Members of Ellijay’s Ira Cochran American Legion are proud to now have an actual military vehicle on display outside the local legion post.
The M59 Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) was donated to the legion post by Rich Howard, a local collector of vintage automobiles and military vehicles.
Howard originally purchased the APC from the estate of another vehicle collector.
“I got it about 5 years ago. It was in a fenced-in lot in downtown Villa Rica. He also had a World War II half-track, which has tank tracks on the back and truck tires on the front. I had been told they had a tank, which is what I was looking for, but they had the half-track and the APC, too,” he said. “The half-track ran, so we took a trailer down and got it. The M59 didn’t, so we shut down the street, took a crane and picked it up out of the lot and sat it on a lowboy.”
The vehicle then sat outside Howard’s construction company office near Cartersville and he’d thought about restoring or selling it. Instead, he decided to donate it to a military civic organization and the local legion post gladly took him up on the offer.
“It went to a good home. The (Ellijay) legion people were good to work with and they were really excited about it. There was another legion in Alabama that had tried to get it,” Howard said.
Fred McGill, a local Legionnaire and chaplain for the Ellijay chapter of the American Legion Riders charitable motorcycle group, drove to Rydal to escort the wrecker driver and the 40,000-pound vehicle back to Ellijay.
Fortunately, a crane was not required to move the APC this time, confirmed McGill.
“They brought a big flatbed wrecker and just cabled that thing right up on it. We came right up Highway 382 with it, no problem,” he said.
According to MilitaryFactory.com, the M59 replaced another short-lived APC model, the M75, and was made by Food Machinery and Chemical Corp (FMC) between 1953 and 1960.
It preceded the M113 APC that is used today, Howard explained.
“In World War II, the half-track was the APC. That’s all they had and it was an open top. After that, they decided to build the armored personnel carrier,” he said. “They built a bunch of them (M59s), but by the time of Vietnam they came out with the M113, which is the one they still use.”
McGill, a Vietnam War veteran, said the vehicle was capable of transporting 10 soldiers or a full-size military Jeep.
“It also has (space) for a commander and an operator. It’s powered by two inline, six-cylinder engines coupled to a Hydramatic transmission allowing it to travel up to 32 miles per hour. With 135 gallons of fuel, it had a range of 120 miles. It was also designed to be amphibious with rubber seals on all the hatches and doors. With a trim vane added, it could travel 4.3 miles per hour in the water,” he noted.
Some other legion posts and veterans parks in nearby counties also have military vehicles on display, McGill noted.
“Chatsworth has one, a different type of APC, and Blue Ridge, of course, has the helicopter,” he added.
Vehicle display a team effort
Preparing the grassy area where the APC now sits on display was a group project that included labor and input from local Legionnaires, as well as some friends of the post.
McGill said Phil Simmons prepared the ground where the vehicle now sits, Lowe’s of East Ellijay donated timbers and paint for the project and local Legion Riders director Brian Shedd and his crew did landscaping at the site. Tim Duffy, Gary Johnson, Mike Menzel and McGill did sanding and painting on the vehicle that now has white stars and the legion’s post number stenciled on it, while a steel flagpole was moved to be put up at near the display by Legionnaires David Cadorette and Keith Harrison, the post’s commander.
Tyrel Buttrum marked and dug a ditch for power to be run to the site and A&T Towing, of Jasper, transported the APC from Rydal to Ellijay, added McGill, who arranged for a bronze plaque to be put on the side of the APC explaining its history and purpose.
McGill also went the extra mile by crafting a prop machine gun to add realism to a weaponless mount on top of the vehicle.
“I used a piece of one-inch pipe and welded something inside of it to where it’s not a barrel and you can’t put anything in it. I made it up to look the best I could,” he said.
The APC was officially dedicated at a July Fourth ceremony held at Post 82. It can be used for educational purposes for any children or young people visiting the post, McGill noted.
The M59 has even been given a nickname, Ira, in honor of Private Ira Cochran, the legion post’s namesake.
Cochran was only 17 when he was killed in action during the first World War. He is believed to be the first soldier from Gilmer County killed in World War I, confirmed McGill.