h/t Kevin D
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Update 1:
I received more information from a UPS driver: 15 armored personnel carriers in Asheville heading east. 5 armored personnel carriers in Winston-Salem heading east. All were battle ready with no military markings.
Update 2:
I have been reading the comments concerning these marine light armored vehicles (LAVs).
1. Are they battle ready? According to the military, they do not have ammunition. Let’s think about this along civilian lines. If I walk into a police station with an unloaded pistol, I will be arrested. If I point an unloaded weapon, I can be arrested for brandishing a weapon. Are these LAVs battle ready? U betcha. In my opinion, they are manned, operational and on the move. Ask any trained soldier if he is battle ready – armed or not.
2. I could not find the mileage for these vehicles. I know that our government has no concern for our money but I know driving these from Ft. Knox to Camp Lejeune as suggested below is not a small sum of money. Especially compared to transport on a freight train.
3. The question is whether Americans want to see soldiers in armored vehicles on the road? The answer is simple: most of us do not trust our military to follow the Constitution in the future. MRAPs and LAVs have no place in America. Posse comitatus is still in place until martial law is imposed or another executive order is issued.
4. I do not remember military vehicles on the road in large numbers growing up. So why is this necessary today? We all know that our government has opened the borders to terrorists so it is not for our “protection”.
5. Asheville, NC is not the most direct route to Camp Lejeune from Ft. Knox. The fastest route is 702 miles and 11 hours driving time (without stops).
David DeGerolamo
I’d love to hear an explanation for these by one of the personnel on them. What were their destination?
[…] reader sends this NC Renegade link with the following […]
I live in a city in Iowa. All the reserve units in the area have many vehicles of various types parked inside the fence. All have a flat paint scheme with NO identifying markings of any kind. As if they were fresh painted but no ID stencils added. I say they are on the road because we are in the two-week active duty period for the Reserves and Guard units.
Well, since it’s North Carolina….those are Marine LAVs. They head to eastern NC for training. And I doubt they were ‘battle ready’ since you can’t drive on civilian roads with ammo on board or loaded in weapons. The only way you can drive ammunition outside of base are on specially marked vehicles with huge ammo placards and armed guards. I subscribe to this website religiously, but come on….these are on the road all the time in NC! What do you mean ‘no military markings?’ What do you expect, huge red, white and blue flags? All LAVs have markings, they’re subdued lettering with serial number and USMC somewhere, that’s it. We road march LAVs on civilian roads because it’s cheaper than putting them on the rail head and waiting two weeks for them to show up on the other side of the state. Yes, I am a LAV crewman from Lejeune. No, we’re not driving out in town to subdue the populace and establish the NWO. Don’t worry, most of the military are on your side of the fence, myself and many others are Oath Keepers! It’s the higher ups (I’m talking flag rank) you have to worry about!!!!!
Battle Ready was the observation of the contact. I would expect military markings such as the branch and a number. Are you telling us that LAVs have no markings?
Dis you read what he wrote?
The only way the average man on the street would know if they’re carrying ammo is when they start shooting at him. What are we supposed to do, flag them down and ask them?
Sounds a cogent explanation, thanks.
PS
They were leaving Kentucky because they train at Fort Knox occasionally. Since the Army moved their armor headquarters out of there down to Fort Benning, Fort Knox is a ghost town. It is also larger and a lot easier to train in maneuver warfare than at Lejeune, which is the size of a postage stamp, with environmental regulations out the wazoo.
About a week to go before A Troop SP’s to Ft Bragg, NC for AT 2014. Troop has some awesome training lined up. Ranges include MK 19, Reflexive Fire, and M203/320. The troop will be taking part in another round of Spur Ride Activities, working on their MOUT skills in combined training with the SQN medics, and of course a ton of RECON METL training. All of it will culminate in some tough PLT STX lanes in the areas between Normandy and Sicily DZ’s. Let’s get some.
Troop A 1-158 cav 29div MD/VA ANG
Come on guest! “On the road in NC all the time”?
Perhaps, but not on the primary interstate in central NC, mid-day and mid-week, many miles from any military installation. It’s hundreds of miles between Asheville and Winston-Salem, and clearly the jumping-off point was east or north of both. Remember, I-40 AND I-85 split just west of Durham.
I wonder where these troops and equipment ended up?
Anyone else see troop movements this week in central NC? I saw two of these manned transports with cannon and 50cal. mounted heading east on I-40 in Greensboro around 8 this morning.
I wonder if these units were purposed with the intent of conveying a message, or perhaps testing the sensitivity of the general public to a military presence?
When I was in 2nd light armored recon(LAV unit) from 2008-2012 we took I-95 from Camp Lejeune to Ft. Pickett, VA. So it does happen. I also know they’ve driven as far as Ft. Benning for training in the past. The LAVs don’t have .50 cals mounted. They mount the 240 machine gun in 7.62. The LAVs with the cannon fire a 25mm round.
Yesterday in Durham I saw four Sea Knights (Navy/Marine versions of the Chinook) flying south west. Less than 10 minutes later I saw Kiowa trailing them. Now my eyes aren’t what they used to be, but I am pretty sure there was no markings on the Sea Knights and it looked like there was some sort of long stripes on the side. It just struck me as odd but again my eyes aren’t what they used to be. I have seen all sorts of hummers, medium duty trucks and tractor trailers hauling equipment on 85 lately. Most of these vehicles have been marked.
As a kid in upstate NY I remember seeing military convoys multiple times every summer on Rt. 81 heading to Ft. Drum and I remember seeing those old Fairchild “flying boxcars” going over the house. These days I see all sorts of military helicopters flying over the house, I’m on the flight path between Rochester and Drum or other northern bases, so this wouldn’t seem that unusual to me.
I was driving west on I70 west of Carlisle PA about 5 weeks ago. From shortly after entering PA from WV I saw many disbursed columns of Stryker IFVs and support vehicles. I’m not an army vet bet I estimated that, in total, it was at least a battalion strength formation moving west on the interstate in, as I said, disbursed formation. No weapons were mounted but the crews seemed to be enjoying the ride. At the time I thought they must have started from Carlisle, PA. I’m guessing they were an element of the 56th Stryker Brigade from the PA Guard’s 28th Division.
To those saying there are no military markings. Take a look and you will find on military vehicles a small black or brown star. Look on bumpers and (in black or brown) you’ll find admin numbers. But they are purposely hard to see. We DON’T put on unit IDs or big “US” markers because that makes it easier to hit. We have 13 years of war and these vehicles get rotated thru. We don’t bother to repaint them because it saves money.
As for “heightened activity” -- most of those deployed units are back so reserve/guard unit numbers on AT this year are way up from past years. Like 30% higher.
Wonder if this just-announced deployment has anything to do with the troop movements we are seeing in NC?
http://abc11.com/news/fort-bragg-paratroopers-deploying-to-afghanistan/195113/
Somehow I’m not visualizing medical support requiring LAVs.
Re: the 50cal mounts, I can’t dispute the assertion that they were 7.62 240’s. It’s pretty hard to identify specific weapons systems when passing in opposing directions at the equivalent of 120 mph.That’s also probably why no one is catching the military designations on the equipment.
Apparently there was at least one other 18 vehilce convoy passing through Asheville yesterday, broken into one 8 and one 10 vehicle unit seperated by a mile or so. These were apparently LAVs accompanied by what was described by one old vet as “deuce and a halfs”.. No HMMWVs or MATVs. All were eastbound.
Another Asheville resident reported seeing 4 Blackhawks approaching the Asheville airport this morning. I suggested perhaps Michelle was shuttled into town secretly to do a little house shopping.