The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, also known as the HMMWV or Humvee, boasts 37-inch tires, climbs up to a 40 percent grade and when properly outfitted can ford up to 60 inches of water. But in one instance this spring the rugged vehicle was no match for a Montana dirt road.
A HMMWV belonging to the United States Air Force security forces charged with patrolling Minuteman III missile sites near Grass Range was abandoned by its crew last week after it got stuck in a mudhole on Fairview Road.
The Air Force tried to remove the HMMWV three times in the last several days but the muddy conditions made the attempts unsuccessful. Crews will work to remove the vehicle again Tuesday with a tow truck, said Connie Hempel, public affairs chief at Malmstrom Air Force Base.
Hempel said the airmen in the HMMWV were driving either to or from the missile site on Fairview Road when they became stuck. They had to walk out of the area carrying their weapons and other equipment, leaving the vehicle in the mud. The stretch of road they were on was not a usual route, but it wasn’t an unauthorized area.
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The stuck HMMWV was positioned about two miles southwest and facing away from the missile site. A log had been jammed through two front tow bars and another large log was resting behind the rig. The vehicle has more than 17 inches of ground clearance and on its driver's side was buried in mud up to the bottom of the door. The remote roadway is gravel leading to the missile site but is unmaintained dirt shortly after.
The gravel ends at Ed Evans’ farm, where he’s lived for the past 17 years. Evans said he’s never seen military personnel using the dirt section of Fairview Road between the missile site and Surenough Road.
“It’s not possible six months out of the year because they don’t plow it for snow and in spring it’s a mudhole,” he said.
That doesn’t stop people from trying, though. Evans said three or four vehicles get stuck on the dirt road every year.
“They just try because it’s a cut-across road and it’s pretty country,” he said.
Sometimes Evans helps them get out with his truck, tractor or skidsteer. But often the road is so muddy he doesn’t dare take even his tractor on it for fear of becoming stuck.
Evans said it’s unlikely the Air Force crews will be able to get the HMMWV out on Tuesday. Since Sunday about one foot of wet snow has fallen on the area.