Old Binder Guy

Copied from Facebook... In this clear and perhaps rather surprising view from 17,500’ (5,300m) beneath the surface of the Pacific, a 1941 International Harvester A14 “Shop Mule” sits still chained to the deck of aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8). Most famous today for being host vessel of the successful Doolittle Raid in April of 1942, the carrier was later lost during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on October 27th of the same year. This and a number of other stunning photos were taken soon after the lost ship’s discovery by Paul Allen’s research vessel R/V Petrel in January of 2019 off the coast of the Solomon Islands, these being the first new images seen of Hornet in more than 76 years. Similar in form and appearance to other International Harvesters of the period used in agricultural work, this machine would have been employed aboard as a tow tractor for use in moving aircraft - likely including the famous B-25B Mitchells of the first bombing raid on Japanese soil during WWII. Gary😉 PS: My daughter Mev in Seattle used to work for Paul Allen, who was Bill Gates' partner in Microsoft.

I know I've stated this all before, but here I go again. Sharon and I had married in April. In November, she worked at the Northwestern Bank of Lewistown. I was working in the Bourke Motor & Implement Shop. Johnny had taken in the first IH Scout he'd sold in 1962. It was sold to the King Hutterite Colony west of Lewistown. It was VERY shop worn from that hard year. Johnny had sold them a 1963 (maybe it was a new 1964?) Scout. I was doing bodywork on the Scout, in preparation for repainting it. It came over the shops radio that, "President John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas." This was around 10:30-11:AM. Everyone was stunned. A wealthy rancher parked his Mark II Continental and came into the shop. He said, "Kennedy wasn't my man, but that's not how we change presidents in this country." I picked Sharon up for lunch. We drove to the east end of Lewistown to the Tastee Freeze. We ordered our usual steak sandwiches and a drink. While we were eating there, it came over the car radio that President John F. Kennedy was dead. That day, vice president Lyndon Baines Johnson was sworn in as president in Air Force One. Kennedy's funeral was a huge procession. His coffin bier was the one that was used for President Abraham Lincoln. This photo had to be the top photo after everything settled down and JFK Jr. saluting his passing daddy on the same coffin bearer Abraham Lincoln was escorted to his grave after his assignation. In 1964, Sharon and I flew to New York City for the World's Fair, then ventured up to Washington D.C. At Arlington National Cemetery, I took this photo of JFK's temporary grave while larger plans were in the mix. The Eternal Flame was burning here from the beginning too. Gary😔

TN Hillbilly, You are so correct! Gary

We haven't ALL forgotten. Gary

A sad, sad remembrance.

MT Matt... Gil Mangels has been a great friend of mine for about 40 years! I went there because he'd gotten a hold of me about an old Advance steam engine he used to have setting out front. I took this photo of him kneeling in front of it at the time. I've donated items and sold him things before I moved from Kalispell to Helena. Wouldn't you know. The photo I have of Dad's forge bellows I donated to the blacksmith's shop there, is one that evaporated when I lost my hard drive. It's all set up in there and has a plaque saying it was Joe Yaeger's forge bellows. I sold him the "non standard keyboard" Blickensderfer portable typewriter from the Fergus County Argus newspaper. And I sold him Andrew Fergus' "velocipede." Andrew was James Fergus' (father of Fergus County) son. James Fergus was also the namesake for Fergus Falls, Minnesota. I've kind of regretted selling those things, but at my age, I guess they have a good home. The Miracle of America Museum is dubbed "The Smithsonian of the west." If ANY of you ever get to Montana, do yourself a huge favor and visit the museum in Polson, Montana. Gil is a great patriot and he does a great job of showing how America was formed by our forefathers. I used to have so many photos of the museum items that vanished. While at Whitefish, i even played my squeezebox at one of his annual Live History Days about 40years ago. Hey, I went to an old external hard drive (I have about 5 of them) and found the forge bellows and the plaque I required for Dad's memory. Gary😁 PS: MT Matt, also thank you for the photos you posted from Gil's museum! Gil has lots of hammers too, right Sledgehammer!

Happy Birthday, Tom. I'm sorry I'm so late. I had other things going and forgot to check here. Hope it was a good one and you didn't have to have dialysis that day? A couple photos of the 10-30 Case of my father in-laws I ended up with. Mike was the greaser and driver! This had to be 1976? Gary😉

We had been visiting about crawler tractors recently. I didn't put this photo in with the Special Model International "Red Baby" trucks. It is a CleTrac tractor with a patented snow blower, boasting a large engine to drive the blower and an up front set of wheels and a steering wheel to guide it. I'm betting with an operator driving it up front, it still had to have an operator on the Cletrac to shift and clutch it. I don't think it was Rube Goldberg who patented it though. He wasn't from Minnesota. Gary😉

