Tag Archives: hutchins

Vehicle I-D: M4 Sherman, WW2 to Iran-Iraq War

March 1981, my father W. L. Hutchins checking out the Sherman in front of the Ely, Nevada, VFW Post.

The M4 Sherman is the iconic U.S. tank from World War 2.  It was also used after WW2 by many countries across the world.  There are many variants, and to make things more difficult for kit bashers there were many field modifications.

1-116th Cav, 1-148th FA, Pocatello, Idaho. Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.

Video report 03NOV2021, Museum Support Center–Anniston Army Depot is about to attempt to restore a recovered sunken ‘DD’ Sherman from Operation Overlord June 1944:

U.S. Army Central, Sumter, South Carolina, welcomes the arrival of a M4A3(76)W HVSS Sherman tank, 15JUL2021. U.S. Army photo by Michael Clauss.

It was originally on display on Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. U.S. Army photo by Specialist Amber Cobena.

In December 2020, the U.S. Army’s Army Maneuver Center of Excellence used examples of WW2 Sherman tanks to demonstrate the ingenuity/inventiveness of U.S. military personnel.

October 2020 promotional video, the National Army Museum’s Cobra King Sherman:

July 2020, volunteers with the Selfridge Military Air Museum take a restored Sherman for a spin, before parking it for its new ‘gate guard’ duty. Michigan Air National Guard photo By Munnaf H. Joarder.

Harrodsburg, Kentucky, 07MAY2020. The tank memorializes the Harrodsburg Tankers, which were captured by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War Two. Kentucky Army National Guard photo by First Lieutenant Cody Stagner.

Reenactment of Battle of the Bulge, 14DEC2019, Belgium.
U.S. Army photo by Corporal Kevin Payne.

Pennsylvania ‘gate guard’, 05NOV2019. Pennsylvania Air National Guard photo by Staff Sergeant Bryan Hoover.

Texas Military Forces Museum Sherman takes part in a reenactment, 13APR2019. Texas Army National Guard photo by Specialist Tom Lamb.

Chièvres Air Base, Belgium, 11SEP2018. U.S. Army photo by Pierre-Etienne Courtejoie.

Video of ‘IN THE MOOD’ gate guard being moved from Belgium to Germany for restoration, 09JUL2019:

See more about IN THE MOOD: PAINTING & DECALING A 1:1 SCALE M4 SHERMAN

D-Day reenactors June 2019, Sainte-Mere-Eglise, France. U.S. Army photo by Sergeant Ryan Rayno.

U.S. military video by Staff Sergeant Draeke Layman, Sherman Tanks in Mons, Belgium, 2019:

M4A1 Battle of the Bulge commemorations in Belgium, December 2018. U.S. Army photo by Pierre-Etienne Courtejoie.

Sainte Mere Eglise, 04JUN2017. USA photo by First Lieutenant Victoria Goldfedib.

This tank looks ‘crody’ because it was salvaged from the sea off United Kingdom, in 1984. It’s now part of commemorations for Operation Tiger. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Corporal Timothy R. Smithers.

Pennsylvania National Guard ‘living’ memorial, February 2016. Pennsylvania Army National Guard photo by Private First Class Hannah Baker.

December 2015, the town of Clervaux, Luxembourg, dedicates a Sherman tank memorial to a little known part of the Battle of the Bulge:

New York National Guard personnel spent 22 months renovating this Sherman. Put on display in Saratoga Springs, September 2015. New York Army National Guard photo by Sergeant Major Corine Lombardo.

Restored Sherman taking part in D-Day celebrations in France, June 2015. USA photo by Sergeant Austin Berner.

Sherman loaded for transport to the Fort Polk Museum, Louisiana, 12SEP2012.

This April 2011 photo shows three versions of the M4 Sherman, taking part in a Texas Military Forces World War Two reenactment on Camp Mabry. Texas Army National Guard photo by Sergeant Josiah Pugh.

A Sherman tank war memorial in Cassino, Italy. Texas Army National Guard photo by Sergeant First Class Daniel Griego, March 2010.

Silent U.S. Army film, dated 23APR1945, Sherman tanks enter the city of Leipzig, Germany.  Combat action, civilians wounded, civilians welcome U.S. troops, German officer surrenders:

New York Army National Guard M4A3 Sherman, Fort Drum, during the 1950s.

