Do they still use Gamma Goats? I remember the Signal people used them a lot. It seems that they had the same problem as the jeeps in staying upright.

I remember one year at Ft. Polk an overly excited CQ burst into the barracks screaming ..."Range...gamma goat..dead people...draw weapons!!!!"

Now, MPs are not typically predisposed to taking advantage of a situation or an unknowing and frightened newbie, but this one was just too good to pass up.

The newbie was a city kid and he was convinced that a "gamma goat" was some wild goat running amok in the woods of Louisiana. Of course, we did little in the way of informing him of the truth. In fact, we told him "yeah, they're a huge wild goat and that their coloring made it difficult to see them in the woods and underbrush. More than likely, the unlucky soldiers who were killed or injured must have stumbled upon a mother with offspring and she killed them in defense of her young."

As we arrived upon the scene there on it's side and tangled, was the real gamma goat. Terrified, Tom (that was his name) said:" Oh my God! how big are these things?!" to which was replied, "we told you they were huge just look at that damage!" This confirmation drained every bit of color from Tom's face and he became dizzy. Tom was so terrified that it was impossible to get him out on the perimeter to secure the site and it took even longer to convince him that the vehicle that he had seen all mangled and on its side, was in fact, the gamma goat.

Ok, so MPs have an evil streak.

The last/only time I saw them operationally was when I was in ROTC advance camp the summer of 1985. The 82 ABN had them. They were replaced by the HMMWV in the late 80s.

We had them in our artillery battalion in the mid to early 70's. They had replaced the 5/4 ton trucks, which had in turn replaced the venerable 3/4 ton trucks.

In the letter batteries, this was the TOE vehicle for the battery XO (who HATED the fact the didn't have a jeep), and there were 2 or 3 that belonged to the commo section, which was actually the wire section. They had a large motorized wire reel in the back and in theory were supposed to run wire from our battery position to battalion.

HHB had quite a few, both for wire as well as a couple with a hard commo box in the back with a radio/teletype machine for long distance secure traffic. Additionally the survey section and radar section (located at battalion and NOT DivArty then) used them. And of course the medics had a couple of the ambulance version which was slightly extended to allow for litters.

This is one vehicle I would DEARLY love to see somebody come out with in 1/35. A nice 3 in 1 with RATT rig and ambulance versions as well as the standard cargo bed.


You "veterans" remember the drill when that sucker got a flat tire??

Tom

We had them in my Infantry Battalion in the 7th ID at Fort Ord in 1978-79. They were my biggest maintenance nightmare. We always had at least 2 "hanger queens" that we used for spare parts. Often we had to travel south for training (because Ft. Ord was too small) and you could count on at least 2 to break down either en route or coming back home. There's an experimental vehicle housed in one of the Ft. Knox museum storage buildings that was built much earlier, but on the same principle as the "goat". It never made production because of, you guessed it, extreme maintenance problems.

Ah, the Gamma Goat !!!

First, the SDO Dusty Drivers used to love to get 'em just to make life miserable for the SDO, force him to break starch climbing in .... (yes this is a very early 70's story)

They were, as mentioned, a nightmare. All the brake lines were part-numbered, not stock-numbered & very few of them were identical. All the mini-axles & u-joints were part-numbered, not stock-numbered. The TM & the vehicle didn't agree on the numbers.

I spent 3 days underneath a Gamma Goat with a flashlight, a TM, and some wrenches. By the time I finished I had corrected a half-dozen pages in the TM & we were finally able to start ordering & receiving parts.

The other headache was the articulated joint between the "tractor" & the "trailer". In road mode, you were supposed to lock that down, effectively making a single truck out of it, then you were supposed to unlock it when going off road. Well, guess what didn't happen too many times & we had another broke goat in the shop.

There were other problems, many I think due to the hull flexing and causing eng/xmsn problems. I don't remember that many roll-over accidents -- but then again, we had the GOER about that time (mid-70's) & it took the record for rollovers, or should I say hop-overs ....

