Monster Anti - Mine Vehicles Stop Off in NYC (give me a break....

[wakeme2008]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Monster-Mine-Trucks.html?_r=1&oref=slogin


une 29, 2006
Monster Anti - Mine Vehicles Stop Off in NYC
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 6:42 a.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- It was a sight that slowed traffic -- even in Manhattan.

Two of the U.S. military's monster anti-mine vehicles rumbled into Midtown on Wednesday, muscling for space amid busy sidewalks, hustling yellow taxis and uniformed doormen.

The two desert-tan trucks are on their way to war duty in Iraq and were recently used for training cadets at the U.S. Military Academy in upstate New York.

The scene attracted a sizable crowd of curious passers-by and tourists, especially when officials manipulated the giant claw-arm of one of vehicles, a 23-ton behemoth known as the Buffalo.

..more at link...

And the reason they were in Manhattan was..........?

[merwin]

1. Maybe they were on their way to JFK :-)

[acmejack]

2. The reason that this administration does everything-

manipulation of the public perception!

[Paulie]

3. Wasn't it the Commies who loved a parade of military hardware?

Did Mussolini like them too? Just wondering...

[FSogol]

4. No, You're thinking of GHW Bush. He really loved the victory parades n/t

[MADem]

5. This article provides the reasoning....

http://www.forceprotectioninc.com/news/news_article.html?id=109

WEST POINT, N.Y.--Cadets at the United States Military Academy are using Force Protection, Inc.'s (OTCBB:FRPT) Buffalo mine-protected clearance vehicle in training exercises for the first time this summer. The exercises are part of an expanded effort to familiarize emerging leaders with leading edge technologies and new equipment before they are sent to active duty.

First deployed by the Army Corps of Engineers in 2003, the Buffalo has been used to detect and remove thousands of suspected explosive threats such as improvised explosive devices (IEDs) from the streets of Iraq and Afghanistan.

...Popular with soldiers and commanders in the field who credit the vehicle with saving their lives, more than 140 Buffalo vehicles will be deployed by the end of 2006.

The Buffalo will be on display in New York City on Wednesday, June 28th to commemorate three years in combat operations without a reported fatality. The Buffalo, together with Force Protection's second armored vehicle, the Cougar troop transport, will be at the St. Regis Hotel at Two East 55th Street, at Fifth Avenue for limited public viewing after 11:00 a.m. that day.

[saigon68]

6. meanwhile the hungry, homeless watched the parade from the curb

As their bellies growled

The machines of death spewed toxic fumes in the air

The crowds brayed and cheered this display of military might

Secure in the knowledge that a few diaper heads would soon be going to visit allah and prepare for a long dirt nap.

[rfranklin]

7. St. Regis Hotel room rates are $250 and up....

The people's hotel of choice. I guess that isn't so bad when compared to the Ritz Carlton.

[Divernan]

8. Let them display a photo - those vehicles should be in Iraq!

How many months have they been/will they be in the U.S.?

And how many IED's per day could each of these vehicles have "detected and removed" from the streets of Iraq during that time?

How many Iraqis and coalition troops were killed or maimed because the cadets at West Point were playing war games?

I seriously doubt that OFFICERS are driving those vehicles in war zones - so what's the frigging point of sending the vehicles to West Point? I think it was to neutralize the fear which any intelligent cadet has about being sent to Iraq, and/or the idea of war as some monster truck/video survival game.

[RebelOne]

10. Didn't you read the beginning of the article?

They are on their way to Iraq.

"The two desert-tan trucks are on their way to war duty in Iraq and were recently used for training cadets at the U.S. Military Academy in upstate New York."

[Divernan]

16. They were built in SOUTH CAROLINA - and sent to West Point, NY

The article doesn't say how long it took to transport them from South Carolina to West Point, or how long the cadets got to play with them - but since West Point just admitted 1,224 cadets for the coming academic year, we can estimate that there are over 4,000 cadets at the Point. So if one reasonably assumes that "training" means hands on experience with these vehicles (cause, otherwise, they just could have watched a film and had a lecture), it is probable that those vehicles were there for several weeks. Add time to move them from So. Carolina up to West Point and then back in to downtown Manhattan and out to where ever they'er being shipped from and you have minmally a month when these vehicles COULD have been saving lives in Iraq. If each of the 4,000 cadets got to be trained to operate the vehicles, it would have been several months. Seems clear as day to me.
(From the OP)
The Buffalos and Cougars, in use for nearly three years in Afghanistan and Iraq, have provided one good answer to the problem, absorbing more than 1,000 IED explosions without any fatal casualties, said Michael Aldrich, a vice president of Force Protection Industries, Inc., the Ladson, S.C., company that builds them in collaboration with Spartan Motors, Inc., of Charlotte, Mich.

[OneBlueSky]

9. they look like hummers on steroids . . . n/t

.

[Dhalgren]

11. "First we'll take Manhattan, then we'll take Berlin."

Thanks Leonard...

[rocktivity]

12. Here's what it looks like

Reminds me of the Hummer that went out on control on a damp road and took out one of my tailights.

x(
rocknation

[snooper2]

13. You ever see the landmine clearing machine?

I saw it on Discovery Channel.

It has long wheel on the front, and like 150 chains that spin and that tear the dirt down around 16 inches detonating mines. There is a large blast sheild to protect the driver. It's a crazy looking thing but it works great.

Wish I could find a picture....

[RaleighNCDUer]

14. Yeah. Cutting edge technology.

The Germans had the same things in WWII. Rollers with flails mounted on armored vehicles that detonated mines. Great for clearing a path through a mine field, but pretty much useless against planted IEDs, I should think.

Of course, there are plenty of minefields on the border between Iraq and Iran...

[frylock]

15. a little late in the year for a may day parade through red... errr..

Times Square, isn't it?