Militor truck

One of the prototype Militors served notably in the 1919 Motor Transport Corps convoy, a long-distance convoy of 81 vehicles and trailers carried out by the Army Motor Transport Corps. The convoy drove over 3,000 mi (4,800 km) on the historic Lincoln Highway from Washington, D.C., to Oakland, California and then moved by ferry to end in San Francisco. Convoy vehicles often broke down and became stuck on the then-primitive roads in the western United States and the Militor was frequently used to free them. It was equipped with a power winch and once towed nine trucks at once. Ordnance Department Observer, Lieutenant Elwell Jackson, submitted a report on the performance of all of the convoy's vehicles. He praised the Maxwell and Militor tractors for their overall reliability and mechanical superiority and noted that the trip could not have been completed without them. He called the Militor, "unquestionably the most valuable vehicle in the entire Convoy."^[10][11]

After some delays in procurement caused by financial difficulties at the Militor Motors Corporation and the transfer of the procurement contract to the Winther Motor and Truck Company,^[12][13] the Militors were delivered to the Army in the first half of 1921. Most were sent to Fort Bragg, North Carolina; some others were sent to Fort Sill, Oklahoma.^[14][15] They served with the Army artillery, towing guns and howitzers and other pieces of artillery equipment. In the mid-1920s, the trucks at Fort Bragg were part of the equipment of the 13th Field Artillery Brigade. The Militors were praised for their towing capabilities, conveyed by their low gear ratio (enabling them to tow pieces as large as 240 mm howitzers), and their reliability, although some observers noted design flaws that would require a redesign of the vehicle to remedy. Their performance was good enough in field service that it was recommended in 1924 that they be adopted as the Army's standard four-wheel drive cargo truck. The Office of the Secretary of War declined the recommendation, however, because the Militor was an expensive, specialized design with limited potential as a commercial vehicle and thus it would likely have been difficult to produce rapidly in the event of another major war.^[16][17] In 1925 the Army began to purchase newer and more powerful trucks designed by Coleman for use as its new artillery tractor.^[18] By 1928 it was transitioning entirely to commercial artillery tractors.^[19] The last Militors were replaced in 1928 and 1929.^[20] It is believed that no examples of the Militor survive today.^[21]