Stryker Assault Vehicle: What were they thinking? [View All]

[jmowreader]

The Army has long had a problem teaching vehicle identification. I could heap blame on any number of things, from the poor quality of the training aids to combat arms commanders preferring to train things that "look like training" to a general who just might come by. (Incidentally, I could write the same rant about communications, first aid, or anything else that doesn't involve directly engaging the enemy.)

Why am I complaining? This is a Stryker Assault Vehicle, equipped with the "slat armor cage" that is required because the newest armored vehicle in the inventory can't stop the oldest antiarmor round in use in the world today.



Now this is a Soviet BTR-60, one of the most common personnel carriers out there...



Its follow-on was the BTR-70...



The series ended with production of the BTR-80...

(if you know where I can buy one of these, let me know; drivers in Fayetteville can't see red Volkswagens, they can't see gray Hondas, so I figure if I get one of these and paint it Traffic Stripe Yellow or Home Depot Orange with Reflective Beads, I should be okay.)

At this point you're thinking, "hey! Those things look quite a lot alike!" Indeed they do. Too much alike, in fact.

In 1992 I went to Fort Stewart for a field exercise. It was lots of fun and good training besides. At the end they sent us to the 24th ID's wash rack to remove the Georgia clay from our vehicles; the Air Force didn't want it falling into their airplane and I didn't want to take it back to Fort Drum. On the other side of the wash rack was a company of these...



This is the Marines' LAV-25. Well, here I am shooting the shit with the company commander while my vehicles were dripping dry and his guys were still scrubbing. The subject turned to fratricide. He told me he lost three vehicles in Desert Storm because "dumb-ass Army boys" (his words) kept shooting at his vehicles. He lost no lives, but brought only seven intact vehicles back to Camp Lejeune.

Hint: if your vehicle looks like the enemy's vehicle, it will draw fire from both sides.