John

GOERs, yeah...I was trying to remember what they called those.

I remember we were getting the GOERs in our battalion in 1975 as I was leaving. If I remember, they were rated as 8 ton capacity, and replaced our M54 5 ton ammo trucks. The story I remember was that while it in fact had a higher LOAD capacity, the cubic feet in the bed was less than the 5 ton it replaced resulting in less overall ammo hauling ability to the tune of about 2 or 4 pallets.

The other thing I seem to recall was that you had to be VERY careful when they were started. If the wheel was turned with the vehicle shut down, once it started and the hydraulics went to pressure, the articulated cab would turn suddenly to match the steering inputs, and if a soldier was standing in the gap between the cab and bed, he could be crushed.

Ain't it GREAT knowing that all your stuff was awarded to the lowest bidder??? :-) :-)

Tom

Tom:

You are correct, the GOER was an 8-ton truck, and so with great mathematical precision (shades of Robert S), the Army took the 8 x 5-tons = 40 tons & replaced 'em with 5 x 8-tons = 40 tons, which of course did nothing for the cube differential which was less. Nor did it help when a vehicle went down, 'cause if you lost 1 5-ton, it was olnly 1/8 of your capacity, whereas a GOER was 1/5.

And it was a piece of junk -- you are right, started improperly, the cab could whip. Not to mention the GOER-bound where it started hopping & just flipped right over. If it weren't for the dead/injured soldiers, it would have been interesting to set up judging stands & award points for style, degree-of-difficulty, etc ....

GOER-related War Story: Our Bn XO went up to Division G-4 & promptly decided to turn on the Bn -- ie, make his name at old unit expense. Then he came up with bright idea that all Maint Co should have a GOER Wrecker so we could better care for the beasts. I was the guy assigned by the Bn to prepare the response & I ate his lunch. Something he never forgot -- he went to DA came back 18 mo later as Bn Cdr & found me there & so tried to take his revenge for that & a few other things. Only problem he had was that I was also the only leftover witness to his trashing of the Bn when he went to G4. Made for an interesting command tour for me & took the DISCOM commander to save me from him, OER-wise, when I departed.

John

Ahhh, sweet memories...we had one we used for our FDC in the 4.2" mortar platoon when I was with the 2/325 at Ft. Bragg.
I'd love to find a model or this that didn't cost an arm and a "leg" (pun intended)!

Gamma Goats????? Oh, you mean the "Goonie Goo-Goo Mobiles????" The last ones I saw were in a friends "backyard." How I hated those pieces of "poo poo." Awkward, slow, sluggish, cramped, the "passenger" emergency switch never worked...and on and on. Uggghhhhhhhhhhh.

GOERS? Now that was a sight to see....big beast bouncing down the tank trails at Graf.....just NEVER get within 100 feet of 'em or you might just get smushed!

Mike

Wot? Like they have any other kind of streak?

Sorry for hijacking the thread but... I couldn't resist the above! Funniest thing I've heard in years, MPs' with a sense of humour??? (++)

Ah! laugh? we nearly started!

while at wiesbaden germany, I was to drive several soldiers and their platoon sgt. (who wasn't real fond of me : another story) to a rappelling site several miles away. All I had was the gamma-goat so of course my toolbox also came along right alongside my coveralls. When the troops got in the back, they threw my box and coveralls up on top of this box we had in the front of the trailer section. We were off!! Now ,as the front canvas wipped as they would ,my coveralls fell out and down into the driveshaft, which in turn really put them into a spin cycle. As the coveralls spun around and around they also were slapping the daylights out of the steering shaft that ran alongside the driveshaft. the racket was enough to hear over the scream of the engine and the steering wheel was jumping all over. The other sgt. was white as a ghost as it was well known that you didn't know what would happen next in this d__mn goat. I was just mad as the dickens because now I had to untangle my coveralls just to be able to throw them away. What a ride. The rest of the journey went well.