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An amphibious assault vehicle can be a rough ride for Marines inside - here's what crews have to deal with
An amphibious assault vehicle can be a rough ride for Marines inside - here's what crews have to deal with
Ryan PickrellFeb 20, 2020, 02:59 IST
A Marine Corps amphibious assault vehicle is built to get Marines from ship to shore. It does that well enough, but the ride isn't always smooth.
"It can get rough," a 2nd lieutenant told Insider during a recent visit to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in California.
When carrying Marine infantrymen, the three-man AAV crews have to be prepared for not just vomiting, but also panic, flips and rollovers, and unexpected malfunctions.
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif.-The amphibious assault vehicle (AAV) is an armored personnel carrier built to get Marines from ship to shore. These 30-ton tracked vehicles do that well enough, but it can be a rough ride for the nearly two dozen Marine infantrymen in the back.
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"It can get rough," 2nd Lt. Nicholas Pierret, the officer in charge on an AAV live-fire range, told Insider during a recent visit to Camp Pendleton for the latest iteration of Iron Fist.
"Before anybody gets loaded up into the vehicle, especially for amphibious operations, our crew chiefs give a brief to them, telling them what to look for in the vehicle and what to do in an emergency," he explained. "It's kind of like the brief you get before you depart on a flight, except they'll say, 'If you got to throw up, don't throw up here. Throw up in your Kevlar or whatever you have to do.'"
The three-man AAV crews, which include the driver, crew chief, and rear crewman, have to be prepared for not just vomiting, but also freak outs, flips and rollovers, and unexpected malfunctions, among other possible challenges.
The AAV is the only operational Marine Corps vehicle able to travel on both land and water. On land, it can run over tough terrain at up to 45 miles per hour, and in the water, it can tackle up to 10 foot swells.
Seasickness and motion sickness are very real issues.
"All the hatches are closed in the back, and all you hear is just loud noises and you're just rocking back and forth," Sgt. Juan Torres Jr., a section leader, told Insider. "That's why every good crew chief always has a couple of bags in the track. It is like, "If you guys need to throw up, the bags are right here.'"
Another Marine said that the smell can be pretty bad if someone loses their lunch, and that can sometimes make the situation worse by making others feel nauseated and causing a chain reaction. "You throw up, you make a mess, you clean it," Torres said. "That is my rule."
The AAV crew sometimes lives out of the vehicle, so the last thing anyone wants is puke in their AAV.
2. Freaking out
The rear crewman, one of the three AAV crew members, has a number of very important jobs inside the AAV, and one of them is keeping everyone in line.
"They have to make sure nobody freaks out," Torres explained. "I have had my fair share of people freaking out in the back of an amtrac (amphibious tractor)."
A Marine might be claustrophobic, he said, "and they do not even know they're claustrophobic, and next thing you know, they're freaking out ... trying to climb out of the vehicle."
A situation like this has to be controlled quickly, Insider learned, as it can negatively affect the other Marines inside, possibly causing others to panic unnecessarily.
3. Flipping
While it is uncommon, the AAV can flip in the water and rollover on land.
"One time, we were splashing in the ocean," Torres told Insider, "And, I lost all mechanical functions in the vehicle. I was in the surf zone, and we almost flipped." The AAV had drifted to the side, and a large wave nearly flipped the vehicle over.
"It was a very scary time," he said.
Everything inside the AAV is strapped down to for security, everything except the Marines anyway. There are no seat belts. The Marines hold onto the bench seats and hope for the best.
"One cool thing about the AAV though is that if it flips over, which is really hard to do, it will right itself," Pierret explained.
There is also the possibility the vehicle will sink, as one did at Camp Pendleton in 2011, although this, too, is unusual.
4. Malfunctioning
As was the case during Torres' close call, the AAVs may also malfunction inexplicably.
The Corps' amphibious assault vehicles are about 40 years old, so it's pretty much inevitable, he explained, that things are going to go wrong.
"You can do everything perfectly, and then the moment you roll out something goes wrong," Torres said. "It is inevitable. It always happens. No matter what you do, it's going to happen. If everything is going smoothly, you should be worried."
One Marine said the toughest thing about working with amphibious assault vehicles is not getting frustrated when something goes wrong.
AAV crews train to be ready for whatever comes their way.
Before any AAV crew member gets their hands on an actual AAV, they have to first go through underwater survival training. A trainer vehicle is submerged in a large pool, and AAV crews have to pop hatch and escape.
"They put you in different situations, like a slow-sinking vehicle or rapid-sinking vehicle," he said. "You are on your side or you are upside down, and you have to get out."
AAV crews also go through rollover training.
While the training can be "unnerving," as one Marine said, the Corps uses a "crawl, walk, run" approach to make sure Marines are up to the task.
