Artifact of the Month
Pennant, Motor Truck Company, Quartermaster Corps, US Army, C. 1917.
This guidon originally belonged to COL Otis S. Moreman and belonged to a motor truck company during the World War I era.
Prior to World War I all road transport was handled by the Quartermaster Department. When the war broke out, Quartermaster had a lot to do simply getting millions of men equipped for war. They asked if some of their jobs could be transferred to make their job easier.
One job that was transferred was one of the newest forms of Army transportation, trucks. Truck transport was placed into an organization called the Motor Transport Service. This organization underwent several name changes during the war. It went from Motor Transport Service to Motor Transport Corps and finally the Transportation Corps on November 12, 1918, the day after the Armistice. The Corps would not survive the 1920 reorganization of the Army and truck transport would once again revert to Quartermaster Corps control until after World War II when it was given to the Transportation Corps.