Happened across this pic while browsing. I can’t direct link to the captioned version, but here’s the super-sized version at the Defense Visual Information Center. 
Here’s the caption:
LCPL Chad Codwell, from Baltimore, Maryland, with Charlie Company 1st Battalion 5th Marines, carries an experimental urban combat skateboard which is being used for maneuvering inside buildings in order to detect tripwires and sniper fire. This mission is in direct support of Urban Warrior ’99.
An. Urban. Combat. Skateboard.
Laugh, if you want, but it’s the only vehicle from Future Combat Systems to be fielded so far.
I also see it was “experimental”. This must have been in Darpa’s lean years. Was this was before the military starting buying commercial parts? Back when the Pentagon shopped at rummage sales?
And I’m fuzzy on this whole “detecting trip wires and snipers” tactic, here. I mean, you’d detect them, all right. I’m no military strategist, but you don’t need a skateboard to set off booby-traps and get shot at.
I can see it now: “Lance Corporal, go see if that hallway is rigged to blow. Yeah. Just roll down it. Fast. Ever see ‘Behind Enemy Lines’? Outrun the explosions like Owen Wilson did in the movie. And draw any sniper fire, while you’re at it…“
The skateboard doesn’t appear to be armored, though, and I can already hear Rummy going on about how you go to war with the skateboard you have, not the skateboard you want. Which is too bad, because there are some real bitchin’ decks out there this year. (The board this Marine has is not one of them.)
Ahem. Seriously now. To be honest, if that photo and caption hadn’t come from the DoD I’d think it was a joke. I almost should go check Snopes on this one. Does anyone have any info on the urban combat skateboard? I looked around a bit but got bupkes.
–cross-posted by Murdoc
I’ve heard that the Corps is adept at selling the sizzle. Guess they’re also shredding, for shizzle…
What I imagine is that it is some sort of sensor pack mounted on top of a skateboard, that is the rolled into a hot area (down the hall, into a room, etc). That way, you can eliminate the motor, guidance, most of the batteries. I really doubt the intent is for them to skate into combat, Y.T. like, as cool as the mental picture is.
Whoops, I guess I was guilty of thinking too much. I just showed this to a Reservist co-worker, who said that, due to the increased load, belly crawling is very difficult. The skateboard would be used to assit that.
Well.
Yeah, I’m thinking a substitute for belly-crawling. That or they just roll it into a room and hope it sets of tripwires.
“Skate or Die”? It’s the twenty-first century–why not do both?
It doubles as a weapon; if you ever get into hand-to-hand combat you can whang someone over the head with it.
I doubt it. You can get wheels in any color you want, so if this was a REAL project, I’d make the wheels camo.
Typically combat zones are littered with debris. I can see that Marine skating along and then he hits a rock. He goes down and breaks am arm and now he’s in the rear with the gear. Not exactly something I like to see my money spent on.
Let me get this straight. Marines are burdened down with so much gear that they can’t belly crawl effectively any more. And the solution they come up with to this problem is to give them another hunk of gear to manage under fire that adds MORE weight to their load.
I think I like the sensor pack idea better.
Still, “Urban Combat Skateboard” is now the coolest pseudo-military phrase since Grant Morrison invented the “Tactical Atomic Bullet” in the JLA comic books (http://www.flickr.com/photos/edwick/128229722/ to see it in action).
I was in the USMC back in the day. Dude, I would still be in if I could catch some humongous air and spray some lead while doing a 720. Man that would rock!
So you know what this means.…
Urban Combat Marines will soon be wearing:
– Camo Vans (Classic slip-on, camo, black sole)
– Super Baggy knee buster camo shorts
– And classic oakley with non-reflective coatings on lenses and frame.
What’s next? Are they going to be issueing beer bongs? …Calling them “Hydration Unit For Expeditious Liquid Consumption?” (HUFELC)
Was a sailor, but played enough ‘army’ in my youth.
So, I’m thinking if I had to go quickly & low through a smoothly paved surface, I’d lie belly down on the board and scoot along; better than the slow hands & knees approach.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot — it could all be a hoax.
“Typically combat zones are littered with debris. I can see that Marine skating along and then he hits a rock. He goes down and breaks am arm and now he’s in the rear with the gear. Not exactly something I like to see my money spent on.“
No way dude, y’see he ollies over all the rocks. Or maybe does a boneless.
Not sure where you found this pic, but the caption “…Urban Warrior ’99″ implies that it was for an exercise from 1999 — seven years ago.
