Carryall ambulance photos

With the way that the front clip is collapsed, I would say that the driver had some seriously broken ribs, if he/she was lucky enough to live!
 
I didn't realize until now that the HCEC was that old. My first experience with them was in May, 1970, when Lubbock was hit by an enormous F5 tornado on May 11, about 9:00 at night. It touched down in Downtown Lubbock and moved North/Northwest, inflicting damage on the Hispanic community and the prestigious Country Club division just south of the Lubbock International Airport. There were 26 fatalities and about 1500 recorded injuries. HCEC sent two units which arrived early Tuesday morning. If the tornado had touched down during the day there would've been many more injuries and fatalities than there were.

Both of the HCEC units that responded to Lubbock were panel trucks. I was a member of a REACT team that had formed a first aid team in 1969. We were able to mobilize quickly and borrowed a '64 Olds station wagon ambulance from the late Travis Hagen who was a salesman for the Gordon K. Allen Co. and who lived in Lubbock. We used that ambulance until Thursday morning, when it was decided that everyone had been accounted for. Because of the work that our REACT team had done during the disaster the local racetrack where we had been working gave us the old track ambulance, a '60 Chevy wagon, and that put us to work, not only at that track but at other sporting events around Lubbock. Hard to believe that's been almost 44 years now.
 
Being on webtv for as long as I was, I never was able to see these pictures. They are awesome. Would love to find an old Travelall or Suburban Ambulance!
 
Bruce Oliphant said:
HCEC - What they look like now.
Click to expand...

Wow! That's a far cry from the old '60s Chevy panels they had when they responded to Lubbock in 1970.

San Angelo has had a nice emergency corps for many years, and they've always maintained an ambulance or two. The last two of their ambulances that I saw were back in the early '70s.One was a '66 Ford wagon and the other was a '70 Olds VistaCruiser wagon. The Ford was bought by a gentleman who lived in New Deal, TX at the time, and he used it for New Deal's football games. But c.1975 he moved to East Texas and took the Ford with him, and we picked up the New Deal games then and stayed with them until 1989, when N.D. got an EMS unit in their fire dept.
 
Steve Loftin said:
Here are three rigs from western New York. They all have the same window decal design...does anyone here know what company did these conversions?

Findley Lake, NY
1961 ?/Chevrolet
(I think it's time to plow that ramp, guys!)

Bemus Point, NY
1962 ?/Chevrolet

Clymer, NY
1962 ?/Chevrolet
(This girl had been relegated to chief's car duty by the time this photo was taken in the early '70s.)

(SL collection)
Click to expand...

These are Armbruster conversions.
 
Sentry V.F.C. (Burnside, PA) 1956/Chevrolet

Just figured, I'd show my most recent purchase. It's been shown in a previous post by Steve Loften, but in better shape. This is a pic of it how I recently purchased it.

56_fire3.jpg
 

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Mark, excellent! That was owned by a friend of mine here in MD for several years. It was in very good shape when he got it (and....well....not so good shape by the time he sold it :mad:). I'm glad to know it's still alive. Anyway, it'll be a nice truck when restored, good luck!
 
Mr. Lichtman, this should be up your alley. While watching an old movie on TV Saturday afternoon, one scene showed an early '60s high top International ambulance. The only lights visible were on a VisiBar mounted over the cab. The quality of the picture was so bad that I couldn't see if there was a speaker on the bar or not.

Just thought that may be one you've seen before, Steve.
 
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