Motor Transport Corps The Motor Transport Corps ( M . T . C . ) was formed out of the Quartermaster Corps on 15 August 1918 , by General Order No . 75 . Men needed to staff this new corps were recruited from the skilled tradesmen working for automotive manufacturers in the US . Organization . The first director of the M . T . C . was Brigadier General Meriwether Lewis Walker of Lynchburg , Virginia . Walker was chief engineer of the Pancho Villa Expedition in 1916 – 17 . He was later governor of the Panama Canal Zone . The deputy director was Col . Francis Horton Pope of Kansas . The M . T . C . was headquartered in Tours during the duration of World War I . Functions . General Order No . 75 spelled out the functions of the Motor Transport Corps as : Types of motor vehicles . General Order No . 75 also defined a " motor vehicle " as : Excluded from this definition were : These were to be under the control of the Ordnance Department . Wartime operation : 1918 – 1919 . The American Expeditionary Force that deployed to France during World War I was in need of an organization that could log , track and maintain all needed motor transportation . A school and a network of parks were set up to accomplish this . School . All M . T . C . and some non - M . T . C . personnel were to attend training programs to learn operation and repair of motor vehicles . Some courses offered : Parks . Reception Parks . Vehicles were unloaded , uncrated and assembled at these parks , then assigned a registration card and markings . Detailed records were kept on each vehicle ' s whereabouts and conditions . Vehicles and spare parts collected in these parks awaited assignments to specific army units as requested . With the exception of the highest - ranking officers , no officer had his own personal car during the war . A large reception park was located in St . Nazaire . Service parks . Designed to make repairs not requiring much time or heavy equipment , these mostly mobile workshops carried a limited stock of spare parts and were mainly assigned to combat zones . Because of their temporary and mobile nature , the service parks were often operating in the open , under canvas , or in any shelter found to be available . Overhaul parks . These parks were to occupy permanent or semi - permanent structures for basic vehicle maintenance and repair . They were to be located behind the fighting zone ( 40 miles if behind a " thinly held sector " ) . When the cost of a repair exceeded 30 % of the first cost of the vehicle , they were to be sent to a reconstruction park for salvage . Reconstruction park . A permanent facility equipped for large scale rebuilding and salvage operations . A temporary park in Nevers was relocated in July 1918 to a permanent facility in Verneuil , Nièvre , east of Nevers . The M . T . C . Reconstruction Park covered approximately and consisted of five steel shops averaging each and a large warehouse for storage of spare parts . The park was staffed by three units of approximately 1 , 150 men each ( Units 301 , 302 , and 303 ) . Some labor was also supplied by German prisoners who were housed inside the Park . Command of the park at Verneuil was assigned to Colonel Harry A . ( " Bull " ) Hegeman , who was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his involvement in the operation , in spite of the post - war accusation of mismanagement and waste there . Hegeman was a mechanical engineer from Sparta , Wisconsin . Post - war : 1919 – 1920 . According to the M . T . C . Reconstruction Park newsletter " " Let ' s Go " " , the park was visited by General John J . Pershing and later , General James Harbord , in April 1919 . The parks were closed after the war and the Motor Transport Corps was dissolved in 1920 .