For years, the Swiss Army has been practicing on skateboards
they probably don’t ride the board through the wires. my guess is that they just push it across the room by itself and see if it hits anything along the path.
Charlie don’t skate!
I don’t even think those are marines in the picture. Uniforms don’t look right. Army wears camo like that with the smooth ameba like forms. Marines wear digi’s with digital camo, heavily pixelized.
Bones Brigade lives on.
So yes, it looks like 99 and more army than marine.
It’d be easy to get skate companies involved. Just look at some names and you’ll know.
Independent.
Also, great note on hand to hand.
At worst, make decks out of carbon, grip tape top is rubberized, and let it interface with an Alice frame easily enough. It can save a lot of energy in urban areas (versus walking). Energy savings is key, it’s cheap, and effective. (
blank maple deck $9
trucks 10$ for 2
Wheels 2$ a piece (4)
Sk8 or die, priceless
27$ per urban attack soldier
sounds a lot cheaper than a robot.
For tripwires, they’re using spray string last I heard.
They are Marines, you can tell by their covers. It was an old picture so they are still in the old school camo.
As far as the skateboard making it into service, I have yet to see it and that test was 7 years ago.
Those are indeed Marines in the photo. You can tell by their covers.
They are Marines, but the pic is from ’99.
They would use them to slide up to doorways and/or along floors checking for wires.
They would allow you a lower than normal shoot angle while the enemy/perp is looking for you to appear at normal height/standing. It also has the added benefit of allowing you to be rolling into and out of a doorway by a second person, which would be much less clumsy than trying to manuever yourself.
If these thing do get implemented some day, don’t suprised to see they cost taxpayers at least 10 grand a piece (because they retail for around $100 to us civilians).
I just have to say that the army would be stupid to use them there trick skate boards for that kind of thing, the wheels are tiny, so ya, any rocks or sort of bumpy ground would make it insanely loud and barely move
theyd have to get some old school or long boards
then they could get some sick 80mm wheels thatd go over anything sooo smooth and quietly
far more effiecient in my opinion
Obviously a marketing ploy.
Prospective Marine/high school dropout: “So what is the life of a Marine like?“
Marine Recruiter: “Aw, sick man. We go around skateboards and shoot at people.“
PM/HSD: “Sweet. Sign me up.”
I can see the idea of a belly roller, but I agree with the comment about the wheels and deck size… too small. Plus, the wheels are to hard as well. Larger, softer wheels would be better for sound and gravel and debri.
Rolling it into a room for trip wires? You can buy remote controlled cars for less then a skateboard and have 1000 times more control. So while you could improvise a tactic such as this, I doubt this was a sanctioned reseach option.
Judging from the Tail & Rail slide markings on the board this board is used for recreational use. If it was truly a research project, I doubt they would say, oh yeah, and taking it out and have fun.
On the other hand, the Trucks and kingpin are covered with black tape… that seems odd.
I would guess from the hasty paint and tape cover job , the skate is this dudes personal property, the picture was taken in ’99 during a war games type exercise, and his unit improvised the use of this skate and a bellyroller. They lost the games, and most of his unit died over in Iraq four years later. He now blames himself for their death, because he was too busy building a ramp instead of being at his lookout post.
these actually are not all marines first tip off was the boots the 3 stage leather was never allowed the army had them… very comfy and we asked but no…
second the uniforms were the same back then everyone got the good old milspec cami but the army wears the name tag and sometimes the billet over the chest pocket notice the officer to the right in picture so at the least its a CAX
the cover was a throw but I saw a lot of Army boot lts do the same “I am gungie I should have been a marine garbage” but the cover have 2 seams missing so the 5 point pressing is just starch
also we did get to play with belly boards but they really looked more like those sqaure omni directional things we all scootered around on in kindergarden gym and the crunched fingers did’nt seem worth it
My vote someone had a board and tried to find any way possible to get five minutes of sweet homes memories and some base newspaper got a pictures its all DOD files if shot with a base Camera
Urban explorers have been using drain boards for years.
http://www.actionsquad.org/ulands24.htm
If you need to traverse a long tunnel, or move gear through one it can’t be beat.
I disagree, they could be navy, but there is not a Soldier in that picture.
The other dead give away is the shiny rank worn on both collars. That is a Sailor/Marine thing, not army. We wear a Branch Insignia on one side and subduded rank on the other.
No way that’s a Marine.
Gotta be a soldier — he’s wearing sad old camo and dirty boots and looking like a complete doofus while his chunky SSgt has a disgustingly slouchy cover (oh, HAT, sorry) in the background… then yeah, it’s the Army.
