Aswayze
Member
- 250
- 6
- 18
- Location
- Martinsburg Wv
Not really a road trip per say but certainly a trip.
Earlier this month we ran the 6[SUP]th[/SUP] annual Operation East Wind event down at D-Day Adventure Park in Wyandotte, Oklahoma. For those of you who do not know what East Wind is, the short answer is that East Wind is a 9 day long 24/7 tactical reenactment set in the closing days of the Cold War pitting NATO against Warsaw Pact forces in a “what if” scenario.
You can read more about East Wind here: www.operationeastwind.com
I was on the NATO side where we have for many years been far behind the Warpac guys on the small vehicle front. We’ve always had plenty of transport assets but aside from one year, we’ve never really have any little stuff to skitter around in. With a 1000 acre playing field laced with many miles of roads and trails, small vehicles are wildly useful. It’s hard, for instance, to do useful motor recon in a deuce and it’s even harder still to take a deuce or 5 ton down a footpath to avoid getting ambushed on the main roads.
This year, we had 2 M151s out, my A1 and another A2 owned by a fellow East Winder.
Dylans A2 literally JUST got running right before the event. We’d spent the better part of the winter uncrushing it and welding parts of it together so his was a little on the unrefined side. Mine was in decent shape and as such was fitted with such niceties as a speedometer and odometer.
I’ll spare you the long version and just hit the high points.
9 days
350 miles
About 1/4[SUP]th[/SUP] or so of it traveling cross country (not on roads or trails)
Survived 3 movement to contacts with Warsaw Pact infantry in less than an hour
Never hit.
On the first day, when we were using the M151 to transport guys and gear up from the Admin area a little red TSA “security device” had ended up left in the back. We joked that this would surely keep the Mutt safe from all the PKM, RPG, and AK toting Warsaw pact baddies for the week.
It apparently did…. Never doubt the power of the TSA Security Device!
Earlier this month we ran the 6[SUP]th[/SUP] annual Operation East Wind event down at D-Day Adventure Park in Wyandotte, Oklahoma. For those of you who do not know what East Wind is, the short answer is that East Wind is a 9 day long 24/7 tactical reenactment set in the closing days of the Cold War pitting NATO against Warsaw Pact forces in a “what if” scenario.
You can read more about East Wind here: www.operationeastwind.com
I was on the NATO side where we have for many years been far behind the Warpac guys on the small vehicle front. We’ve always had plenty of transport assets but aside from one year, we’ve never really have any little stuff to skitter around in. With a 1000 acre playing field laced with many miles of roads and trails, small vehicles are wildly useful. It’s hard, for instance, to do useful motor recon in a deuce and it’s even harder still to take a deuce or 5 ton down a footpath to avoid getting ambushed on the main roads.
This year, we had 2 M151s out, my A1 and another A2 owned by a fellow East Winder.
Dylans A2 literally JUST got running right before the event. We’d spent the better part of the winter uncrushing it and welding parts of it together so his was a little on the unrefined side. Mine was in decent shape and as such was fitted with such niceties as a speedometer and odometer.
I’ll spare you the long version and just hit the high points.
9 days
350 miles
About 1/4[SUP]th[/SUP] or so of it traveling cross country (not on roads or trails)
Survived 3 movement to contacts with Warsaw Pact infantry in less than an hour
Never hit.
On the first day, when we were using the M151 to transport guys and gear up from the Admin area a little red TSA “security device” had ended up left in the back. We joked that this would surely keep the Mutt safe from all the PKM, RPG, and AK toting Warsaw pact baddies for the week.
It apparently did…. Never doubt the power of the TSA Security Device!