Boys and their toys...

[PSM]

God bless them!

Afghanistan War: Hobbyists' Toy Truck Saves 6 Soldiers' Lives

Staff Sgt. Christopher Fessenden is on duty in Afghanistan now after tours with the Army in Iraq. He has traveled with standard-issue equipment -- weapons, helmet, uniform, boots and so forth -- plus a radio-controlled model truck his brother Ernie sent.

The truck is not a toy to him. He says it just saved six soldiers' lives.

"We cannot thank you enough," said Sgt. Fessenden in an email from the front that Ernie, a software engineer in Rochester, Minn., shared with ABC News.

The little truck was used by the troops to run ahead of them on patrols and look for roadside bombs. Fessenden has had it since 2007, when Ernie and Kevin Guy, the owner of the Everything Hobby shop in Rochester, rigged it with a wireless video camera and shipped it to him.

Last week, it paid off. Chris Fessenden said he had loaned the truck to a group of fellow soldiers, who used it to check the road ahead of them on a patrol. It got tangled in a trip wire connected to what Fessenden guesses could have been 500 lbs. of explosives. The bomb went off. The six soldiers controlling the truck from their Humvee were unhurt.

Full story here. (http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/remote-controlled-truck-soldier-afghanistan-saves-soldiers-lives/story?id=14225434)

:lifter

Pat

[BOfH]

Good stuff :) I know there are several companies that have been working the DoD for years now to contract specialized(read $$$$$) EOD bots for IED work, though this is better in a way as R/C vehicles and wireless cameras are commodity items which can be sourced quickly and easily, as opposed to waiting for DoD contracts to finalize. Combine some "hillbilly" armor with a stronger motor and you might have something that can take a few hits and keep rolling. :munchin

[LibraryLady]

Good stuff :) I know there are several companies that have been working the DoD for years now to contract specialized(read $$$$$) EOD bots for IED work, though this is better in a way as R/C vehicles and wireless cameras are commodity items which can be sourced quickly and easily, as opposed to waiting for DoD contracts to finalize. Combine some "hillbilly" armor with a stronger motor and you might have something that can take a few hits and keep rolling. :munchin

Who cares if it keeps rolling. Bring the price point down by scale so long as it saves lives and limbs. R/C vehicle vs prosthetic - which is cheaper?

LL

[The Reaper]

Who cares if it keeps rolling. Bring the price point down by scale so long as it saves lives and limbs. R/C vehicle vs prosthetic - which is cheaper?

LL

Regret to inform you that by the time the government finishes redesigning and manufacturing these lifesavers, they will be ten times the size, ten times slower, do half the work, and cost ten times as much.

TR

[rdret1]

Good soldier level ingenuity. Adapt, improvise and overcome!

[echoes]

Hope they leave as is, and kick the shit out of the IED's!!!:lifter

This thread title though, had my mind in alterior places...lol:D

Holly

[Ambush Master]

This ranks up there with "Silly String"!!

[echoes]

This ranks up there with "Silly String"!!

Agreed Am Sir!

[Ambush Master]

Agreed Am Sir!

I don't think you understand what I mean.

Later.
Martin

[Peregrino]

Regret to inform you that by the time the government finishes redesigning and manufacturing these lifesavers, they will be ten times the size, ten times slower, do half the work, and cost ten times as much.

TR

Don't forget the unobtainium , unaffordium batteries that can't be used for anything else. Maybe we can require the operators to get flight physicals too. (Just like the USAF requires for some UAV pilots - course they're also getting flight pay and PTSD.)

[Gypsy]

This ranks up there with "Silly String"!!

First thing I thought of. I sent a lot of cans to several Marines way back when.

[jbour13]

I don't think you understand what I mean.

Later.
Martin

Used it two years ago for those monofiliment, eye level ones you can't see too well. :D

Crafty bastards don't like it when you destroy their work. :D

[BOfH]

Who cares if it keeps rolling. Bring the price point down by scale so long as it saves lives and limbs. R/C vehicle vs prosthetic - which is cheaper?

LL

The suggestion was intended to be a field modification done by the soldiers themselves, not by some beltway bandit(read DoD contractor). A motor mod and some "hillbilly" (read junkyard) armor won't cost very much(if anything) and can help the R/C vehicle take a few rounds. I wasn't arguing with the basic premise, it was just an idea for those who are reading and needing to use this in the AO.