FYI, Army Guy, I saw more of your officers insisting on wearing garrison (brass) rank and being saluted, that I noticed among Marine officers ever. Try 3 Joint OEF/OIF tours inside of 3 years, you’ll see whose officers are more likely to get shot — if not from their silly shiny ranks and saluting, than from their people never cleaning the rifles, falling asleep on guard duty, reading books while driving convoy, etc.
*so ticked off by Army Guy that I forgot to say…*
You can also tell by the Hollywood way the soldier is holding his weapon (oh, GUN, sorry) because a Marine would rather someone take his weapon than ever look that silly in public.
As to the function of the board, I think the idea is to roll it along with a big rock or empty ammo-can or something, so it hits the tripwires and causes any itchy-fingered or nervous enemy to shoot at it (kind of like the old “put helmet on stick and raise over wall” trick).
I sincerely doubt it would get past the suggestion box at the USMC Future Ops office… likely because 1. it’s silly, and 2. we always get stuff the Army threw away and fix it and then do better operating it anyway, Marines would never have enough money to invent something that superfluous. (Well, okay, I’ll give you the Osprey.)
thats the stupidest shit i’ve ever seen
all they did was paint it green
ATTACK
A Marine is not a soldier.
Look, you idiots, you don’t ride the skateboard down the hall looking for tripwires, you roll it by its self, then retrieve!
Imagine trying to push one down towards a door and watch it go off course and bounce off some random wall.
“Doh!“
Perhaps it comes with a cord for easy retrieval?
But yeah, RCs are probably the best way to trigger trip wires. Couldn’t you put a little antenna thing protruding from the top of said RC if you really needed to trigger tripwires? Perhaps the triangular “jagged blade” thing you sometimes see on WW2 U-Boats?
Third Tour Chuckehead wrote:
“You can also tell by the Hollywood way the soldier is holding his weapon (oh, GUN, sorry) because a Marine would rather someone take his weapon than ever look that silly in public.“
Uh-huh. Do your homework. Urban Warrior 99 wasn’t a joint exercise, it was all USMC, baby.
From a quick Google search:
http://www.specialoperations.com/Focus/Regional/Urban/Default.html
“DURING URBAN WARRIOR 99 (AWE)Marines in the 15th Heavy Guns Platoon arrive from the USS Bonhomne Richard LHD 6. The Marines are equipped with the new “Force Protection Clothing/Experimental Urban Camouflage Uniforms”. Urban Warrior is an experimental effort to prepare Marines for the urban battlespaces of the 21st century. It focuses on the development of new operational concepts, tactics, techniques, procedures and technologies. (U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 3rd Class Eric Logsdon) (Webmaster’s Note: USMC units are not considered SOF by the Department of Defense. They are included here due to their growing expertise in the field of Urban Warfare.)“
Hey, looky there, Cletus, them Marines got jungle boots on their feet, just like the skate punk. And you know that ain’t Army because, experimental uniform or not, Army would have the cat-eye helmet band on them Kevlars.
As for the boots not being issue? IT’S A FIELDING EXPERIMENT. The skateboard wasn’t issue, either, now was it?
(Presumably, the Navy’s taking the photos because Marines can operate cameras about as well as they can post intelligently on the web.)
Nice try blaming it on the Army, you chucklehead. Next time do your homework.
Sorry guys…there is a “plausable” explination. What the Marine does is lay on his stomach on the board. Makes it easier to move around with his eyes at shin-level where tripwires are usually placed. He can then move forward or back using his hands. Of course, this requires a flat level floor like inside buildings. Still, I have to wonder what that “soldier” thinks of going into combat with a “boogey board”…?
Make love not war !!! Skateboarding is a peace activity…
too bad for you now, ludwig.
chaos — is the only true answer.
Was in the Corps from 82–89. My Lt. didn’t like my riding the board onbase to the gym in my shorts & Special Svcs T. Dropped me a letter saying: “After intensive searching of M.C. regs, I find no-were that it says Marines in uniform may ride skateboards. Therefore from this time out if you are found riding a skateboard while in uniform, you shall be brought up under disciplinary action. Signed; Lt. “*moron*” “
Sooo, yupppers, Marines DO ride Skateboards!!!
so is that shit true or not cuz if not than why would it be on here
so is that shit true or not cuz if not than why would it be on here
W.I.C.K.E.D
ADD ME EVERY ONE
what if mid battle a soldier busted out a kickflip lol