Howe Fire Apparatus built over 400 of these 500 gpm rigs on Ford chassis for the U.S. Navy in World War II. After the War it was sold as surplus to the small town of Sierra Vista, in the Fry Fire District of southeast Arizona. There it served for many years.
Its high road clearance convinced the Sierra Vista FD to make it into a tanker truck, and they put a 500 gallon water tank in the hose bed to supplement its original 80 gallon tank. Apparently its original flat head V-8 could not handle an additional two tons of weight, so it was replaced with an engine from a 1963 Ford Thunderbird. It was donated to the Hall of Flame in 1987 and refurbished by Don Hale a few years later. Its single stage Waterous centrifugal pump still puts out a good stream of water.