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Neil_Baumgardner

These have been used for decades on the street I grew up on in order to provide a smoother ride from the driveway onto the street.

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I didnt realize what they were until many years later - only a few houses on the street still have them. I was somewhat surprised to find these two when I was home for the holidays.

Neil

bsmart

That is PSP - Pierced Steel Planking (or sometimes PAP Pierced Aluminum Planking) Developed during WWII to allow quick Airfield building and repair. I've seen old movie footage showing sections as wide as a runway and hundreds of feet long being dragged into place by bulldozers.Doug or one of the other Vietnam Vets can probably provide stories and or pictures of it being used for improvised construction or vehicle mods.

It was also called Marston Matting. google marston mat for multiple articles on it

Neil_Baumgardner

Yep, you got it Bob!

I guess some enterprising guy sold them on our street back in the 70s or 80s...

Neil

bsmart

There was a fair amount of it around farms in Maryland in the 60s. used for everything from hog pens to fords in streams. One of the articles I stumbled across with google said how much was made which explains why it shows up so often.

Like the Jerry Can and the Bailey Bridge it became a classic for 'non designed uses' during and after the war

Joe_D

Man,

That stuff was all over Korea when I was there, especially the first tour. Our Arms room was made of it inside a Quonset hut. My father is very, very familiar with it, being former Air Force "Red Horse" in Vietnam. I also remember as a kid in Germany the small airfield in Echterdingen had many areas still using that stuff.

Doug_Kibbey

- bsmart

That is PSP - Pierced Steel Planking (or sometimes PAP Pierced Aluminum Planking) Developed during WWII to allow quick Airfield building and repair. I've seen old movie footage showing sections as wide as a runway and hundreds of feet long being dragged into place by bulldozers.Doug or one of the other Vietnam Vets can probably provide stories and or pictures of it being used for improvised construction or vehicle mods.

It was also called Marston Matting. google marston mat for multiple articles on it

In VN it was also frequently referred to as "Perforated Steel Platform". Ubiquitous in VN, but not so much on helicopter bases as you might think in their original intended use ("peneprime" and that hokey thin asphalt who's name I forget was usually used for the pads). Often used as the basis for reinforced walls, revetments augmented with sandbags, and just about any other improvised construction project you can imagine.

Never saw on any actual armored vehcles, but on improvised ones, sometimes (guntrucks, etc).

In '05, I saw many examples in VN as rotting fences around some peoples homes, but the years and rust had taken their toll.