I am not certain looking at the photos of your jeep, but is there a patch over the holes that would mount the GPMG bracket? These should be just above and behind the slave receptacle recess.
Mind you, it is possible that the Jeep, even if it was with the Hussars, would not have received the GPMG arm. Not all recce unit's jeeps got it, just the ones that were providing that role. My old unit had it on all the M38A1s, but we also had M151A2s for the officers rovers, which did not get the mounts of course.
There was a large SMP fleet rotation back in the early 80s, but it was around 82/83 if I recall. We got some M38A1s in from Pet, and were astounded by the amount of patches and Bondo on the bodies. There were not always a lot of rhyme or reason for VMOs. Sometimes units had shrunk in size so they had more vehs on their charge than their entitlement. Other times, it seemed as though the vehicle managers were just throwing darts at a board.
25,000 miles was not unusual for a militia Jeep. Many of the ones that were disposed of around here were in the 30,000-45,000 mile range.
The late turn in date may reflect a low priority unit not receiving it's replacement Iltis until very late in the program. I did the PCC on a duece in late 1986, long after all the others had left. The losing unit did not get a new truck, so they were intent on keeping the old one. Another example would be my old truck 88D, a 5/4 ton MRT. I watched it go down the road while standing on a parade here in Shilo in 1996, long after all the others had left service. At that point, it had reached 20 years of service.
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