chuck
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About 2 years ago the DRMO set up an 800 number for questions on demil
standards. After Dessert Storm when everybody wanted a "Hummer" AM General
realized they had a hot product they could market to the general public and
suddenly the surplus Humvees were put on the demil list so they wouldn't have
to compete w/ their own product (my personal opinion). Prior to that, several
had been sold on local sales at Bragg and Lejeune ,two of which were driven
home.
I called the 800 number to find out the "official" reason for them being put
on the list.I spoke w/ a Mr Kirkpatrick who said when they made their
decision they asked DOT for their opinion. DOT said it was unsafe due to no
park position in the transmission and the lack of side impact protection. Mr
Kirkpatrick said the DRMO was not required to follow DOT's recomendation but
they usually did.He said they actually tried to find a way to make the
vehicles safe but could not cost effectively- so lets destroy milions of
dollars worth. The other important point he made was that this is all POLICY
NOT LAW. Its the DRMO 's policy to not release HMMWVs and M151s its not
against the law to do so. He went on to say
that the DRMO was fully aware that many 151s had " sliped through the system"
but it wasn't their policy and they had no program to chase down jeeps. They
were only concerned w/ policing their own employes.
I think we need to be careful not to create our own problems by perpetuating
rumors and flag waving. I'd bet in a few years when all the 151s are long
gone out of the system nobodys gona care. But we should work as a group to
lobby for the removal of the HMMWV from the demil list at least to stop the
huge waste of tax payer's dollars.
Jeff Symanski
MVPA 10517