An Easy Eight Sherman in Kumchun area, Korea, October 1950.

Believe it or not, this is a 70 years old Iraqi Sherman! It was ‘appropriated’ by U.S. Army forces and ‘repatriated’ to the U.S. towards the end of 2011. The pic was taken on Camp Virginia, Kuwait, as it awaited ship-out.

Iranian M36B1 Jackson version of the Sherman, used against Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. Captured by Iraq and put on display, only to be ‘captured’ by U.S. forces and supposedly ‘repatriated’ to the United States.

A U.S. Marine checks-out a stripped Sherman in Beirut, Lebanon, April 1983.

Photograph from World War Two, 03JUN1944. The Sherman in the foreground has the rounded cast hull, while the Sherman behind it has the welded hull.

USMC vet Kenny White checks out a Marine Sherman gate guard at Twentynine Palms, California, December 2014. USMC photo by Lance Corporal Medina Ayala-Lo.

In Virginia, reenactors playing Marines fighting the Japanese stand aside for an approaching Sherman, August 2013. USMC photo by Corporal Paris Capers.

My grandfather, O.G. Hutchins, on his newly arrived USMC Sherman, sometime before shipping out against the Japanese.

My grandfather O.G. Hutchins, tank commander in the USMC during World War Two. Note the snow tracks used as sand tracks in the Pacific Theater (also indicative of some 75mm gunned Shermans, that is not saying they were the only Shermans that used them, obviously not). Also, notice the final-drive cover is different from the M4 in the above photo. He’s smiling because prior to getting Shermans his USMC unit was using tiny Stuart tanks (note how tall he is, even in the Sherman he had trouble ‘buttoning up’).

My grandfather’s old helmet. O.G. ‘Hutch’ Hutchins.

See my grandfather’s 1st Marine Division unit citations for actions in World War Two and Korea in LAST RIDE FOR 1ST, 2ND & 4TH TANK.

It has become dry and brittle due to decades of improper storage on my father’s property in the Mojave Desert of Southern California.

The hardened leather helmets were called ‘football helmets’ because they were directly based on the old style American football helmet.

Photo by Richard C. Ferguson, September or October 1950. Inchon, Korea, Easy Eight ‘Candy Ass’ decided to take a swim after off-loading from LST. It appears there’s only one cable (attached to front tow hook) keeping Candy Ass from going under.

U.S. Marine Corps photo, dated October 1950. It’s not Korea, it’s a pass-in-review of Shermans and F7F Tigercats at Cherry Point, North Carolina.

Argentinian Shermans waiting for new homes, or the scrapper.

Argentine hybrid-hull Sherman with French 105mm gun in what looks like a Firefly turret, and powered by a diesel motor.

Chile used Israeli M51 Super Shermans as live-fire range targets.

Chilean M60, a M4A4 Sherman with Israeli designed 60mm high velocity gun.

I can’t remember where this photo was taken (Fort Irwin?), sometime mid-late 1990s.  Me in front of a Sherman based Recovery Vehicle.

IDAHO VEHICLE I-D:  1-148 FIELD ARTILLERY GATE GUARDS

Marines guilty of endemic violence? Ghosts of my father & grandfather!

11 NOV 2017 (04:39 UTC-07 Tango 06) 20 Aban 1396/21 Safar 1439/23 Xin-Hai 4715

Couple of U.S. Marines found guilty of crimes; a Drill Instructor, and a General!

Gunnery Sergeant Joseph Felix

On 10 NOV 2017, a military jury found a Iraq occupation vet, and Drill Instructor (DI), guilty of punching, kicking and choking U.S. Muslim recruits in his charge, one of those U.S. Muslims killed  himself.  The DI was reduced down in rank to private, lost his pay and will spend ten years in a military prison: “Felix was accused in more than three dozen criminal counts of being a central figure in an abusive group of drill instructors at Parris Island that came to light after the March 2016 suicide of one of the three Muslim-American recruits Felix targeted.”-Associated Press

Does anybody remember the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan pissing contest, back in 2011?

General James Amos.
U.S. Marine Corps photo by Corporal Clayton Filipowicz, 17OCT2014.

