Rampage: Stolen Armored Vehicles

this episode of the history guys brought to you by drive a tank of Kasota Minnesota experience history power tanks on March 2nd 2022 the independent New Delhi television reported that a group of Ukrainian civilians had posted a 22-second video of them taking a joyride around a frozen field in a Russian t-80b tank the tank had apparently been abandoned by the Russians during a retreat and the civilians were celebrating their Victory and I can't say that I blame them I'm not sure that I would be able to resist the urge if someone left a tank unattended but this was not by any means the first time that a military armored vehicle had been taken for a joyride as a matter of fact Americans had done it as well in his history that deserves to be remembered as military vehicles go the m578 light recovery vehicle was not the one that you would think would start a war the 54 000 pound armored vehicle used the same chassis as the m107 self-propelled gun but it was not a vehicle built for attack but instead one designed to recover damaged light armored vehicles while lightly armored it was certainly not a vehicle to lead an assault although it did carry a machine gun the m578 had no large gun instead it carried a crane that would be used for maintenance support and armored recovery for mechanized infantry and artillery units and yet an m578 light recovery vehicle was in fact the spearhead of a July 4th 1969 action in the German city of Mainz that the Press dubbed the Battle of The Bash 19 year old Private John Dugan was assigned to the headquarters company of the first Airborne Brigade of the 8th Infantry Division which was at the time stationed at the U.S Army's Lee Barracks near Mainz the U.S Army in 1969 was facing challenges that were representative of the era including problems with drug use Dugan a resident of Long Island had already faced difficulty earlier in 1969 Dugan had been on duty when a fire apparently arson had destroyed a truck and an ambulance the Richmond Times Dispatch reported that Dugan who claimed to have been knocked unconscious by the arsonist was then suspected of the arson himself but the charges were dropped but that was just the start the New York daily news reported that on July 4th 1969 an army spokesman said the 8th Infantry Division Soldier drove the giant vehicle used to pick up disabled tanks through its garage doors and a gate and then went on a rampage through mines and three Suburban towns the Hartford current reported that Dugan destroyed eight Park cars in the tank which the Army valued at seventy four thousand dollars before abandoning the vehicle the news rights Dugan left a 12-mile trail of eight smash cars torn up country roads and damaged an orchard the current road that the Army assessed property damaged at some fifty thousand dollars although no one was injured in the incident finally the Times Dispatch notes he parked the armored vehicle around midnight outside the Astoria bar and was promptly arrested Frank green who was in the same unit was quoted in the Times Dispatch as I recall Dugan wasn't the biggest Troublemaker in the company but no one was surprised that he did it but why on July 5th the current reported that the Army said that the motive had not been determined and that he had been taken to an Army hospital for observation his motive however would become clear as the military life journal task and purpose notes Dugan was absolutely dripping with LSD nor was his Adventure over apparently still high Dugan managed to escape his armed guard at the hospital becoming the subject of a nationwide manhunt not for long though it was on July 5th he was recognized walking down the street by his own meth sergeant the LSD apparently worn off task and purpose rights he turned himself in around noon the Times Dispatch writes that Dugan was court-martialed and found guilty of 12 violations of the uniform code of military Justice he was sentenced to four months of hard labor and given a bad conduct discharge the Battle of The Bash illustrates an important point a military armored vehicle doesn't need to use its weapons in order to be dangerous to civilians and of course they're nearly invulnerable to the normal Civil Authorities a point that was driven home in Colorado in 1987. the M109 155 millimeter turreted self-propelled Howitzer had spit in service in the United States since 1963 and although it has gone through many versions it's still in service today on November 11 1987 one such vehicle belonging to the fifth Battalion of the 29th field artillery then stationed at Fort Carson south of Colorado Springs was taken on what newspapers described as a 75-mile Joyride the United Press International reporter that officials said that the 27-ton self-propelled Howitzer was stolen from the motor pool by a private stationed at Fort Carson and a former soldier who carried a medically retired identification card Fort Carson army Sergeant John Miller was quoted in the Columbia South Carolina state that the incident began shortly after 1am when the post was notified that the M109 Howitzer was moving on Interstate 25 towards Denver the Associated Press reported that the Howitzer valued at more than 758 thousand dollars was stolen from the 29th field artillery motor pool and driven through a fence onto I-25 Colorado State Trooper Ray Elder told the UPI in 22 years on the force I'd never had anything happen like this dispatch called me at home and said a tank was coming up the road I called them back five minutes later and said a tank inside were 19 year