- vagabond
Howitzer Glacis.
What do these numbers indicate?
The bottom ones looks like the registration number.
The top one looks like The FSN (Federal Stock Number) ?
Every item used bty the U.S. government has an FSN assigned. From a can of spray paint or a box of pens up to vehicles and other large items.
There used to be a joke on the flightline that if we could find the FSN for an F-15 we could just order a whole new plane.
There were different categories of items. Some were 'expendable' and could just be ordered as needed (XB3 was the supply code used by the Air Force when I was in) others required higher levels of accountability. Many required the old or broken item to be turned in within when the new one was issued. This sometimes caused creative solutions to resolve missing equipment (The MASH episode where Hawkeye as Mess Officer has to account for missing mess trays)