John, List,
That really hit a nerve with me. Being a recently retired Marine Corps
motor transport maintenance officer I can tell you that when I first heard
this news I was both completely disgusted and totally amazed. Amazed that
the Corps was getting anything NEW, that the Army hadn't already worn out,
and disgusted that they were finally doing away with the last of the "Super
Jeeps."
I was wrenching at Camp Lejeune when the first HMMWV's appeared, and it
was immediately apparent that these monsters wouldn't fit on a ship in the
numbers that the good old M151 (Jeep) would. You sure wearn't gonna stack
them in a warehouse either. They were big, noisy and expensive, which
didn't make them the greatest gun platforms. The solution to this problem
was to convert a bunch of old M151's into "Super Jeeps." The boys in the
body shop would weld very crude water pipe roll cages into them to support
the gun mount and add a few extra ammo can mounts and seat belts atop the
rear fenders. To overcome the M151's tendency to roll over when cornering
at much above 20 MPH they fitted civilian style white "wagon wheels" that
were about twice as wide as the stock rims. The wider rubber and overall
increased track width did wonders for stability, even with a M2 .50 Cal
Machine gun or a TOW missile launcher on the top.
Small, agile, fast, nearly unstoppable off road, and cheap enough that the
National debt wouldn't jump up if one got taken out, the Super Jeep was as
close to perfect as any vehicle the Marine Corps ever had. The only draw
back is that it has a gasoline engine. Mogas ("What you get when you add
water to gasoline." Old joke.) had to either be carried along on deployments
or local gas acquired while overseas. The "single battlefield fuel" of the
future is eventually gonna be JP8 avaition fuel, so a diesel engine is
required to make NATO exercises simpler. So why not retrofit a diesel into
an M151? I heard the story that all the old M151 fleet was worn out and
repair parts wearn't available, so a new vehicle was necessary. Well, the
only reason we don't still have plenty of parts and M151's in war reserve
storage is that we gave them all away to "developing" third world countries
when the HMMWV came out. Same reason that my fuel & electric repair shop
couldn't be forward deployed or even mobile mounted during the Gulf War; we
gave away all the maintenance vans and had nothing to replace them! The new
Mercedes vehicles will probably have the same horrific supply problems that
we have with the Mercedes "Sea Tractor", which is basically a truck mounted
back hoe.
As American tax payers this all oughto bother us. Wanna really get
annoyed? Take a look at what the Commanding General at the nearest military
base is riding around in.
15 years ago when I was a CG's driver I had a white over green Volare', and
the Chief of Staff's driver had a K-car, both exactly like the MP's were
driving. Nowadays the MP's are driving white Chevy Corsica's and other
bland inexpensive fleet vehicles while the CG is tooling around in a $42,000
Cadillac and the Chief of Staff's in a big Lincoln. Why the change? What's
wrong with the General riding in an unmarked Corsica? Apparently nobody has
asked. Sounds like a good question for the Corps new Commandant.
That's what I enjoy most about being retired, I can ask these questions
and not get called onto the carpet. Freedom is a wonderful thing!
Chuck "Grumpy military retiree" Rothfuss
Near Camp Lejeune, NC
At 04:16 PM 1/1/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>Here's a good one. The US Marines have used up their old W.W.II style Jeeps.
>Guess they really loved those old CJ's. The new Hummers are two damn big for
>there usage. So instead of buying something American like a new Jeep they
>went out and bought 62 new Mercedes sport-utes. Maybe it was the Diesel
>engine, but at $80,000 apiece it looks like there trying to singlehandly
>prop up the German economy.
>
>JB
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