Stories from soldiers who had the pleasure of working with t

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When the first Fast Attack Vehicle was delivered at Fort Lewis, we thought it was a recruitment tool to get the California surfer guys to sign up for service. In no time it looked like there were hundreds of them speeding thru the streets of the base. It drove the MP's nuts because the M151's couldn't catch them. Before long the MP's asked for their own FAV's to catch the offenders. After that most of the speeding was done at Yakima. The MP's had a ball with them.

The division had two battalions labeled Fast Attck. About 50 vehicles. Most were equipped with .50 cals and M60 mg. They resurrected the 40mm automatic mg from the old Nam days, designated it the MK19. Still in use today. They also mounted the TOW misleading system. They loaded those things down with a lot of equipment, fuel, water, ammo, radios etc. some of them looked like gypsy wagons rolling down the road. Like I stated I knew the company commander of A/2/1, CPT Weaver. Knew him when we were in Korea. He took me for an hour ride in one of those. My back was sore for a week after that.

Around 1983 the 9th Infantry Division at Fort Lewis had 2 Light Attack Battalions that used dune buggies as part of their training. They were given a nickname by the other battalions. They were called The Toys-R-Us Battalion.

Let me tell you what I remember about my Army Fast Attack Vehicle (FAV). The last time I saw it was in April 1986. This one was a two seater model and it had a gun mount on the top of the front roll bar. I used a Mk 19 40mm automatic grenade launcher on this FAV and I had to sit on the rear roll bar to fire it. There was a second FAV in my squad that mounded an M60 machine gun in its gun mount. The engines that were used in these were racing engines out of brazil and I used two sets of Bosh platinum plugs that I bought in the engine and I had to clean the plugs daily. That’s why I had two sets. One set in the engine and one set out of the engine to be cleaned. The jack we had would not lift the FAV up enough the get the wheels off the ground. So we would use a 40mm grenade ammo can, lift up the FAV shove the ammo can under it and the wheels were then off the ground and we could then change the tires if needed.

I was 18 when I was assigned to Fort Lewis. When I arrived on base I saw a dune buggy with full camo and 2 weapons mounted on it. My first thought was this was going to be a fun place. I called my brother, who was also in the Army and asked him if he got to drive dune buggies at Fort Stewart. He thought I was crazy. He said "Dune Buggies are not Military vehicles". Little did he know.

I was a PFC at Fort Lewis in 1984. The High Tech Light Division had a training mission in South Korea that included several of the Fast Attack Vehicles. It was very cold there and the vehicles were open dune buggy type vehicles with NO HEATERS! We were wearing 6 layers of clothes and could hardly move but every time we got to drive the buggies we always had smile on our face, right next to the frozen ice on our cheeks.

Several Fast Attack Vehicles were driving pretty fast thru the hills at the Yakima Training Center when one of the wheels just flew off the one in front of us. It flipped over and rolled several times. The M2 snapped off the top and landed 10 feet away. We stopped to help expecting to see some badly injured soldiers. We grabbed the chassis and just rolled it back up on it's wheels. The driver and gunner unhooked their harness, jumped out of the FAV and said "can we do that again?" Not even a scratch on them. Those things were really built well.

Another soldier who went with the 9th to South Korea said they brought an entire truckload of extra engines for the FAV's. They were very hard on the engines and they learned how to swap a engine in less than 30 minutes.

This story is from a soldier named Phillip. He was part of the team that went to South Korea during the Team Spirit exercise in 1986. He also was part of the first ever ground launch of a Hellfire missile. His FAV played a big part in that launch. Thank you Phillip.

Phillips Story.

My name is Philip R., I served at Fort Lewis from 1984 through 1986, With third of the 34th field artillery 3/34 FA. I was a forward observer/laser operator for the ground vehicle laser locator designator... GVLLD... Pronounced glidd.... was assigned to 2/1 infantry, spent many days in Yakima, and was on that exercise, team Spirit, that went to South Korea in 1986. My fast attack vehicle was equipped with a box that held the laser. Most of the information in your article I found very accurate, except for a couple of things. In 1985 we did completely rebuilt every fast attack vehicle, it was quite an endeavor, quite fun as well , I was a young Corporal, and we teamed up with engineers, master mechanics,fabricators, etc...and we all hands on, stripped down,every single vehicle and we rebuilt them one nut and bolt at a time, that's also when we got to modify the vehicles with suggestions that we as soldiers who drove the vehicles made...Ie. the mud flaps, The side trays to hold gear, and other modifications depending on their specialty. The story about taking 30 engines to Korea is definitely not true, in fact my FAV was "broke dick" ( not running ) when we got to Korea, and I tried everything to get it running,including trying to get some local mechanics to help, I had already been deployed to Korea for year just before serving at Ft Lewis, and had good command of the language and knew the area of operation very well...but none of that helped, and I had to roll with a humvee unit... And we definitely could not swap out an engine in 30 minutes LOL. And as much as I hate to admit it Humvees definitely out performed  the FAV's in Korea, not just in snow, but under many different conditions, including deep sand, and especially up really steep hills, the Humvees would just churn up those hills in Korea, and in fact would tow some of the FAV's, even the M151 jeeps as old as they were would out perform the FAV's in really deep sand, and would also have to tow us out of deep sand sometimes. But is far is nimbleness, speed, maneuverability, and just plain old fun! Nothing could compare! I have included a couple of photos the only ones I could find, this was the first hellfire missile launch, in 1985 at Fort Bliss Texas at the white sands missile range in nearby New Mexico... Fort bliss covers part of two states. That was the first time a hellfire missile was launched from the ground, not from a helicopter, I was one of the laser operator's, both pictures are of me, one is of me with a cigarette in my hand on the laser, and the other is me on the mic calling for a hell fire missile. Thanks again for the site! Really brought back memories! And kudos on that incredible restoration!