My last Air National Guard unit was a combat communications squadron so we convoyed on a fairly regular basis. At least twice a year the whole squadron would be on the move, once to go to our deployment site and then back, and individuals might get tapped to drive two or three times a year besides that. Since I learned to drive a stickshift in a deuce-and-a-half, you can bet I preferred the five tons. It's really mortifying to be stuck halfway up the Bourne Bridge (which leads to Cape Cod) because every time you try to get into first gear the truck and the tow start rolling back into the summer tourist traffic.
It always takes a while to get a convoy up to speed, because if you're doing it right, you're checking your speed to the person behind you, and the last truck always seems to be the truck with the problems. I hope you guys had your flashers on when you were under the minimum speed limit!
If your unit isn't used to convoys, maybe no one's told you that on the interstate the roadside markers are set at the right distance apart for convoys to travel. The interstates were built for the US military, and that one little feature has managed to survive fifty years of mucking about.
The most interesting convoy I was ever in was driving back from Cape Cod in a blizzard. You would not believe what the civilians pulled. Damn near white out conditions, we've got five people piled in the cab of the 5ton, because it's too cold for anyone to ride in the back, and all five of us are watching the road like hawks because the driver can only see one side and the guy on the passenger window is keeping us from going off the road. And the civvies are passing us! And when they've managed to get far enough in front of us, they see that the truck in front has left a slightly clearer pair of wheeltracks so the bobos bring themselves over into our lane, so close in front of the truck that we literally can't see their cars over the hood of the 5ton until they inch forward a little. By the time we got back to our unit, not one of us could get out of the truck without help because our knees had gone to goo.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2004-06-10 08:04 pm (UTC)It always takes a while to get a convoy up to speed, because if you're doing it right, you're checking your speed to the person behind you, and the last truck always seems to be the truck with the problems. I hope you guys had your flashers on when you were under the minimum speed limit!
If your unit isn't used to convoys, maybe no one's told you that on the interstate the roadside markers are set at the right distance apart for convoys to travel. The interstates were built for the US military, and that one little feature has managed to survive fifty years of mucking about.
The most interesting convoy I was ever in was driving back from Cape Cod in a blizzard. You would not believe what the civilians pulled. Damn near white out conditions, we've got five people piled in the cab of the 5ton, because it's too cold for anyone to ride in the back, and all five of us are watching the road like hawks because the driver can only see one side and the guy on the passenger window is keeping us from going off the road. And the civvies are passing us! And when they've managed to get far enough in front of us, they see that the truck in front has left a slightly clearer pair of wheeltracks so the bobos bring themselves over into our lane, so close in front of the truck that we literally can't see their cars over the hood of the 5ton until they inch forward a little. By the time we got back to our unit, not one of us could get out of the truck without help because our knees had gone to goo.