Questions about Home Guard/Militia units..

[unkated]

Yes, I know this is old, but someone dug it up, so...

Originally Posted by The Rifleman

Just no. The nearest army bases are Fort drum (10 hours drive) or Fort Dix (8 hours drive). By army base standards, neither are large.

Ahem. Ft Devens, NNE of Worcester, Mass, is much closer to Vermont. In RL, it was closed in 1996; with a heightened Cold War stretching into the 1990s, probably not.

It's smaller than Ft Drum; at one point it housed an Infantry Regiment (1945-50); it later housed the 10 Special Forces Group (Airborne), and a training center for the Army Security Agency, a Sig Int organization. And of course, a supply, organization, and command center for New England National Guard units.

OTOH, I suspect the 10th SFG will be long gone by 1998, deployed somewhere. Devens would probably revert to its WW2 role as a training and collection center.

And I agree that by the time someone in the Army gets the bright idea to collect lawn ornaments and to try to get them in working condition, the centralized Army command will not be centralized enough to carry out such an order.

But, I believe that such an activity will occur to people on a more local level far faster....

"Say, Bill, you know that howitzer thing sitting in front of the VFW?"

"That old 105? Yeah. It's been sitting there since the mid-60s. What about it?"

"Could you an John from the Dept of Public Works go take a look at it and see what it would take to get it in working order? To re-militarize it? You were an artilleryman, and John keeps all the town equipment working. Oh, and we found this manual for it in the Framingham armory's record storage room..."

Substitute any other display item for howitzer. It may not work to original spec, but if it moves...

Consider being a bandit crew hitting a town. They hear a heavy engine, and then see a Sherman tank roll slowly toward the edge of town. They look down at their gun trucks, and back at the Sherman's 75mm. Some number will not wait to see if the Sherman has ammo - lack of profit in taking the chance.

And as for the Army.... "You can save your efforts, Lieutenant. We surveyed those three months ago. Here's a list showing their current state - see, all unfit for further use. Some have already been removed for scrap" (to explain why some won't be on view; really, they've been moved to a local garage for refurbishing).

Uncle Ted

[Medic]

Now ther's a funny thought.

The city I live in used to have a garrison, complete with firing ranges for up to mortars and AT-weapons other than missiles. Now it's gone save for the small regional office of the Defence Forces that serves mostly reservists. However, the rifle, shotgun and pistol ranges still exist and are still under the military control though the civilians are also allowed to use them.

Now, next to the building that used to be a messhall for the firing ranges, sits a true jewel - a StuG III. It probably has had everything but the outer shell removed when it was parked there in the 60ies (as far as I know), but with some clever welding and refurbishing, one might be able to fit in a modern diesel engine in the engine compartment for power. It won't hold against antitank weaponry, but hell, it'd scare the crap out of any raider.

[Apache6]

I know at least in the U.S., it's not uncommon for display howitzers to have the ability to fire salute rounds, but the chambers are partially obstructed (i.e. bolts through them) to prevent loading of live munitions. I think if I was motivated, I could remove the obstructions with a dremel tool.

I dug this up out of archive. Not sure if that's 'bad form' or not. Thought the IRA recoilless rifle was very T2K'is. Certain it's not beyond the ability of lots of organizations.

[swaghauler]

Don't forget that a large number of Municipal and State Police are armored vehicle users. Who can forget the St. Louis PD MWRAP in Ferguson Mo. Or the 6 "LAAV's" the PA State Police operate in their SERT division (Special Emergency Response Teams).
There would also be some question as to whether the military would be able to actually force the states to give up valuable vehicles to the military. The most recent example is the incident in 2010?(someone will have to fact check me here) where the Army wanted the states to give up their Apache attack choppers in exchange for multi-role Black Hawk utility helos. The Army was critically short of Apaches and like 12 states had Apache wings. I know they ALL refused to surrender their Apaches. It was a big enough deal for the Senate that it made the national nightly news. PA kept their Apache wing (despite the fact that Black Hawks would be more useful in state emergencies) and Texas said "The Army would have to take Texas' Apaches at gunpoint."
If SHTF was imminent; the states might begin to cause issues for the military command by refusing to part with equipment they viewed as "mission critical" to the states' disaster preparedness (the beginning of the CIVGOV/MILGOV split?). Personally, I cannot imagine any situation where using an Apache could be justified; but then I though St Louis PD having an MWRAP was "excessive."

[Olefin]

There are a lot of military vehicle and artillery collectors in this country as well who have various vehicles and artillery pieces from many eras - many of them with live barrels.

The county I grew up in had a gentleman who owned a working Sherman tank - with a live barrel. He used to take it out once a year for our Memorial Day parade. For the 50 year anniversary of D-Day he went all out and got permission from the town to show exactly what that gun could do using a car he towed out of the local junk yard.

As he said "whats the use of having a live barrel if you dont have anything for it to shoot?"

I highly doubt he was unique as to having a mix of both a live barrel and rounds to use in it.

[rcaf_777]

Originally Posted by unkated

"Say, Bill, you know that howitzer thing sitting in front of the VFW?"

"That old 105? Yeah. It's been sitting there since the mid-60s. What about it?"

"Could you an John from the Dept of Public Works go take a look at it and see what it would take to get it in working order? To re-militarize it? You were an artilleryman, and John keeps all the town equipment working. Oh, and we found this manual for it in the Framingham armory's record storage room..."

Bill: Every moving part including the wheels has been welded closed, the breach has been filled in as has the barrel, Get me, a new breach, wheels, Barrel and the sighting mech and I can try to get it working, BTW I was a feild artilleryman not a heavy weapons maintainer so I have no idea how to fix this weapon.

I did talk to John and he has enough parts on hand to build one of these
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confede...volving_Cannon

You can also take a few police officers and talk to the United States Forest Service I know they have a 105mm for Avalanche Control. Get me a working 105mm and I can train a crew.

I wonder where we can get ammo for it?