Govt wants to look into selling damaged conflict equipment

On page 6 in Marine Corps Times, Nov 13th Issue,

"Congress wants the Pentagon to look into whether
there is profit to be made from the public sale of
equipment damaged and unsalvageable as a result of
use in Operations Iraqi Freedom or Enduring Freedom.
In a report accompanying the 2007 Defense
Authorization Act, Lawmakers encourage a public
awareness campaign -- a military version of a public
relations marketing plan -- so the Defense Logistics
Agency and the services can "more aggressively pursue
the sales".

The difficulty of the plan is that a lot of the
damaged gear has been abandoned overseas because it
wasn't worth the bother and expense of bringing it
home. For the American public to be interesting in
owning a piece of history, the equipment has to be
located where Americans can get their hands on it"

Gee what a novel idea.....maybe we should contact the
agencies and our representatives and see what happens.


The amount of equipment that is shot up and destroyed
on ranges or just trashed as scrap is a waste of our
taxpaying dollars, many of us would buy, at a
reasonable price, not GL's inflated, added onto fees
etc. prices and the Gov't would get the money instead
of GL. The Gov't sure would make more money it they
did it themselves.


Craig
ccclifton@sbcglobal.net
www.ODGreen.net
San Jose, CA

They will come back and say it's not economical to do.. Have you ever tried to load WORKING trucks on a RORO ship? It's no fun, with all the inspections by the Navy guys.... Did it oncee, it's no fun...

I can only imagine one thats burnt, leaking, and who's tiedown points are all messed up/non exisitant.....

Is it our policy to abandon HMMWVs and armored vehicles in war torn countries that hate us, and could use our own equipment against us even in pieces, but we can't BUY a HMMWV from GL in this country? Makes no sense. I'd pay the $$$ just to haul EVERYTHING, even our spent brass shell casings, back home to prevent towelheads from using our gear against us.

Course, this brings up an idea, perhaps we CAN convince those in power that we can pay the money to save HMMWVs and more modern MVs from the scrap heap, and save them for posterity's sake. They are doing the same with all the static displays in front of VFW posts and such. If the VFW or American Legion post is taking care of their display, they can keep it. But if it's rotting away, vandalized and rust covered, the Army is going around and hauling them away to be restored.

Part of the deal with Hummers is the GM contracting... they didn't want their prized 150K civilian babies to be reduced to $2500 by surplus goverment sales... Now that the H1 is done with production maybe that will change over time.

I had a conversation with a retired Military Personel and he told me how our own troops were blowing up our own Equipment to include, but not limitted to Humvees. He was with an outfit where he and 6 other guys were told to drive 7 HVs as far as they could go and still see the Camp ,. 7 guys cam e back in the 7th Hv AND THEY HAD TARGET PRACTICE WITH 6 OTHERS

It would really depend on the civilian desirability of the vehicle. Hummers that could be rebuilt would probably bring enough to pay the shipping back and then some.

most the damaged vehs over there are not rebuildable, there is a depot in kuwait that refurbishes heavy armor, but one the price to load n ship back here aint worth it. thats one reason most units equipment conus stays conus then they draw equipment in country to do there tour with. kinda like at NTC or JRTC, renta tacveh. Not only damaged but think of the hazmat involved, you got toxic chemicals, radiation (du rounds), human remains all kinds of nasty stuff explosive residue you name it. now they could melt it all down and sell it for consturtion or whatever. better yet we can get the iraqi government to pay for all our vehicle losses and wear n tear. We are not there for our health are we? American taxpayers are footing the bill for to long.

I can speak from close encounter with hundreds of these in my 13 months over there and most are so damaged that they are really mixed scrap metal. The damage a 500 pound bomb can do to even an M1 tank is unimaginable and due to Department of Defense policy I can not post any of the hundreds of pictures I took over there showing the damage. When I get to the next rally I will gladly share them with anyone who wants to see them it is just that the policy exists to keep the internet from becoming a source of bad guy CONOPS against our Soldiers by showing weaknesses in our vehicles.

The sad thing is that many of these rank alongside the USS Arizona in that Soldiers died in them and thus they have a special place in our world. I know that in WW II they just washed out tanks and welded up the holes and sent men back to fight in them but the damage caused by high explosives on a close by detonation really tear things up. I am very glad that we are getting the MRAP vehicles to our Soldiers because they stand up much better than a HMMWV with armor.

I really apprciate all the support that Steel Soldiers give to the Soldiers on point for freedom.

Well said armyman!! its hard talkn about these kinda subjects because we can only put out a lil information and sometimes none. I would like to share photos and stories to with folks not just other vets so that maybe the people can see the truth about what goes on there and the things we do just to stay alive and bring our soldiers home.

You the tax payer be the judge.

Owie!

Give those HMMWVs to Austin Weber and you'll have a smaller fleet of HMMWVs in no time!

Don't Worry. We have plenty of them. From my time in Charleston.

I have visited those yards in Iraq many times and when I went down to Kuwait I have walked similar yards many times and those pictures do not show the extent of some of the worse damage so I do not mind seeing them here but in the same mind it brings back some tough memories. I have been trying to get the Army to see the waste we are allowing and those guys you see cutting them up are from third world countries. I have found them rooting through piles of metal that had weapons and night vision devices in them and it drives me nutts to this day

All those new humvees are not just for the US soldiers, alot of the m1114s are going to the iraqi army. Whos footn that bill?

Uncle Sam of course!

public sale of equipment damaged and unsalvageable as a result of use in

Click to expand...

I don't think they are limiting their discussion to blown up vehicles. I personally would love to have some of the field medical gear they are using over there. I am sure a lot of collectors would like some of the communication gear. Unfortunately, they refuse to release stuff that is so out of date that it can't even be sent over there much less stuff in current use.

Isn't the demand for HMMWVs more than a $2500 for a repairable truck? Seems like that would almost cover a per unit price of shipping, if GL or another auction company wanted to take certain vehicles to bidding, for a special auction in Kuwait, I know I would entertain a bidding in that neighborhood for a fixable HMMWV. Just make it to where your auction price includes basic shipping to a central drop-off point here in the states, which would probably be reduced in bulk shipping at that depending on turn out. All they have to do is get on the news and say, we have Hummers, all you want, and I am sure you will have ample supply of bidders that would love the idea of getting a Hummer, even if kind of messed up, needing massive amounts of TLC.

I am not too big on the idea of just giving them to the Iraqis. They deserve to be with an American before that, especially if that American is willing to pay for it.
_______________
Dallas, TX

1971 M35A2
M101A

The Hummers in the above picture are probably for the Iraqis, they have the wrong turret for American use not to mention we are up to Frag 5 doors now. The ones pictured have nowhere near the armor that we are using now. Cannot say a whole lot more about that.
Puke

HMMWVs sell for what they do because the supply has been so tightly controlled. To my knowledge there has been only one large lot of 700 released. It is rumored that the marines traded them to a company in TX for something. A few have slipped out one at a time in scrap sales. Half of the 700 went to Atlanta and half went to the west coast. They had one public auction in Atlanta and when the price started getting close to $10,000 they stopped the sale. I think they sold about a hundred trucks. I would think there are plenty of HMMWVs still in this country that could be sold but aren't. If they were, the price would drop.