Is it a boat, a truck or a submarine

[erps]

Hurricane Irene footage of two army rigs darn near driving underwater.

On Camera: Military Drives Under Water - Video - KIRO Seattle

[hellosailor]

Or rather, being washed away by the flood.

Someone is gonna have to explain that back at the motorpool.
"SON, WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY TRUCK?"

[PorFin]

Reminds me of a battalion commander I knew of in Korea -- had his HMMWV driver follow the road down to the "ford" marked on the map. Two problems -- one, the river had come up several feet during a pretty good storm; two, he was one road south of the road he thought he was on.

All you could see were the little plastic balls at the ends of his radio antennas sticking up out of the water. Had to get a dive team to come out and attach the winch cables from a recovery vehicle to the HMMWV.

Both he and his driver made it out of the HMMWV ok -- of course, the Bn Cdr was the butt of a lot of jokes for a while afterward.

[erps]

I watched it twice. I have no idea how the driver could see where he was going. I didn't see his head sticking out of the side window. Do they have periscopes on those things? I didn't see an obvious snorkle for the air intake either.

Anyone here with experience driving underwater who can answer some of these questions?

[PorFin]

Originally Posted by erps

I watched it twice. I have no idea how the driver could see where he was going. I didn't see his head sticking out of the side window. Do they have periscopes on those things? I didn't see an obvious snorkle for the air intake either.

Anyone here with experience driving underwater who can answer some of these questions?

I didn't see fording kits either, which are intake and exhaust extensions that go above the vehicle. The USMC commonly has them installed on their ground vehicles, but kind of rare in the Army. Early in the video, it looks like there's a clear sign of exhaust bubbling up on the left side of the first vehicle, so at that point the engine's still running. Once on the other side of the bridge, both trucks are DITW.

My guess is that our heroes were tooling along nicely, then started getting into deeper water. The water level outside the cabin came up to the windows, but the driver & TC were still relatively dry since the cabin would fill more slowly. At that point they knew they were well and truly screwed, and did the only thing they could do -- punch it and hope for the best. The fact that the second vehicle followed a la ducks in a row is what surprises me a bit.

[hellosailor]

It is, after all, the Army or more likely the Army National Guard. " The fact that the second vehicle followed a la ducks in a row is what surprises me a bit." You follow the one in front of you and unless instructed otherwise, do not change that order.

Calling a diver to attach the winch cable, that's just called "a lack of initiative". What's that Army Salvage Recovery Diver specialist rating called anyway? (VBG)

The driver is DAMNED lucky that the new army has gotten so slack. The Old Army would have said "Son, your orders were to drive that truck. You put it there? Now go back out and sit in it until you're ordered elsewise."

I doubt an ANG base would have had fording kits available, much less fitted. OR that they'd want part-timers to go out and play with them. These days? The Army uses helicopters to cross rivers. Precisely because of the PR value of events such as this one.

"SIR! OOPSIE! SIR!"

It could just be, someone got ordered to drive a truck, someone got really pissed off at his orders, and same said someone DID AS ORDERED. Intentionally?

[PorFin]

Although I have no idea of the actual details, here's a scenario that could fit the picture.

A lieutenant, up in the cabin of the lead truck, is in charge of the detail. The drivers of both trucks are likely very young soldiers, and pretty much have no vote. The TC of the second truck, however, would likely have been an NCO -- who usually have better walking about sense than young LT's. That's why I was surprised to see it following along like a lemming off of a cliff.

Anyway you slice it, somebody's gonna get a well-deserved (ahem) "counseling" session with the company and/or battalion commander.

We did our best to train our guys not to be lemmings -- usually with success, every once and while without. On those rare occasions of failure, new duties (with less responsibility) were found for the untrainable.

[Chris12345]

So that's the difference between a light and a heavy military vehicle?
The light ones float??

Originally Posted by erps

Hurricane Irene footage of two army rigs darn near driving underwater.

On Camera: Military Drives Under Water - Video - KIRO Seattle

[US27inKS]

Originally Posted by PorFin

On those rare occasions of failure, new duties (with less responsibility) were found for the untrainable.

Sending a guy on a permanent loan to supply rings a bell. Trouble is that sometimes they re-enlist. Then eventually they get promoted. Then one day a new unit is formed, lets just say a helicopter squadron. This new unit needs NCO's to lead the various shops, lets just use Avionics for example. All of a sudden there's a Gunny in charge of an avionics shop who's been in supply since Vietnam. And since the Gunny is a bona-fide rocket scientist, he commences to tell the new boots that just got out of school all about how to fix helicopters. He can't support his diagnostic conclusions with those pesky wiring diagrams or manuals, because he knows more than the guys who wrote them. Meanwhile the Lcpl who can't get promoted because of too many retreads getting big bonuses to go into avionics tries to correct him so that the new guys don't end up being as big an idiot as the Gunny, gets sent to clean toilets.

Welcome to the Suck.

[erps]

Just watched it again. Guy came out of the back of that second truck with an expensive looking camera. Although it was probably a lot less than the two diesel motors that just hydrolocked. I couldn't see if the windshield wipers were going on the trucks. That would have been funny.