old Private John Claire who was assigned to the Battalion and knew how to operate the vehicle and 26 year old retired Soldier Roberto Torres the armored vehicle offered quite a challenge as the state noted one officer in the Denver Police said it was obvious we didn't have the capability of stopping him Sergeant Miller said officers of the Colorado State Patrol more or less escorted it to Denver to assure safe travel the Arizona Republic wrote the procession traveling at a top speed of 45 miles per hour made its way north of the interstate through Colorado Springs Castle Rock and the suburbs of Denver before exiting on a ramp on the east side of the city there the vehicle which authorities later reported was nicknamed Clyde apparently broke down and the two were apprehended by military police when asked why they did it Torres chillingly told police to go to war IA Pena who lived near where the chase finished told the AP I always thought that we had security here in the United States but anything can happen you go to sleep you'll wake up in the morning and find this thing right in front of your doorstep Captain Robert McKinney the Fort Carson public information officer told the AP that while two keys were required one to enter the motor pool and one to start the vehicle it is standard operation practice to keep them downloaded while in the motor pool meaning the vehicle carried no ammunition the motive for the ACT was not clear although authorities speculated the two may have been headed for a Veterans Administration hospital that was just 10 blocks from where the vehicle stopped and that Torres may have had some complaint with the VA the vehicle was returned to the Fort but not before a Denver policeman placed a ticket on it he can't leave this thing parked here he told UPI while the incident in which no one was injured seems a bit comic McKinney told the AP we don't find much humor in this our primary consideration is one of safety we are anxious to preclude any damage to property or harm to individual and while the Fort Carson incident resulted in relatively little property damage a similar incident in San Diego in 1995 was far more destructive Sean Nelson was a troubled man born in 1959 in bird's eye Utah he had served two years in the US Army in the tank Battalion in West Germany despite what the Army described as multi-faceted disciplinary problems he was honorably discharged as a private in 1980. but then his life slowly unraveled his mother died in 1988 his father in 1992. his first wife Susie Hellman told the San Diego Union Tribune that following his parents death he was spiraling out of control with methamphetamines and alcohol she filed for divorce in 1990. that year he suffered neck and back injuries in a motorcycle accident he tried unsuccessful lawsuits against the hospital that treated him for his injuries as well as against the city of San Diego his injury addictions and the theft of his tools from his van caused his Plumbing business to fail in 1995 and his house went into foreclosure nonetheless began digging a large hole in his backyard when she claimed to have found gold he was in short a troubled and desperate individual not the sort of individual that you would like driving around in California's second largest city in a main battle tank the military veteran website we are the mighty rights he was a suicidal veteran with nothing to lose when he entered a National Guard Armory through an unlocked gate and then managed to open an unsecured patent tank that he just so happened knew how to operate unlike the m578 or the M109 the M60 was a main battle tank although by 1995 it had been supplanted in Frontline service by the M1 Abrams but m60s were still in service with the National Guard a neighbor described Nelson as shirtless and looking disheveled when he left his home around 6 pm from there he drove to a National Guard Armory on Mesa College Drive CBS 8 News explains that the Armory usually closes at 5 pm and the gates would be locked but on that evening the employees at the vehicle yard were working late the Armory would be faulted for lack security Not only was no one watching the gate but there were several places where the barbed wire had fallen away and someone could have climbed a fence the tank required no key to start it merely a push of a button despite the national Guardsmen working nearby Nelson was able to drive his van onto the armored grounds and enter at least two other tanks that wouldn't start before finding one that did we are the mighty rights as the guards moved to stop him the 63-ton tank lurched forward then out the door then off the base and into San Diego the UPI quoted police Sergeant Rod Vandiver then he proceeded to drive around a residential area rolling over cars and trucks knocking over fire hydrants and just making a mess People magazine reported that area resident Ken Hunt Was preparing to lead a Bible study class at his home when the electricity suddenly went off and the sound of grinding steel tore through the neighborhood he went outside and saw the tank bearing down on him before I could do anything he told the magazine it ran right over my truck Nelson did more damage in the neighborhood before pupil writes in a scene oddly reminiscent of the O.J Simpson chase a Phalanx a police cruisers pursued the tank South onto freeway 163 as news and police helicopters followed overhead we are the mighty rote a top speed of 30 miles per hour meant that the police chase was a slow one but nothing got in Sean Nelson's way in the last few minutes of his life at one