The short story..
NTC = National Training Center at Ft Irwin. (10 miles away from the Logbase at Barstow) It's where brigade size units go to train where they have THOUSANDS of miles of barren nothingness to have battles at.
When a unit goes there, there is a fleet of trucks and armored vehicles (humvees, 2.5 ton, 5 ton, HEMTTS, tracked vehicles, generators, ect) in the draw yard that the unit can draw from ("borrow") for their 2-3 weeks of training.. Picture a car rental type of deal, bit no cash changes hands. A unit goes there, borrows all these trucks, where they beat the snot out of them.. Why beat on them you may ask???? Cause the solider will only have the truck for 3 weeks, then it gets turned back in to the draw yard, and the soldier never sees it again.. Tell me you havent done the same when you drive a rental car... You're never going to see that car again, so lets do some jackrabbit starts, NASCAR style driving, hard braking, ect..... You get the picture????
When a truck breaks durring that 3 week period, the mechanics that have to fix these trucks.. They do as little as possible to get the truck fixed so it gets thru the 3 week training, and gets turned back in.. Say a truck fries a wiring harness that would take hours of work to change out.. If it was the UNIT's truck, they would be inclined to do a "proper" fix like change out the whole harness as per the TM because it is THEIR truck..... But since the truck is a draw vehicle, the mechanic really only cares about getting it fixed "enough" so it makes it thru the rest of the 3 week training... So he hacks out the bad section of wiring, electrical tapes in some wires, does a 1/2 a$$ job, but in the end, the truck runs... Mechanic is happy, a 4 hour job only took 1 hour, and he'll never have to work on the truck again. Say the truck needed a new engine.. It takes say 15 gallons of 15-40 as per the TM.. Well, he only has 10 "new" gallons of 15-40 and 5 gallons of "used" 15-40 oil Guess what, the truck will have 15 gallons of oil when it gets turned back in. New filters? who cares.. it got "A" filter?? Yep...... See where Im going??? Now picture this going on every 3-4 weeks.... Yes, alot of parts get changed out, but the quality of the work is VERY questionable about items that you cant easily see.......
Unless you've been there, you cant fully understand why this all happens, but trust me, it does... I've been there 2x, seen trannys bolted to the engine by 2 bolts, 90W oil in engines, a wiring harness that was more electrical tape and wire nuts than wire...
My NTC "get it turned in so we can all go home" story... I had a soldier that had a M35A2 that had 1/4 tank of fuel. To turn it in, it had to be above 3/4 full. There was no fuel to be had, as all the draw tanker trucks were turned in already. One of my soldiers, who is supposed to fly home that afternoon CANT because he has to turn the truck in... Thats the ONLY think holding him up from going home after 5 weeks at NTC.. Comes up to me.. "Sir, what am I gonna do?? there is no fuel.." He's very unhappy.. He starts kicking rocks ojn the desert floor.... Then the lightbulb goes on... He picks up a rock, slightly smaller than his fist.. "Sir, I got it figured out" and walks off.. Comes back to me an hour later with his paperwork saying his truck got turned in.. I didnt ask how many rocks it took to go from 1/4 to 3/4 full, but he apparently figured it out.. Sucks to be the next soldier that gets that truck, huh??? But hey, he got to go home that day..
Bottom line.... Be very wary of trucks that have only 4 digits painted on them, or say something like ARMOR 30 or FSB 15..... Go thru them VERY carefully, as they were all "rentals" for a few years...
And that doesnt count the miles they rack up thru the desert there.. Dust, sand, crashing into wadis, ect...
Im sure Armyman30years has his NTC stories also and can verify what I wrote/experienced.
there is a saying that at NTC... There are several battles going on.. One with the bad guys, one with the ITT/Dynacorp turn in people, and the never ending maintaince battle.. It's very true....
Good luck with your truck.
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