Thousands of Humvees travelling by train

I live in a small town just north of Knoxville, TN. Lately, like the past month or so, we are seeing thousands of Humvees (I think it is a Humvee, although it looks somewhat different) travelling by train headed south.
I have lived here for 7 years now, and I assure you, I have never seen anything like this. It is unbelievable.
It makes me wonder what is happening over in Afghanistan. Is Obama sending serious numbers of soldiers there? If he is, I have not heard it. I heard about 17,000. Forgive me if I am wrong.
It is an awe-inspiring sight, yet it is ominous as well. Seeing this is a reminder that the US is still in a very serious war with no end in sight.
I have asked a friend who lives closer than I do to take pictures. We have been discussing this for quite some time and I have been wondering if any members here have seen the same. I will post them as soon as I get them.
God Bless Our Troops.

Am General website



They are built in the South Bend area I think so probably headed south for finishing and shipping out

[edit on 3-11-2009 by mikellmikell]

If you really support your troops, don't send them Humvees:

In recent time people have been hearing more and more about the Humvee IED problems that take place around the world but mostly in Iraq. The problem with humvee IED damages is extremely serious and has become one of the most dangerous threats to the soldiers that fight for peace and freedom abroad. Although countermeasures has been taken they are far from enough and most people think that humvee IED incidents are here to stay. Here you will be able to learn all you need to know about humvees, the IED and what the problem is all about, so stick around.

They are extremely vulnerable to IEDs. There are better suited armored Personnel Carriers around ... I think one of them is the Canadian built Buffalo which is built on a South African design (Buffel).

With the humvee being an unarmored light truck it has no chance of surviving a humvee IED thus making it the perfect target for guerilla troops. An add-on armor has been created that withstands humvee IED but it slows the vehicle down and increases the risk of the vehicle flipping over, thus making it useless for any other roles.

www.militaryhummers.info...

Buffalo

My opinion, pure conjecture, is that they are being "Deployed" by Northcomm throughout the country. I have a very large reserve facilty less than 5 miles from my house. For the past 2 years there has been only a hand-full of military equipment parked in the fenced-in, barbed wire lot. Over the past 2 months the lot has been completely filled with Humvees, trucks, transport vehicles, equipment containers and heavy equipment. Why? I have no idea... This facility is supposedly a part of the medical engineering and JAG corps, so... who knows. But it seems odd to me.

reply to post by kozmo


Oh wow. You know that never even occured to me.

That scenerio is even more ominous.

Maybe it has something to do with this:

China Firm to Buy Hummer

Sending them south to a port...to be shipped overseas? Just thinking out loud.

reply to post by Aggie Man


I would have considered that, but there were areas on top that looked like the place turrets are located and they were already desert camouflage.

There was no mistaking they were military.

reply to post by deltaalphanovember


You are correct but remember this war is not about the protecting of solders or the rights of a people being freed. But rather about making money for the Congressmen and others that hold stocks or shares in the items they are being sent.

Being in a war from history sounds like a noble idea, but then as well as now the solders are expendable as long as the ones in control can make a buck.

Tru

Originally posted by Aggie Man
Maybe it has something to do with this:

China Firm to Buy Hummer

Sending them south to a port...to be shipped overseas? Just thinking out loud.

"Hummer" is a slang term derived from "Humvee", a name coined by soldiers to refer to the original military "HMMWV" vehicle made by AM General. 'Hummer" is the trademark (formerly) owned by GM, and used for their line of junk "offroad" vehicles. The Chinese company bought the trademark and the rights to the fake 'hummer' that you see all those dillweeds driving around on paved roads. The HMMWVs the OP saw are not related in any way to those heaps of junk. China could only improve on them, imo.

[edit on 3-11-2009 by AwakeinNM]

Originally posted by AwakeinNM

Originally posted by Aggie Man
Maybe it has something to do with this:

China Firm to Buy Hummer

Sending them south to a port...to be shipped overseas? Just thinking out loud.