I guess this is how IHC dealerships worked on the Six Speed Specials? This was a Greg Druffel photo from very early in this IHC thread of mine featuring an International S Model. Sacked grain in the Palouse country. Dad and his brothers had the regular four cylinder Six Speed Specials and this S Model six cylinder International truck. This was an International S Model Truck at the Great Falls Toy Show in 2020. This was it's fancy interior. The six cylinder engine in the Toy Show truck was a "Lycoming"! Same company as the air cooled aircraft engines I used to depend on in my flying days. I have some International literature, just a little pamphlet that shows this International dump truck. This was "pre-OSHA" too. This information was included in my pamphlet. These accessories are a part of my pamphlet too. The Yaeger Implement "black baby" truck was put together by none other than Roger Byrne, when 20 year old Jacob and 18 year old Heather were quite little. Roger has one awfully huge heart. The Model T Ford Roadster Pickup was painted "Any color you want, as long as it's black!" The Yaeger International dealership apparently ordered after market disk wheels, to better navigate the deep snow and often deep mud in the Helena vicinity? Roger is a talented little dickens, even if he won't let me possess that 1912 IHC AutoWagon of mine. Gary😉 PS: I hope you all have a great Labor Day Weekend!

twostepn2001, That's a neat photo of one of the short fancy Red Baby trucks. Thank you for posting. I have a variety of Red Baby IHC trucks and I don't know if they are all authentic or not? But I'd make a home for any one of them. Now this one must have been pre red paint on the IHC service trucks? Gary

MT Matt, I knew what hail was like on the east side. In central Montana we were in a "hail belt." Sometimes that mountain arrangement of the Big Belts and Little Belts was a godsend for moisture. But it sometimes was the path for hail. I remember several years of getting some hail. But one year in particular, I was operating Dad's McCormick 125 SPVC. We cut uncle Audie's crop over a few days, because his crop was more ripe than ours was. We finished his and were just to the gate to turn into Dad's crop when the hail hit. We stopped the combines on the county road at the gate and got under the back end. We listened to the "humongous 'gong'" until it quit hailing. Audie's combine went back home and I took ours home. "Harvest" was over. Gary😪 PS: This isn't a photo of our 125 SPVC, but it's just like it.

I'm suspicioning that after their run with the RD-6, they went with a four cylinder diesel in their D6 Cats. The "R" in RD-6 or any of the other earlier line diesels stood for "Rudolf Diesel" the German who perfected the Diesel engine. I would bet that after they got Cats on the market with the RD diesel engines, the engineers were working on a more powerful, more practical, more economical Caterpillar Diesel engine. Gary😁

Todd, I've never seen an early Caterpillar D-6. Only RD-6 Cats. This picture is of my late steam friend and mentor, Max Tyler plowing snow at my father in-law's place near Moore, Montana with the Tyler's RD-6, with its 3-cylinder diesel engine. Did the D6 in your photo have a three or a four cylinder diesel engine? Earl and Max Tyler later farmed with this D6C SA (special application) in later years, this photo from the cover of a Caterpillar publication. Gary😉

Matt, I'm sorry about the elk in your oats crop. Mike had a lot of oats damage too. (Those weren't black olives where you could see where each one had bedded down! However I didn't try to taste any.). I guess somebody has to feed the elk. And obviously they simply love oats! I'm glad you got that IH Farmall Cub Demonstrator. AND... the mower for five bucks??!!! I'm assuming it has a 4' cutter bar like Dad's 1947 red one had. The mower was all blue too. I mowed a lot of hay with that tractor and mower, starting at age 9. Ours didn't have a hydraulic lift either. When I plugged the mower, I had to stop, lock the brake, stand up and lift the mower, unlock the brake, back up, clear the mower, drive back to where I stopped, lock the brake, stand up and drop the mower, release the brake, take off and hopefully it wasn't plugged still! But, I got to work with the "big guys" in the field! By this time, I was operating the Cub Bill ran in the photo below, and he was mowing with Dad's Farmall M. My brother Bill had me run to the house and get his little Brownie camera to take this photo of the big guys, Cousin Alvin, Cousin Chuck [not Beaver Cleaver], and brother Bill. Alvin the youngest, ran his dad's Farmall M with hydraulics. Bill and Chuck ran their dad's with the Armstrong lever. I believe this was 1950 or 1951. I wish I still had Dad's Cub. I'm glad you got one though, Matt! I did have a friend who bought an IH Farmall C. We looked it over and underneath on the oil pan, etc. it had white paint. He checked and it was a Demonstrator that the dealer painted red after it was sold and before it was delivered. He painted it white and included all of the things that went with a C Demo. Gary😉

ray54, the confusing part for me is, I thought the only Holts with hinged track rails was the Holt Ten Ton. If they built the 45 with a hinged rail frame, then that would answer it. I knew the 45s had the rear seat and tillers. So I went and looked through what photos I have left, since my computer bit the dust and here is this Holt 45 with rear seat and hinged rail frame photo I received from Tom Madden. Thanks for helping me answer my own question, Ray! Gary😉