PostScript:
Small Town New Year's Eve

"M19 40mm Multiple Gun Motor Carriage ("Dual 40"), a fully-tracked vehicle consisting of an M26 tank chassis armed with a pair of Bofors 40mm automatic antiaircraft cannon. Like the Quad .50, the Dual 40 served largely as an infantry support weapon during the Korean War. This weapon system saw action before the end of World War II and was based on Swedish designs from the late 1930s." Sometimes referred to as an "M19 Duster"

"The US Army experimented with self-propelled mountings of the Bofors Gun on the M3 and M5 Stuart Light Tanks, as well as halftracks, before testing the gun on the chassis of the T24 Light Tank (the precursor of the M24 Chaffee Light Tank). This mounted two 40-mm guns in an open turret with a frontal shield. The US Army designated this combination the T65E140-mm Gun Motor Carriage, and it entered production in August 1944 as the M19 Twin 40-mm Gun Motor Carriage."

Photos of an M19 similar to ours: http://www.wwiivehicles.com/usa/self-propelled-guns/m19.asp Except for the turret shields being cut off along with the guns, the picture is exactly what we had. Phil's M-19 was manufactured by the Cadillac Motor Company in 1942 or 1943. Unlike a regular tank with a fully enclosed turret, the M19 turret was open above chest level. It had originally mounted twin 40mm Boffors (Bofors) anti-aircraft guns which had been de-militerized by cutting off the barrels and cutting across the breach blocks. Phil had replaced the missing barrels in 1976 with two surplus aluminum lamp posts, and painted them to match the body a year or two later.

We, and much of the neighborhood, used this vehicle to celebrate the 1776-1976 Bicentenial and every Fourth of July thereafter till Phil sold the tank. By the expedient of a simple turned wooden plug with electrical contacts for a spark gap, an automobile ignition coil (traditionally borrowed at the last minute from whatever car was handy in the driveway...) a simple plastic cup of water, and a few pebbles of calcium carbide; we converted the left of these hollow lamp posts for operation as a slightly larger version of one of those noisy "Fourth-of-July" toy cannons. (One was enough.) But that is another story...

Postscript

Linda died of cancer in 1990. This site is dedicated in her memory.

Phil married at age 50 , lives in Tolland, Connecticut with his wife and kids; and works as the head electronics design engineer for a company which moved to South Dakota. When Phil refused to move with them, they shrugged their shoulders and let him work at home in Connecticut. He was one of the early long distance tele-commuters of the 80's. (Phil owns more NBS certified reference standards, analytic electronics and basic physics equipment than the company does.)