BullersInKauai: July 2008

Amphibious Assault Vehicles

The Pacific Missile Range Facility Commanding Officer was there, Kauai Civil Defense, a representative from the U.S. Senator's office and the Governor's office, the mayor elect was there and so were the Bullers....all four of us. Guests of the Commanding Officer. I kid you not.....we got special seats under the striped V.I.P.

tent.

Yesterday, we were blessed enough to be invited to attend a "RIMPAC" operative. RIMPAC stands for the 2008 Rim of the Pacific and is a term used by the military to describe the largest worldwide training operations anywhere. It involves the comaraderie of 10 nations (including Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, Netherlands, Peru, Korea Singapore, the UK and the US) and 20,000 soldiers who have banned together to fight against the war on terror. A RIMPAC occurs once every 2 years and we were lucky enough to attend a partial operative....the amphibious assault vehicle landing exercise.

Meeting of the Minds

Truth be told, we expected a "bit" more action...you know a storming of the beach with soldiers firing rounds and everything, but what we saw was a very controlled operation. Taking off from a point farther down the beach, two tank-like amphibious vehicles puffing diesel fuel plowed through the ocean and rolled their way onto the beach...Major's Bay to be precise, and what a beautiful beach that is. "If you love close confines, the smell of diesel and the sea waves, you'd love a ride in these things," said the Captain.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the storming of the beach at Normandy demonstration. Oh well... but once they stopped, we were given the A-OK to get up close and personal. These babies are HUGE!! The kids (and Mom and Dad) wasted no time in jumping inside and heading up to the cockpit turret to get a birdseye view of what it would look like to be commandeering an assault. Ben thought it was tres cool. So did we.

Sentries guarding the beach (real guns)

It would be too hard to describe our investigation of the AAV's as the correct terminology is foreign to me and I would prefer to refrain from offending any local military personnel. Below are some cool shots.