Hi Arka,
It's after a few eons that I am seeing an Army Nissan 1tonner in this shape. The ones that I commonly see have all been converted to tow trucks or outfitted with small cranes etc but all in derelict condition ! Though your 1 T looks a little rusty it seems to be in great shape...
I used to ride these 1Ts when my father was in the Army...in the early 70's as a kid.Amongst all the army vehicles I have spent time with and grown up in I had spent the max time in the Nissan 1Ts. The longest journeys used to be from Jammu (railway station) to Srinagar via Udhampur in these wonderful beasts and then back, when dad used to come to pick me up during my term breaks from the hostel and drop me back for the long railway journey back to the hostel in Bangalore...the smell of the army canvas, oil and brasso is still very fresh in the olfactory organs ! All through my childhood I remember travelling in either the 1T or the Jonga...one of the most enduring memories and brush with a near fatal smash up, was in Udhampur with a 1 Tonner. It was one of those lovely evenings when the sun had just set and my dad and us were to go with him to an army do at an army mess near Chinar theater (of those days !) and the 1 T was parked on a slope in front of our old army house, and the driver (a Lance Naik with a fierce moustache I remember) was pottering around somewhere near the verandah.As usual I had dressed up fast in order to play around in the 1T. I opened the door (even now I remember the curved lever of the 1 T door) sat in the driver's seat on the rough OG canvas and was fooling around with the steering wheel when my hands went to the gear lever like I had seen the driver do and yanked it down...thats when the 1 T started rolling down to the incline, rattling something at the back, it went over a mound of clay and all the stuff at the back raised quite a racket ,that's when I suddenly saw the door pulled open and the LN jumping in pushing me towards the co driver's seat and slamming the break/clutch and pulling the gear stick.The 1T halted - all it took was about 9 odd seconds - but it seemed like slow motion everytime I remember it, including the clanging of the LN's ammo boots on the running board as he hurried to clamber aboard. Looking back, after the vehicle halted I wasn't sure who was more scared the driver or me. Only thing he hissed to me was " Kissi se kuch mat kehna ". However a day later when I thought no one would ever get to know about it and my ol' man wouldn't loose his cool, in the evening after he had returned in a Jonga and still in his uniform he called me out from the house took my little right hand and tugged it, to signal me to walk along with him, we went down the incline and after the incline to the edge of the road and showed me the almost 100 feet drop where the 1 tonner would have landed if not for the rather timely action of the LN ! Not exactly loosing his cool he mentioned to me that never again was I to get into any vehicle unless the driver was also present - for some strange reason he never mentioned the episode to my Mum - fearing a backlash I guess !
Ahhh Arka, your new possession brings back a lot of fond memories !
All the best and hope that you have a great time restoring the beast to its old glory - and someday if I happen to pass by Chennai I hope to drive it and rekindle my childhood memories again, besides driving a great, great vehicle !
Last edited by Guderian : 2nd June 2008 at 10:01.
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