Jeff,
Thanks for the heads-up on the Herrington photo on pg. 253 in Fred Crismon's "U.S. Military Wheeled Vehicles." I had not noticed it before. (I tend to be rather Coleman-centric in my reading... Ha!)
Crismon is usually highly accurate in his data and specs, but I have found that he is sometimes a bit "soft" on his dates, at least on his Coleman images. The first question that jumps to mind is did he just assume Art Herrington remained with QMC after 1925 or so until joining MH in 1931, and was just guessing to fill in the gap, or did he actually find documentation that Art actually remained on Camp Holabird staff the entire time?
We can’t get away from the full documentation that Art Herrington was the General Manager of the Coleman Motors Corporation "Eastern Branch" from at least 1928 until about 1930, and perhaps even a year or two earlier. Perhaps he was holding down both jobs (QMC and Coleman) at once, but the QMC position from 1928 to about 1930 seems to be a bit lacking in actual documentation (unless you find an original source that is compelling).
I did notice that in Marc K. Blackburn’s touchstone work on "The United States Army and the Motor Truck – A Case Study in Standardization" (1996), Marc attributes the standardization push in 1928-1933 to John L. DeWitt, Col. Edgar Stayer, and Lt. Col. Brainerd Taylor, all on Camp Holabird staff, and interestingly, Art Herrington is not mentioned as still being present or playing any role at all. This is a very scholarly, well-researched study and appears to be very thorough in most regards. Art was such a "huge presence" at the time, I would think he would be mentioned if present.
Don’t know, just interesting stuff to ponder... Regardless, Art Herrington was certainly an interesting guy.
It's funny how many things were interrelated at various times. Peter De Paolo had also been Harleigh Holmes’ initial pick to drive a Coleman racer in the 1930 Indy-500, but events finally prevented this from happening.
On a side note, I was very saddened to hear of Fred Crismon's recent passing, he was a huge resource for anyone interested in military vehicles.
Craig H. Trout
ATHS Life Member
Researching Holmes / Plains / Coleman / American Coleman Trucks
and selected production partners, such as Columbian Steel Tank, Quick Way Truck Shovel, Howe-Coleman, International Harvester, Marmon-Herrington, and SnowBlast