I have this Hawthorne which appears to be the same bike (one of them) that was used as a Military bike in WWII. They were Columbias but I'd suspect that may have been who built this Hawthorne. See the link at the bottom for where I have read about these so far. It looks like some OD green paint, truss rods and light (and handlebars) I'll be well on the way.
The Huffman bike shown has a straight downtube, but as noted in the article, earlier Columbias were curved like my Hawthorne.
http://www.theliberator.be/militarybicycles.htm
The Huffman bike shown has a straight downtube, but as noted in the article, earlier Columbias were curved like my Hawthorne.
http://www.theliberator.be/militarybicycles.htm