BATTLE CREEK, Mich. –
The Defense Logistics Agency provides military units around the world with equipment and vehicles that no longer serve their original purpose but instead act as valuable training tools.
The Disposition Services Lejeune site recently provided multiple military service units with these valuable training tools in the form of demilitarized vehicles. Recipients of this equipment included the Michigan Army National Guard, Wisconsin Air National Guard, and Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.
Most of the vehicles sent to these locations were large trucks that are currently acting as training aides for their respective units.
“They are using most of these vehicles for heavy tow training,” said Robert Strickland, a property disposal specialist at the Disposition Services Lejeune site. “These vehicles are helping to teach the units how to recover heavy vehicles out of rough and muddy terrain.”
For the units making use of these vehicles, their operational condition is not the primary concern – rather the ability to train on an actual vehicle is what matters. Their conditions vary and due to the DEMIL process, none of the vehicles can drive on their own – but all must have the capability to roll. While the trucks no longer have full functionality, they still are valuable as a training tool in this environment.
“A couple of the vehicles are pretty big and don’t have any doors or windows,” said Taylor Fournier, a supply system analyst with the Michigan United States Property and Fiscal Office. “The goal is to get them stuck in a mud bog and for the operators to go out there and hook up a winch – and in thick water and mud to pull them out.”
Fournier helps to coordinate RTD throughout the state of Michigan and said that without these training aides the units are forced to make use of fully functional vehicles and risk damaging or destroying them during the process of developing these necessary skills. Making use of actual military vehicles without putting operational units at risk is a win-win scenario for the Army.
“This is real-world training,” said Strickland. “The Army is going to be recovering heavy tactical vehicles from multiple services in austere conditions. They aren’t having to use a simulated vehicle – they’re using an actual military vehicle that they may come across during the real-world events.”
The vehicles sent to Nellis AFB on the other hand are not finding their way into any mud. Instead, they are the target of a different type of training.
“On the range it provides actual tactical armored vehicles to target,” said Strickland. “[The Air Force] gets to see the results when they’re hitting [the target], and it’s much more realistic than shooting at some fiberglass plastic target or even a shipping container with a truck painted on the side. It gives them more of a real-world feel on the gun runs.”
The original acquisition value of these reutilized trucks stands at $5.6 million and instead of reducing these vehicles to scrap, services can now make use of them as training aides to help support our warfighters around the world.