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USMC Trencher going home

papabear

GA Mafia Imperial 1SG
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Location
Columbus, Georgia
Here's a post from the Guntruck site:
Larry, CAMO Crew, donated a 1945 USMC Trench Machine to the Marines.
Mark, Troy and Tony started prepping the trencher for it's C17 flight to Camp Pendleton, California from Lawson Army Airfield at Fort Benning, Georgia.
It will be moved out to the airfield on Ft. Benning tomorrow afternoon and the air movement folks will take it from there. Should fly out the weekend of the 26th!!

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UPDATE: Trencher delivered to airfield. After Action Report by Mark:
ALCON:
Mission went like clock work today. Larry's team loaded the excavator without incident after a final steam cleaning and conducted a uneventful march to Lawson Airfield, Fort Benning GA, where they were met by Mr. Mike Roberts and his team from the ADAG (Arrival and Departure Airfield Control Group).

Mike and his team had rolling/parking shoring and 2-463L Aircraft Pallets spotted and on an Air Force K-Loader with a front end loader and chains standing by to extract the excavator from Larry's truck. That operation was flawless with Larry's team (Troy and Tony) doing some quick modification to the truck ramp with 4x4 beams to match heights on the K-Loader ramp. Needless to say, pulling the excavator onto the pallets and K-Loader took all of 5 minutes. It was the proverbial thing of beauty.

After some minor adjustments of the trenchers business end (Excavator Buckets) the trencher was chained into place on the pallets and is ready to load onto the C17 Aircraft per the load-out instruction put together by the team from Wright Patterson Air Base. Outstanding team work and an exceptional level of experience from both Mike and Larry's folks made the mission a pleasure to watch.

Agree with LTC Turley in every respect .. lots of folks here drinking from that same canteen.. Just an observation, all of the folks on 1SG Larry Board, USA (Ret) team are Army Vets. 1SG Mike Roberts USA (Ret) and his team are all vets too. Its a privilege to be associated with such a "August" group of folks.

One final Kudo; I am more than impressed with Bob's successful efforts in putting this airlift together. The folks at both the ADAG and the Log-Toad (Logistics Office) were blown away by the fact that this Air Force C-17 was coming into Benning to pick up a USMC Excavator. Gotta admit that 1SG Board and I had huge sh*t eating grins as we conducted our coordination meetings to put things in motion here. I'm sure these gents are still trying to figure out what kind of suck we have to make this happen!
 

mikey

Active member
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I did not know that Marines used trenches or foxholes. Great job PB, you are one of a kind.
As a former Marine, I can assure you we used both but I can also assure you that I never knew a machine existed for digging them. Our machine was our e-tool... and it cost us a lot of blood, sweat and covers...

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfYSyfs_tFY[/media]
 

papabear

GA Mafia Imperial 1SG
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Location
Columbus, Georgia
As a former Marine, I can assure you we used both but I can also assure you that I never knew a machine existed for digging them. Our machine was our e-tool... and it cost us a lot of blood, sweat and covers...

As a Light Infantry Soldier for most of my 20yrs, 8mos, and 10 days...I betcha I can swing an e-tool with the best of you...or could....lol.':oops::oops:

This machine wasn't used to dig fighting positions...it was some kinda engineer equipment.:)
 

mikey

Active member
759
39
28
Location
Lake Como, PA
As a former Marine, I can assure you we used both but I can also assure you that I never knew a machine existed for digging them. Our machine was our e-tool... and it cost us a lot of blood, sweat and covers...

As a Light Infantry Soldier for most of my 20yrs, 8mos, and 10 days...I betcha I can swing an e-tool with the best of you...or could....lol.':oops::oops:

This machine wasn't used to dig fighting positions...it was some kinda engineer equipment.:)
thank you for this donation and for your service... i figured this wasnt designed for grunts...
 

Floridianson

Well-known member
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Nice thanks. If that machine is like it's civi counter part but 1/4 the size of the ones I have seen it's for laying pipe line.
 

73m819

Rock = older than dirt , GA. MAFIA , Dirty
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gainesville, ga.
In the days before hydraulic excavators ( yes there was such a time) this kind of ditcher was used for ditching, digging footings, ect. You had a trans. for travel, a second trans. for work so you could inch along as you dig, a third trans. for the digging wheel or chain, a forth trans for the spoil belt (some had a in/out clutch), plus steering clutches, a master clutch, digging travel clutch, a wheel/chain drive clutch, a lifting mechanism for the wheel/bar ( some were cable others were a screw design), and some other that I have forgotten. You could go though a tube and half of grease while doing the daily service and almost a tube doing the four hour work service. If you want to see a rube Goldberg set up, take a look at all the drive chains, pillow blocks, shafts, linkage. EVERY pivot point, chain, pillow block gets oil or grease.
They were not to bad to operate once you got used to the levers and peddles, the dust was the worse and VERY easy to get a hand where it should NOT be, you can NEVER appreciate hydraulics till you operated PRE hydraulic equipment.