"Hummer" is a term derived from "Humvee", a name coined by soldiers to refer to the original "HMMWV". 'Hummer" is also a trademark formerly owned by GM, and used for their line of fake "offroad" vehicles. The Chinese company bought the trademark and the rights to the fake 'hummer' that you see all those asshats driving around paved roads. The HMMWVs the OP saw are not related in any way to those heaps of junk. China could only improve on them, imo.

Hey, China exports plenty of "junk", why not import it? Thanks for the clarification, but the OP pretty much clarified it in the response to me 3 posts above.

Originally posted by Aggie Man

Originally posted by AwakeinNM

Originally posted by Aggie Man
Maybe it has something to do with this:

China Firm to Buy Hummer

Sending them south to a port...to be shipped overseas? Just thinking out loud.

"Hummer" is a term derived from "Humvee", a name coined by soldiers to refer to the original "HMMWV". 'Hummer" is also a trademark formerly owned by GM, and used for their line of fake "offroad" vehicles. The Chinese company bought the trademark and the rights to the fake 'hummer' that you see all those asshats driving around paved roads. The HMMWVs the OP saw are not related in any way to those heaps of junk. China could only improve on them, imo.

Hey, China exports plenty of "junk", why not import it?

Thanks for the clarification, but the OP pretty much clarified it in the response to me 3 posts above.

Yeah, I don't always read the entire thread before I shoot my mouth off LOL.

The U.S. has been over in Southwest Asia for 8 plus years.

The Hummer is used extensively daily in that hostile environment.

They don't last for ever and need to be replaced.

The U.S. has also sold 8500 of our used in country Hummers to the Iraqis so those need to be replaced.

The program goal is to complete the transfer of over 8,000 vehicles to the Iraqi government by the end of 2009 and will provide a great capability for the Iraqi Security Forces to defeat those criminal elements who seek to do harm to this great nation.

What has probably been seen is replacement vehicles being shipped to a port for transport.

They are new and improved with larger engines and better troop protection.

New Humvee models to be fielded.

New Hummer model on the way to troops.

It being the beginning of the federal fiscal year they must have gotten the money to ship them.

[edit on 3-11-2009 by calcoastseeker]

[edit on 3-11-2009 by calcoastseeker]

If you ever noticed from photo's from Iraq and Afghanistan from the past year or two, you'd see the Hummer has nearly been replaced by the Buffalo(full name?). They still use Hummers, but they aren't the main vehicle of use for them over there.
Examples;




Therefore I doubt those thousands of Hummers are going only to Afghanistan; they'll probably be shipped all over the world to countries that bought them.

I live about an hour from South Bend and about once a month I get stuck at a crossing watching the humvees go by.

I used to also see the non-military humvees when they made those around here as well.

Originally posted by suigeneris
I live in a small town just north of Knoxville, TN. Lately, like the past month or so, we are seeing thousands of Humvees (I think it is a Humvee, although it looks somewhat different) travelling by train headed south.
I have lived here for 7 years now, and I assure you, I have never seen anything like this. It is unbelievable.
It makes me wonder what is happening over in Afghanistan. Is Obama sending serious numbers of soldiers there? If he is, I have not heard it. I heard about 17,000. Forgive me if I am wrong.
It is an awe-inspiring sight, yet it is ominous as well. Seeing this is a reminder that the US is still in a very serious war with no end in sight.
I have asked a friend who lives closer than I do to take pictures. We have been discussing this for quite some time and I have been wondering if any members here have seen the same. I will post them as soon as I get them.
God Bless Our Troops.

Would you be able to get some pics? i live in a town in central indiana that the railroad goes through heading south towards Tn, i have yet to see a train with more than 15-20 military vehicles on it. doubt they are comming from south bend.
Could these be what you are seeing? www.generaltacticalvehicles.com...

[edit on 19-11-2009 by triaxrob]

[edit on 19-11-2009 by triaxrob]