The March/April issue of Vintage Truck magazine will be available in subscriber mailboxes and on newsstands soon. Our cover story about a 1957 International S-120 4X4 panel truck was written by B. Mitchell Carlson, with photos by Brad Bowling.

After World War II, our former Soviet Union allies soon became Cold War nemeses, especially by the time they detonated their first atomic weapon in 1949. All-out nuclear war was now a real possibility, and being able to recover after an attack became a major concern throughout the United States. By the mid-1950s, it was becoming obvious that communities large and small were not equipped for the aftermath of a nuclear attack—or even major natural disasters.

While fire departments were generally well trained and equipped for smaller catastrophes, a large-scale disaster (especially man-made) was another matter. To assist municipalities, the federal government’s Office of Civil Defense (OCD) coordinated with them to supply needed materials, especially rescue vehicles.

Civil Defense units had an appetite for trucks of all sizes, especially for the rescue units. During the feast-or-famine funding waves that Civil Defense had in the 1950s and 1960s, when monies were allocated for trucks, they went all-out on task-specific vehicles. In leaner years, their alignment with the Dept. of Defense meant that ex-military trucks of all stripes were handed down to local units.