PBs ditcher believe it or not is sorta on the small side of ditchers, I have seen ditchers with 36" and bigger buckets and digging chains, some were so big that thay had to be rigged down to transport.
I guess the above really shows my age
 
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papabear

GA Mafia Imperial 1SG
13,519
2,458
113
Location
Columbus, Georgia
Any chance of getting some history of where it was used, by what units and what jobs it worked on? When it was retired, how it spent it's retires life and so forth?
The folks out west are supposed to do some research once it is there.

I know it has spent the last 20yrs in SW GA on a peanut farm and was used for irrigation etc.
The story I got was they got some updated equipment and the farmer "drove" the trencher out to a wood line, took the battery out and left it. Somewhere along the line someone "borrowed" the magneto without permission...LOL

The folks out west already have a magneto and operator/parts manual.

I'm just happy to see her go where she can be seen and appreciated.:beer:
 

srodocker

Well-known member
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Location
Lacey, Washington
i know where one of those things are but it has a different blade setup in the front i think. i will take pics of it. has USN on the side but i cant remember hte numbers
 

joeM62

Member
551
1
18
Location
Cedartown/GA.
I'm surprise there are operstors and parts manuals out there on that trencher. It's good
that is going to a place where people can learn from it and the history behind it and the Marines.
 

papabear

GA Mafia Imperial 1SG
13,519
2,458
113
Location
Columbus, Georgia
Well...here's the bad news::(:(:(

Due to real world missions (bet ya can guess what), it looks like our airlift has been temporarily put on hold.

Normally a mission like this is a "fly or die" situation and the whole process starts again.
The folks that are in control are trying to extend the operation window thru May 30 in hope that things will sorta "clear up".

Looks like we MAY have to go back and take the trencher off the pallets and just wait for some good news.

Oh well, that's life in the fast lane...will update as received.[thumbzup]
 

papabear

GA Mafia Imperial 1SG
13,519
2,458
113
Location
Columbus, Georgia
If anyone is still interested the "powers that be" have issued two possible flight windows again, so we are still on the mission list.:-D

1st window is 15-18 April, 2nd window is the 2nd weekend in may.

Our mission certification expires on 30 May and we will have to start the process all over again.

The best way to get a "grunt" to get something done is to tell him it's not possible!!:beer:
 

papabear

GA Mafia Imperial 1SG
13,519
2,458
113
Location
Columbus, Georgia
In the days before hydraulic excavators ( yes there was such a time) this kind of ditcher was used for ditching, digging footings, ect. You had a trans. for travel, a second trans. for work so you could inch along as you dig, a third trans. for the digging wheel or chain, a forth trans for the spoil belt (some had a in/out clutch), plus steering clutches, a master clutch, digging travel clutch, a wheel/chain drive clutch, a lifting mechanism for the wheel/bar ( some were cable others were a screw design), and some other that I have forgotten. You could go though a tube and half of grease while doing the daily service and almost a tube doing the four hour work service. If you want to see a rube Goldberg set up, take a look at all the drive chains, pillow blocks, shafts, linkage. EVERY pivot point, chain, pillow block gets oil or grease.
They were not to bad to operate once you got used to the levers and peddles, the dust was the worse and VERY easy to get a hand where it should NOT be, you can NEVER appreciate hydraulics till you operated PRE hydraulic equipment.

PBs ditcher believe it or not is sorta on the small side of ditchers, I have seen ditchers with 36" and bigger buckets and digging chains, some were so big that thay had to be rigged down to transport.
I guess the above really shows my age


Ron I think you described this trencher perfectly...trans, clutches etc...all there.

And yes...it shows your age...but that's just experience...and we all need/ appreciate it:beer:
 

papabear

GA Mafia Imperial 1SG
13,519
2,458
113
Location
Columbus, Georgia
They say God watches out for kids and fools and I'm not a kid anymore:cry::cry: BUT!!!!

At appx 13:30hrs 27 Apr, a C17 will depart our AO with the USMC Cleveland Trencher heading out to Camp Pendelton!!!:-D

Mission #s and all info has been received...even got the pilot's name and cell #:beer:

If Lybia messes us up this time, I'm going over there myself!:twisted::twisted:
 

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papabear

GA Mafia Imperial 1SG
13,519
2,458
113
Location
Columbus, Georgia
The Eagle has landed!!!! C17 on the ground and awaiting it's cargo.
Tomorrow the CAMO Crew will go out to the airfield after steaks at the VFW and watch/assist loading of the USMC Trencher for it's ride to it's new home.

It's simply amazing how many folks put their heads together to make this happen and I thank them all.:beer:

This mission proves what I always knew...if you want something accomplished, just tell a military man it ain't possible!!
 
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