Now-retired USMC General James Amos found guilty of ‘Unlawful Command Influence’ (UCI) regarding the 2011 incident, and as a result the conviction of a Marine sniper involved in the Afghan urinating case has been thrown out.  The court ruled that General Amos used his authority to illegally influence events surrounding the case, and to focus the investigation unfairly on one particular sniper.  Investigations into the UCI by General Amos also included his chief legal adviser, and a Major who resigned from the USMC.

The UCI case against James Amos is considered unprecedented in USMC history.  But USMC violence is not unprecedented, its endemic.

My paternal grandfather is a prime example of a hardcore Marine whose only response to difficult situations, real or imagined, is to fight your way through.

O.G. Hutchins Junior spent 30+ years in the USMC, serving in World War Two, Korea and Vietnam.  He also served as a DI and recruiter.  He was so hardcore that after finally being forced to retire he furnished his bedroom in his Jackson, Mississippi, home with wall lockers and foot lockers, a hammock for the bed, and a huge Marine Corps flag covering one wall.

O.G. Hutchins, 30+ years hardcore Marine

O.G. Hutchins Jr, 30+ years hardcore Marine.

I remember one night in a drunken rage he broke a bowl made from walnut shells and began crying about it, saying it was made by one of his buddies in Vietnam.  The next morning he accused me of breaking it, and my father had to intervene to stop him from beating me.

This wasn’t the first time my father stood up to his father.  In the late 1950s, while my grandfather was stationed at Yermo Annex, in California, my father tried to protect his mother from being beaten and got beat himself.  My grandmother could take being beaten by my grandfather, but seeing her son get beat was too much for her. She not only got a divorce but got a California arrest warrant issued for my grandfather.  The Marine Corp protected him from arrest by shipping him outside The Golden State (which was typical back then).

But my father is guilty of being an abuser as well, yes he was a Marine.  My father was a USMC BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle) gunner for two years, before transferring to the U.S. Air Force in the early 1960s (you could do that then).  Strangely, after the mid-1970s incident where my grandfather wanted to beat me for his breaking of his Vietnam buddies’ bowl, my father started abusing me whenever he got drunk. This lasted until the early 1980s when he tried to do it in front of some of my high-school friends.  He grabbed me by the neck, made a fist with his free hand, and ordered me to call him ‘sir’.  I looked him in the eyes, then looked at my friends, then back at my father and said “No.” and added “Go ahead.”  Realizing there were witnesses he angrily backed off.

For a few years my mother didn’t believe me about my father’s abuse, until one day he did it in front of her.  I believe that’s what finally lead her to divorce him, she began to fear him and claimed during the divorce trial that he threatened to kill her.  She told me afterwards that she stayed in the marriage for as long as she did because she thought he loved his children, until he tried beating me in front of her.  I have a sister and brother, but for some reason I was the only one he was abusing (as far as I know, I don’t communicate with my siblings), apparently I was what used to be called a Whipping Boy.

It was after my parents’ divorce that my paternal grandmother revealed the abuse at the hands of my grandfather.   While my father and grandfather were both Marines there’s a major difference between them; my grandfather was honest about who he was, my father was a coward.  My grandfather openly told people how he felt about them, how he hated ‘blacks’, how he hated Asians more than blacks, how he hated anybody who wasn’t a Marine (when I told him I joined the Army he cursed me, but later on after I got married and joined the Air Force he forgave me because he was happy at the chance of becoming a great grandfather).

O.G. Hutchins and fellow Marines somewhere in the Pacific

O.G. Hutchins and fellow Marines somewhere in the Pacific

My grandfather honestly told me how, during World War Two, they would murder Japanese PoWs (Prisoners of War) and get away with it by claiming the PoWs were trying to escape (its legal to kill PoWs if they’re attempting to escape).  They would unlock the PoW cage at night, and when the first prisoner opened the cage the Marines would open fire, on everybody in the cage.

O.G. Hutchins, tank commander M4 Sherman

O.G. Hutchins, tank commander M4 Sherman.

