. TRANSCONTINENTAL MOTOR CONVOY. Can you imagine driving across the United States only a little faster than you can walk? The Great War had just ended, and the development of military vehicles was one of the principal factors that contributed to winning that war. As the convoy progressed toward the west, the roads worsened. It was perhaps the first great modern public-relations operation of the U.S. Army, other than victory parades, and helped secure the passage of the 1921 Federal Aid Highway Act. As Americans prepare to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, and we recently marked the sesquicentennial of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, this year offers up one more anniversary of extraordinary American ingenuity and grit, one that in many ways changed daily life even more profoundly than either of the other two events. considered remarkable.”. Placerville, CA. The 1920 US Army Transcontinental Motor Convoy drove from Washington DC to San Diego CA from June-October 1920 along the Bankhead Highway. Caught in time between prairie schooners and eighteen-wheelers, the 1919 khaki-covered truck train exits Nebraska. Its main objective was to determine the military value of assorted vehicles the army had acquired but not put into service during World War I. Kearney is home to Ft. Kearny, and some of those watching the 1919 spectacle had almost certainly witnessed the wagon trains that were still rolling through in the 1860s. While the U.S. colonies in Asia, particularly the Philippines, were far more threatened by Japanese military expansion, the fear that Japan could one day attack the U.S. homeland drove the Army’s thinking about military modernization. That's what Lieutenant Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower did in the summer of 1919, when he volunteered for the U.S. Army Transcontinental Motor Convoy from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco, California. Hopefully I’ll be visiting, Truckfest Peterborough, Crowfield Truck Rally, Gathering of the Griffin, Retro Truck Show at Gaydon, more than likely (and hopefully) Truckstar Festival at Assen as my foreign trip, although I have heard on the grapevine that there is quite a convoy of English motors heading to the International Trucker & Country Show held at Interlaken, CH. Stop at Harvey Firestone's home. The "truck train" was launched to test the challenges involved in moving an army across the continent under wartime conditions. Semi Trucks. Almost immediately after leaving Washington, the convoy experienced mechanical trouble, as a fan belt broke on one of the observation cars. They climbed into 81 “specialized” military vehicles, including 34 heavy cargo trucks, delivery trucks, a caterpillar tractor (which would become vitally important), a blacksmith shop, kitchen trailers, motorcycles, and touring cars for staff and observers. The worst day of the expedition was undoubtedly August 21, outside of Orr’s Ranch, Utah, where salt and sand ensnared the entire convoy. Your email address will not be published. View larger. 1919 Transcontinental Motor Convoy In the summer of 1919, a young Lieutenant Colonel named Dwight D. Eisenhower participated in the first Army transcontinental motor convoy. In 1919, a military convoy of 81 vehicles set out to travel the Lincoln Highway--a line drawn on the map--from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco. Throughout the desert, the expedition suffered extremely high temperatures, including a maximum of 110 degrees Fahrenheit. One of the things often repeated by the National World War I Museum and Memorial and others is that World War I is the war that changed everything. Like the cavalry of old, Army scouts would ride in advance of the convoy to check out the conditions that lay just ahead, except they were mounted on Harley-Davidsons instead of horses. “Army Truck is Try-Out For Equipment.” The South Bend News Times, 20 July 1919, p. 10. 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