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Jacques Littlefield, President and Founder of the Military
Vehicle Technology Foundation, traces his initial interest
in military vehicles to his pre-high school days when he
assembled military vehicle model kits. In the early 1970s,
he spent many days as a Stanford undergraduate in the university's
mechanical engineering shops making unique metal parts for
his tank model projects.
Jacques' first major military vehicle modeling project during
his college days was a scratch-built 1/8-scale M48A3 medium
tank. The radio-controlled turret would traverse, the cannon
would elevate, and the gun would fire a .22 caliber pellet.
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His next project was a 1/5-scale Red Army T34/85 medium
tank from the WWII era. He chose this vehicle to model because
it could accurately be reproduced with the wood and metalworking
tools in his home shop. The vehicle 52-inch 177 pound model
had a fully independently trailing arm sprung suspension,
a one horsepower air-cooled gasoline engine, a two-speed
reversible transmission and 4.5-inch wide stainless steel
conveyor chain tracks. The hull was made of fir plywood
covered with polyester resin. The turret was cast fiberglass.
The main gun was based on a .22 caliber CO2-powered semi-automatic
pistol with a 10-shot magazine.
After his college years Littlefield and his parents acquired
the 470-acre Pony Tracks Ranch located in Portola Valley
that now is home to the Foundation's collection. During
his two years as an MBA student at Stanford Jacques started
building a 1/4-scale radio-controlled model of an U.S. Army
M60A1 main battle tank using scaled-down original blueprints.
Experience with the earlier models resulted in major design
improvements, including a stiffened frame, rubber tires,
track tensioners and a .22 caliber rifle barrel capable
of firing two types of ammunition. The gun barrel was designed
to recoil 3.5-inches by the action of a compression spring,
and would be returned to battery with the hammer cocked
by a pneumatic cylinder. Machine guns in the turret cupola
and coaxial positions would fire BBs powered by a CO2 fire
extinguisher.
The M60A1 model and future plans for British Army Saladin
armored car and German Tiger I tank models were put on hold
in 1973 when Jacques moved to Pony Tracks and began working
as a manufacturing engineer at Hewlett Packard. Two years
later, Littlefield bought a run-down World War II era U.S.
Army M3A1 wheeled scout car for the bargain price of $3,500
and started restoring it to factory new condition. The gratification
of seeing a historical military artifact restored to originally
condition led to a search for additional historical military
vehicles that needed saving.
In 1983, an M5A1 "Stuart" light tank and a Canadian-built
M4A1 "Sherman" medium tank arrived at Pony Tracks
Ranch. Both vehicles had come from the Portuguese Army who
acquired them from the U.S. Army after World War II. On
their return to the U.S., the Army sold them for scrap to
the Southeastern Equipment Company of Augusta Georgia. By
1988, Littlefield's collection of tanks had grown to five
vehicles.
Between 1984 and 1985, Jacques built a large metal frame
building (now known as the Foundation shop) for his expanding
collection of vehicles including trucks, muscle cars, fire
engines and tractors. An additional wing was added to the
shop building in 1989. The building was based on a Baldwin
Locomotive Company repair shop, reflecting Littlefield's
interest in railroad history. In anticipation of rebuilding
hs M4A1 Sherman tank, he equipped the central shop bay with
a 15-ton overhead crane capable of removing tank turrets.
Why tanks? Littlefield responds:
“I think they're more interesting
than cars or trucks. They have a number of different subsystems
like hydraulics, radios, turrets, guns and optics. I like
their complexity and the fact that they're big. They are
also very unusual to own. I'm less interested in something
that everybody's doing. I would rather do something that's
a bit more unique. The fact that I can also help preserve
vehicles that have played an important part in World history
from being scrapped or rusting away in some forgotten
field only adds to the enjoyment I receive from this hobby.”
According to Tom Berndt, unofficial historian for the
military vehicle collecting hobby, the acquiring of armored
fighting vehicles began in earnest in the United States
in the early 1970s:
“Armor in collectors' hands
was rare before that time. A number of collectors who
already owned wheeled military vehicles like jeeps or
trucks just decided to make the jump into armor. At first,
the armored fighting vehicles most often collected were
the World War II-era American-made half-tracks. This was
because so many had been used after the war in civilian
roles. There were also a number of companies who still
had lots of parts. After a period, collectors got bored
with the half-tracks and began looking for armored cars
like the American-made World War II-era M8 and M20. These
vehicles were much harder to find and commanded very high
prices for a while. When interest in these vehicles leveled
off, collectors' interest turned to American-made light
tanks such as the M3 and M5.”
A number of dealers soon started a worldwide search for
armored vehicles that could be sold at a profit to satisfy
the dramatic surge in demand among collectors. Many U.S.
Army WWII armored vehicles were found overseas. With both
NATO and the Warsaw Pact countries agreeing by treaty in
1991 to dramatically cut back on their ground forces, large
numbers of fairly modern vehicles were ordered destroyed
or scrapped. Littlefield took advantage of the low prices
and ready availability to obtain examples of many of the
major types of postwar vehicles, concentrating on Soviet
and British vehicles. Littlefield established a full-time
staff to help maintain and restore the growing collection
and he built three large interconnected museum buildings
to display the vehicles between 1996 and 1998.
The Foundation was established in early 1998 to serve the
interests of authors, historians, educators, the defense
industry, veteran groups, model makers and the entertainment
industry. Littlefield's major objective for the Foundation
is to preserve the collection for the future:
“For me, the important
part of the tanks is understanding the industrial know-how
that allowed them to be built, and then document those
findings. There may not be much appreciation for them
now, but hopefully after I'm gone people will look back
and say, 'Thank God he saved these historical vehicles
instead of just letting them rust away and disappear forever.”
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