Wow! I didn’t think my “random thought” would trigger as much discussion, but it gave us all a chance to dig into the history, and on this site, that’s usually a good thing. (And everyone agrees it’s a great model)
So here’s another question, sort of related to the Gun Truck: When was the first time you heard of an M2 .50cal referred to as a “Ma Duce”? The Veterans’ answers will be especially interesting.
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During my 3 year vacation I only ever heard them called a 50 or 50 cal., 'course as an engineer, I wasn’t around them much. Wayne
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Never. Not in SF, not as a Drill Sergeant. It was “the fifty.”
Or depending on where you were raised - the “fi’ty.”
In fact, in Field Artillery School I earned the name “Mr. Fi’ty.”
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Never in my Army career. It was a “Fifty”.
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In both the Marine Corps and the Army I never heard of the .50 being referred to as a Ma Deuce. It was referred to by us as “the fifty” or during inventories, especially during CORO inventories, by its official nomenclature.
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Interesting, the 3 previous answers seem to jive with my experience. I got out in mid 80’s, and it was always either “the fifty” or “the 50 Cal” in common conversation, we were aware of the M2’s official nomenclature. The “Ma Duce” seems to be a Gulf War or later nickname (no wrong answer here 
) Thanks for getting back to me.
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I was in from '94-'17 and we always called it a “Fifty” or “.50 cal”. Never head it called a “Ma Deuce”. I think it was a WWII name for it.
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Your reply is really interesting, I’ve heard the referance on some TV programs and assumed it was a more modern name (I know "never assume…) Hmm, lets see if any other posts come up.
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It seems the accepted spelling is “Ma Deuce”, I never could spell.
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I think the first time I heard it was on Mail Call! Heard a lot of strange things on that show! ha ha Wayne
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Yup, WWII nickname.
The “.50 cal” machine gun, officially known as the Browning M2, earned the nickname “Ma Deuce” from US troops, during World War II. This affectionate nickname likely stemmed from the gun’s official designation as the M2, and its powerful, almost motherly, protective presence on the battlefield. According to ITS Tactical.
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I joined up in 1980. Most people called it the 50 or 50cal, but some people, mostly old timers from Vietnam, called it the Ma Deuce. Armorers called it the M2.
Ken
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Quite a range of answers on the “Ma Deuce” name. Anyway, back to the model of the M151, one of the earlier posts mentioned how well the seats showed the wear and tear of constant use, and it is nicely done. Last night, I ran across a photo I took of an M151 at Cu Chi Base in 1970, the vehicle had seat covers. It was not uncommon around bigger bases to see jeeps with seat covers made by Locals outside the base. You saw less and less of this the further you got from major installations. I guess the good point of the covers was you could dry them off easily. So, if someone enters a model show with a vehicle with what looks like vinyl seat covers, they wouldn’t be wrong.
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Very nice model. Great finish
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While the Official designation was almost certainly “MUTT”, and the modeling world may refer to the M151A1 as a “MUTT”, as a soldier from 1972 -2002 I can certify that at NO time did ANY soldier refer to the M151A1 as anything other than a jeep..
To use a different name for this vehicle to distinguish it from it’s WWII predecessor makes as much sense as coming up with a different name other than “tank” for an M60 to distinguish it from a WWII M4 Sherman.
That said, it is a fantastic model!!!
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I can’t back up my take, but as I understood this, the term “MUTT” was coined by Ford, to call it something. (I don’t believe that the designation “M151” was applied yet.) Ford couldn’t call the vehicle “Jeep” as that name had been trademarked. Ford even had to make the grill with horizontal slats so as not to infringe on the Jeep’s apparently copyrighted vertical slats. -At least thats what I recall. To the chagrin of Jeep, many ended up calling the 151, just that, a jeep, even though it wasn’t. Some of us called them 151s and thats what I knew them as.
Edro
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As both a former soldier from this period, as well as a 30 veteran of Product Development Engineering at Ford, I can pretty much confirm what you’re saying.
While the nomenclature was certainly “M151A1” and might have OCCASIONALLY been referred to that way by soldiers, in the five years I spent in Germany from 1972-1977 (including the times when one of these was my own vehicle) I can tell you that nobody ever referred to or called these anything else but a Jeep. Trademark be damned.
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I did some additional research and it was JEEP that had to make the change to the grille, not Ford. The original was a 9 slot vertical grille, and when the M151 came out, they had to change to a horizontal pattern so as not to infringe on Ford’s design. Later it was decided that they would simply reduce the vertical pattern to 7 instead of 9 and take the chance that it wouldn’t infringe on the original design.
Sort of. It was Willys Overland who reduced to the 7-slot, stamped grill after WWII on civilian Jeeps. Willys adopted the stamped Ford 9-slot grill since it was easier to manufacture than their original 9-slot welded grill. Willys owned the rights to the vehicle, but Ford owned the patent on the 9-slot, stamped grill. Willys adopted a 7-slot stamped grill to avoid legal problems.
Ford had to turn the 7-slot grill on the M151 into horizontal bars due to Willys Overland still owning the rights to the 7-slot vertical grill.
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