Raining Humvees

tbm3fan

Old Man with a Hat
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Oops, goes a practice airborne drop in Germany by the US Army. Some soldiers got a kick out of this.

 
There is a Loadmaster and riggers in deep ****!

173rd Airborne drop in Hohenfels, Germany. Been there many, many times!

We dropped a few at APG. No big deal....
 
That was hard on me... I smiled along with the cheers, but was horrified at the same time... 3!!! I thought that was way better controlled than that. I couldn't help but imagine the perspective change if that was need equipment instead of a drill.
 
I can understand one mistake and that shouldn't happen, but three times Wow! and three different aircraft.
 
That was hard on me... I smiled along with the cheers, but was horrified at the same time... 3!!! I thought that was way better controlled than that. I couldn't help but imagine the perspective change if that was need equipment instead of a drill.

Don't be horrified......I got their SIX!

M110A2 Howitzer.jpg
 
I knew some former Army officer would have something to say about this and here is what he related. I'm sure Bob may have similar stories.

"Someone is in trouble at the riggers! One is frowned upon....4 borders on dereliction of duty.


So going with the old adage that any vehicle is airdroppable...once.

I had an old boss who commanded an armor company in the old 4th Battalion (Airborne), 68th Armor in the 82nd Airborne in the late 1970s when it was a Sheridan outfit. He had 2 hangar queens that he could not keep up and operational. He was getting his *** chewed regularly when he was scheduled to have his entire company do a heavy drop and jump. Somehow both of his hangar queens crashed and burned and were unsalvageable. He got 2 new rebuild Sheridans to replace the hangar queens.

He later found out the battalion maintenance technician had slipped the riggers a $100 a vehicle to have an "accident" occur.

I wonder if that is what happened here?"
 
I was in the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment in the mid 70's and had M551 Sheridan's. The first 2-3 roadwheel's would jump off the ground when we fired the 152 mm main gun. Those were the days....

m551_01_of_60.jpg
 
Also had M114 Reconnaissance Vehicle that had a 20mm chain gun that was lethal enough to shoot planes out of the sky and put some serious steel on ground targets. You definitely didn't want to be on the wrong end of that chain gun!!!

M114A2_Command_and_Reconnaissance_Carrier.jpg
 
BTW, that M114 was built by Cadillac and had a 283 Chevy engine with double hump heads. They didn't run worth a damn.
 
Big investigation going on behind the scenes now. Someone asked who pays for the Humvees ....

"
The Army does...not the Air Forces fault. They don't rig them; they just deliver them.

Now can individuals be charged? Absolutely. There will be an Article 32 investigation which may lead to legal and nonjudicial punishments. In addition disinterested officers (from other units) will be appointed investigation officers and conduct investgations...every company grade officer in the Army does this as an additional duty. Financial Liability Investigations of Property Loss (FLIPL). It is called If individuals are found responsible they will be charged a months salary...but since the HMMWV may be considered a system, and especially if there are weapons on board, they could be charged full price of replacement.

The unit does not get charged for replacment vehicles. Vehicles are centrally managed by product managers who send replacements to units when they wear out.

In the Army your major unit equipment is given to you...but you pay for all usage and upkeep cost out of your unit budget."
 
Ummm if the Army wants to carpet bomb the enemy with Humvees I have a better and cheaper alternative......Dodge Darts .....I've got a lot full of them....reg price $18999 govmint price $135000
 
Ummm if the Army wants to carpet bomb the enemy with Humvees I have a better and cheaper alternative......Dodge Darts .....I've got a lot full of them....reg price $18999 govmint price $135000
Hey are the Darts that bad? No one buys them?
 
Hey are the Darts that bad? No one buys them?

When the head of the company announces to the world that they are discontinuing the model as it is a slow seller and unprofitable a full year before its planned demise it becomes difficult to convince buyers that it is a wise purchase. The car is great otherwise, my daughter loves her GT but when it competes with a 200 in price it just doesn't work. Sergio has commented on the fact that we are only good at making trucks and SUV's so that's what we will make. Low profit low demand cars will be imported from other manufacturers.
 
Back on point here! When equipment is rigged for airdrop, or for transport for that matter. It has to go thru "JI" [joint inspection] to insure that everything is done correctly. As a matter of fact, they go thru 2 JI's before final approval for transport. That has definitely failed here twice. Not only are the riggers in trouble, but the JI inspectors failed to catch it twice which makes them in trouble too.
There have been countless number of time that this has happened since WW II, so this is nothing new at all.
 
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