This photo, taken in Reims, France, during World War I, inspired O'Neal to build his Model T-based ambulance.
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University of Nebraska-Lincoln / Archives and Special Collections
With no original drawings available, David O'Neal had to do countless hours of research to accurately recreate an M1917 World War I military ambulance. `I wanted it to be as accurate as possible,' he says.
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Kelly O'Neal / Kelly O'Neal
A Polish model kit manufacturer was so impressed with O'Neal's recreation of a classic 1917 military ambulance that it built not one, but two kits of the vehicle, in two different scales.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Three full-length stretchers could accommodate wounded soldiers in the ambulance's rear compartment, or with the stretchers collapsed and stored, a pair of benches could be folded down to accommodate four less seriously wounded men.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Power was provided by the standard 20 horsepower Model T 4-cylinder engine, which was perfectly suited to slogging the Army ambulances through muddy fields to the front-line trenches of World War I.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The transmission control pedals remain the same as on a standard Model T, except for the extended reverse pedal. It was created to prevent ambulance drivers' muddy combat boots from getting stuck between the other pedals.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Canvas was extensively used on the ambulances, allowing the rear windows to be rolled up for loading patients. The canvas pouches on the drop-down tailgate are used to cover the handles of the stretchers.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The driver rode exposed to the elements on a simple bench seat, which covered the fuel tank and the other ends of the stretchers stowed in the back.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
O'Neal fabricated the water tank on the driver's side of the ambulance. By pouring through hundreds of pages of old war records, he discovered the tank dispensed water through a brass spigot mounted in the storage box below it.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The only `siren' available to ambulance drivers on the battlefield was a hand-plunger claxton horn mounted just outside the front seat.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Kerosene marker lights served as a handy spot to hang the driver's helmet and various pouches and web gear.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Relying on his extensive photographic research, O'Neal has added authentic details to the ambulance such as the entrenching tool, canteen, side-mounted spare tire and a latched box to hold the driver's records.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
This was how the project began, with a Model T touring car chassis found in an old car salvage yard near Iola. The M1917 ambulances built by Ford actually were constructed on car chassis, as the Model TT truck had not yet been introduced.
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Kelly O'Neal / Kelly O'Neal
The short wheelbase of the Model T touring car necessitated the long overhang of the ambulance body, to allow enough room for full-length stretchers in the back.
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Kelly O'Neal / Kelly O'Neal
O'Neal built his vintage ambulance to replicate an actual vehicle used to support U.S. Marines who fought in the 1918 battle of Belleau Wood near the Marne River in France. All of the markings are authentic to that ambulance unit.
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Kelly O'Neal / Kelly O'Neal
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