Raise your hand if you know what’s going to happen next
TSO sent us this video (from the next hotel room) of some serious rocket scientists trapped in the National Guard. If you can’t tell what’s going yo happen after they drive under the bridge, maybe the New Jersey National Guard is the place for you.
I wonder why they have the window open in the second truck? To let the water out maybe? And why would they keep going while the water pours into the cab until the water is over their roof? Did they forget where the submarine switch is? Its right next to the button that operates the bat wings for flying. Didn’t the guy who couldn’t swim make that fact clear to the other occupants while the water was pouring through the window? Loudly and repeatedly?
Category: Military issues
They had the window open because it’s SOP in deep water crossings. Once the water reaches a certain level, you can’t open the door, and the window is your only escape if the vehicle stalls, so you leave it open.
As far as the rest of it… Yeah, they’re effing morons.
Guess I should look into the National Guard… My vote was “Cameraman on railroad bridge gets hit by passing train.”
That report of survey is going to be a bitch.
From what I understand about escaping submerged vehicles, the first step is to open the window and let the cab fill with water, so the pressure inside and outside is equal and you can open the door.
Somebody’s getting an ass-chewing for this one though.
That was an accident? wtf?
how did that even BEGIN to happen…….
To be fair, I bet the road was passable when they went the other way. LMTV’s are designed to handle really deep water fordings, with the air intake above the cab.
Just saying, being unfamiliar with the area, they probably came out the way they went in.
Oh yeah, the Guard is about 60% former other services, so being an idiot is not exclusive.
I was between hysterical and amazed, watching that video. I’d have been screaming to stop when the water got to the bottom of the doors, not the top of the exhaust pipes!
As I watched it this morning,I could only wonder if this was absolutely, positively,the only possible route from Point A to Point B. Doofus’
I’d give anything to see the sworn statements on that DD Form 200.
You can’t lie, that woulda been BADASS if it worked! and it looks like a river hippo!
“Oh, hi Ricky. Have you seen Ethel?”
“Yeah, Fred. She and Luthy are in New Jersey.”
“Joisey? What are those two up to now?”
“Oh, it’s okay, Fred. They’re with some National Guard soldiers.”
“National Guard?”
“Yeah. Luthy met them at the club and invited her to go for a drive.”
It’s funny only because it isn’t happening to us. I laughed and cringed while watching it, too, but before we start throwing rocks at the Jersey Guard, a few points, some of which were brought up by SSG Mendyzk:
LMTVs are meant to ford very deep water, although not quite *that* deep. They had civilians in the back, so I’m betting they entered the area, rescued the trapped civilians from rising waters, and then were leaving by the same road they came in on. Water continued to rise, and what was passable before now becomes the Amazon. Unless they could have found high ground, they had to get out and wading wasn’t an option. Flood water isn’t deep on some streets and shallow on others, water flows and spreads, as we all know. It’s not like they could have cut over a block and been GTG, and as was pointed out, I doubt they knew of an alternate route anyway. The windows were down, because as Aaron pointed out, the guys up front would have drowned otherwise.
It’s embarrassing, and it sure makes them look like a bunch of dummies, but if you sit back and think about it, that probably isn’t really the case.
I’m not trying to be the dick who tells everyone to quit having fun, but let’s not forget that these are American soldiers, risking their lives to save strangers in harm’s way, while we sit safe and sound on our asses and laugh at them.
Thanks Jack. As a former ensign in the New Jersey Navy, I agree 100%.
I’m curious why #2 didn’t stop after seeing #1 starting to vanish? I realize competition and “complete the mission despite losses” and “hey, watch this!” but huh?
sigh,
@ LittleRed1, likely cause where they were leaving from wasn’t any better – just drive and hope you’d get back out … stupid? Maybe so, but after you’re in the deep end there’s not many choices left.
RE: my above,
my comments on “…stupid?” were to some other’s comments and the cameraman not LittleRed1 … sorry for the confusion.
Effin defense contractors! Obviously the submarine button failed causing the underwater diesel mode to disengage.
Sheriff Plugs will be kickin some ass over this.
That was just fu–ing retarded! These soldiers must have had no guidence who what to do or not do…”let’s go be heroes!”
When I was a Combat Engineer, we had the old 5 tons and other vehicles, we were told to NEVER driver in water deeper than the running boards! These guys should be charged with distruction of got property along with whoever sent them in there. Was this a HQ cook unit? What a bunch of retards…hunderds of thousands of dollars wasted by retards
Man I hope this wasn’t my old unit. While i guess common sense is always helpful, i dont recall any flood training when i was in.
Here are some more flood pix including some more of these guys and other NJ Nat’l Guard Units, which includes the practical rafts ( http://photos.nj.com/njcom_photo_essays/2011/08/the_star-ledgers_photos_from_h.html )
Good points Jack.
2/17 AIR CAV- ARE YOU A CURRENT VET, WITH THE 101ST??
OR ARE YOU A OLDER VET?? I WAS WITH A TROOP, 2/17 CAV, 1 ST BDE., 101 ABN, VN.FACEBOOK ME, I MAY NOT GET BACK HERE.
Cool. Will do. Of course, if you haven’t gotten back here, I guess I am talking to myself.
Hey. Here’s another point, George or self. You correctly used the slash bewteen 2 and 17. When I selected my user name, I had to use a hyphen. No sabre slashes were permitted!
At best this sounds like a pretty epic planning failure. I’ve always been taught (ever since I was a wee little driver in Iraq) that you always, always used PACE when routing planning. This means you had your Primary route, if that went black, you used your Alternate. If the alternate was hosed, you rolled down your Contingency route. If that was FUBAR you found some defensible (in this case high) ground and circled the wagons and called in gunslinger. While I never worked my way through to the contingency route, we ended up on plenty of alternate routes because of changing situations on teh ground.
Its just basic planning.
Our local news coverage only showed the first part of the clip, indicating their amazement at how the soldiers could even see out the windshield. Nothing was said concerning the outcome or anything that happen after they disappeared under the bridge.