point Nelson apparently attempted to collapse a pedestrian bridge by repeatedly ramming a pillar possibly to deter Pursuit the chase lasted 23 minutes before Nelson tried to turn the tank across a concrete barrier into Northbound traffic the tank was stuck on the barrier as Nelson tried to Freed the tank officers climbed on top and opened the hatch with bolt cutters they ordered him to stop but he continued trying to free the tank and apparently shake the officers off an officer fired one round that entered Nelson's neck paramedics treated him on the scene but the wound was fatal in his Rampage Nelson had destroyed 40 Vehicles kind of power to 5 000 residents the UPI reported that a woman had been trapped in her van when he ran over the front of the vehicle while she was in the back still no bystanders were injured San Diego assistant police chief George saldamando told the Los Angeles Times if he had not crashed into that median we would have been in big trouble I don't know how nobody else was killed there was some criticism of the police for using deadly force but police argued that the shooting was justified to save lives as he could have done much more damage had he freed the tank as he was trying to do San Diego Police Chief Jerry Sanders said I don't know that anybody could have predicted that somebody no matter what his problems would get in a tank and go rampaging a childhood friend of Nelson said of him everybody liked him he was funny and smart his luck just ran out after San Diego mayor Susan Golding wrote a letter of concern the National Guard said we will heighten our security effort among other precautions they removed the baffrays from the tanks used in their training exercises you might think that the Army would have learned its lesson but Nelson was not in fact the last soldier in America to take an armored vehicle on a Joyride on June 4th 2018 during routine training at the Virginia National Guard maneuver Training Center at Fort Pickett 29 year old Army National Guard first lieutenant Joshua Philip yabbit took an m-113 armored personnel carrier off base and led police on a 60-mile two-hour Chase towards Richmond the Richmond Times Dispatch reported that the chase which reached speeds of around 45 miles per hour eventually included 20 squad cars a SWAT vehicle and a police helicopter a witness told Richmond's wtvr TV it just seemed like something out of a movie I heard a large vehicle sounded like a tank but it was moving pretty fast the vehicle carried no weapons and no one was injured although the Times Dispatch noted that at times the armored vehicle came within feet of stopped traffic as the vehicle approached the Richmond City Hall Virginia State Police Sergeant Keeley Hill told the Times Dispatch it sounds like he pretty much just stopped on his own accord unconfirmed reports by Witnesses at the scene said that yabbit was shot with a taser as he was arrested Lieutenant company commander and an Engineering Battalion told the Associated Press that he was authorized to take the vehicle on a pre-planned route as part of a training exercise to gauge the police response something the National Guard denied at trial yep it was found to be suffering from mental illness his attorney told ABC 6 News in Richmond he was laboring under a mental illness that had him believing things that weren't based in reality thankfully no bystanders were injured in any of these cases and in all four instances the armored vehicles didn't have any ammunition for their armaments it isn't just armored vehicles that have been stolen U.S military aircraft and helicopters have also been stolen and taken on Joy rides and it doesn't just happen in the United States in 2007 for example a man allegedly stole a privately owned armored personnel carrier and took it on a rampage through Sydney Australia but is there a larger point to be found here I mean after all these instances do talk about important social issues like drug abuse and mental health and have even been tied to things like the plight of the middle class and the emasculation of the American male reflecting on the 20th anniversary of the San Diego incident Dean Nelson who is director of The Point Loma Nazarene University journalism program told the San Diego Union Tribune sometimes terrible things just happen instead of trying to fit it into some Paradigm that proves a point you're trying to make sometimes you just need to grieve Chief Sanders said a different idea he said he would leave the broader issue to the sociologists he had a more direct point to make don't leave the batteries and keys in the tank don't steal a tank and go on a rampage gather your friends or business associates or just random history lovers and reserve one of the great packages that drive a tank in Kasota Minnesota where you can have the thrill of driving armored vehicles without the messy police chase and you know tasering take it from me it's a whole lot of fun for more information go to the driveatank.com I hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guide check out our community on the historyguyguild.locals.com our webpage at thehistoryguy.com and our merchandise at teespring.com or book a special message from the history guy on Cameo and if you'd like more episodes of Forgotten history all you have to do is subscribe [Music] [Applause] thank you

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 94,768

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, tanks

Id: IMVIeb26ay4

Length: 16min 35sec (995 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 24 2022