Military Vehicles, November 1996,: Re: horror stories
Re: horror stories
Gale Barrows (barrowsg@rapidnet.com)
Wed, 13 Nov 1996 12:06:03 -0700 (MST)
>In my travels around the web in search of information about military
>vehicles, i've encountered numerous horror stories about what happens to
> such vehicles when they're sold at government auctions. I've heard of
>poor, innocent trucks,(excuse me, i'm a sensitive person), being chopped
>up into little pieces and crushed by heavy mechinery all in the name of
>something called the "demilitarization process". How then do fortunate
>trucks such as mine escape this violent, brutal death and wind up in the
>hands of caring civilians? Wolf
>
>
Not all vehicles are required to be demiled/mutilated. (mutilation is the
term used by DRMS to describe the "destruction beyond possibility of
restoring to the vehicles origional purpose or use" , demil is the term used
for" demilitarizing to the point of destruction beyond the possibility of
restoation to military value" )And of those that are required now to be
demiled/mutilated, often the vehicle was not required to be
demiled/mutilated prior to an order to do so having been issued. Some were
sold when they could be sold in an operational condition. Others simply
slipped through the cracks of the system. An good set of examples exists
with the M151 series. Many of the earlier models and even some M151A2's were
sold before the requirement to mutilate them was put into effect. Since they
had already been sold off, the order could not be retroactively applied to
them. Others were sold without the order aplied in the sales contract
through oversights. A good example of this was an incident in Colorado.
Aprocximately 40 M151A2's had been turned over to a gunnery range to use as
targets. for one reason or another, they were not used and sat in the
gunnery range storage area for some time. In order to clean up the storage
area, the range turned them in for disposal. The vehicles never actualy went
to the DRMO but, since they had been turned in by the range as no longer
needed targets, the DRMO assumed they had been used as targets and after
being hit by artillery ec. were already destroyed. They were written off on
paperwork by serial number as destroyed and sold as scrap. The purchaser
actualy drove many of them onto the trucks to haul them off. This did come
to the atention of the DRMO after the sale was completed and the trucks were
removed but it was ruled that the sale was done and nothing could be done
about it other than for a big pile of "stuff" to land on the DRMO boss for
letting the mistake occur. After all, he certified by his signature that he
had inspected the vehicles personaly prior to their being offered for sale.
At present, only armored vehicles and weapons such as missile launchers
have to be demiled and only such vehicles as M151 series trucks,
Gamma-goats, and Hummvee's have to be mutilated. M151 series trucks had been
offerd for sale for 10 years before the mutilation requirements came down,
Gamma goats had been sold for at least that long and hummvees had been sold
fr a couple years before the requirement. There is no such requirement for
other vehicles such as 1 1/4 ton conventional civillian type trucks,
Blazer's, 2 1/2 ton trucks and 5 ton trucks. Also, some vehicles have come
in from overseas sales that did not yet have to be mutilated although
stateside sales already carried the mutilation clause.