He also told me how they would kill women and children, and then blame the Japanese.  There are plenty of reports of the U.S. military trying to help civilians on the islands they were capturing, one way was to drop leaflets telling civilians to surrender themselves to the U.S. forces.  My grandfather said many times, at night, civilians would approach their front lines and try to cross the barbed wire only to be shot down in a hail of bullets as everybody in the unit would ‘open up’ with everything they had.   He said in the morning all you’d see were the bodies of old people, women and children hanging the wire.  But he was unphased because he was tired of pulling the bodies of his dead buddies from burned out tanks (he was a tank commander).  The reason why the civilians approached at night was because the Japanese army had orders to shoot any civilian that tried to surrender, so they tried to surrender at night because the Japanese army was terrible at night operations. The Marine Corps reported that the civilians were being used as human shields by the Japanese army to probe U.S. defenses.

My grandfather had similar stories about Korea and Vietnam.  He was brutally honest.  My father was the opposite, a bold faced liar.  He was still a ‘racist’, hated a lot of religions (he was raised Lutheran), would complain about government corruption yet as a civil servant joyously took part in ripping off taxpayers (he would actually brag to me about the latest gadget he acquired from the Air Force, without the Air Force knowing about it, or put in for every taxpayer funded education convention when he was a member of the Hesperia school board).  My ‘black’ hating father could convince ‘blacks’ in church that he was ‘on their side’.  At home my father would yell about corporate executives and politicians ruining the country, but then in public, when confronting them he suddenly became the biggest ass-kisser I ever saw!  I think one reason my father started abusing me was because even as a child I was calling him out on his dishonesty (especially on government corruption and his civil service ‘crimes’, and his lies to black church members).  My grandfather would never do that, instead he would risk getting arrested for assaulting people for being ‘in violation’ of his personal beliefs, he admitted to me that the reason he became a Marine was to get away from what he saw as a ‘corrupt’ civilian world.

While my father and grandfather were polar opposites regarding living an honest life, they were both Marines and both dealt with stressful situations with violence, because that’s how a Marine is made. Or is it?  Is it possible that the United States Marine Corps attracts people who are already violent?  It should be noted that even before O.G. Hutchins joined the Marines in the late 1930s he had a history of violence, even being occasionally shunned by the larger Hutchins clan of Mississippi because of it (that’s according to what my father said).  One reason my grandfather joined the Marines was that he could never find decent paying work, but then it was the Great Depression.  His brothers, Lloyd and Billy,  joined the Army Air Force and served in Europe, apparently they didn’t have an anger management problem.   My father was always a high achiever; an Eagle Scout, high scoring high-school graduate and a ‘letterman’, even getting an Associates Degree from Victor Valley College while working at Edwards AFB in the 1970s.

A couple of years before my grandfather’s death he had been barred from every VFW (Veterans Foreign Wars) post in the Jackson area, for causing fights (again, according to my father). He openly hated anybody who “wasn’t a Marine” or wasn’t ‘white’, at least I can respect him for living his brutal life openly and honestly.

Unit Citations, O.G. Hutchins Junior:  “The officers and enlisted men of the First Marine Division, Reinforced…..1942…..forced landing assaults….on Tulagi, Gavutu, Tanambogo, Florida and Guadalcanal, British Solomon Islands….”

“…extraordinary heroism in action against enemy Japanese forces at Peleliu and Ngesebus…September 15 to 29, 1944.”

“…extraordinary heroism in action against enemy Japanese forces…Okinawa Shima, Ryukyu Islands…..1945.”

“…for outstanding and heroic performance….  ….September 1950, the First Marine Division…..recaptured Inchon City.”  

“For extraordinary heroism in action against enemy aggressor forces in Korea….October 1950.” 

“For extraordinary heroism….against enemy aggressor forces in the Chosin reservoir and Koto-ri area…..December 1950.”

“For extraordinary heroism….in Korea….April…May…June…September 1951.”

“For extraordinary heroism….against the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong forces in the Republic of Vietnam from 8 March 1965 to 15 September 1967……   Third Marine Division (Reinforced)…”

2015: INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT SAYS U.S. GUILTY OF WAR CRIMES!

FEDERAL COURT OKS WAR-CRIMES LAWSUITS AGAINST BUSH ADMINISTRATION!

2013: BUSH, OBAMA & DOJ LIED ABOUT NO TORTURE!

2012:  Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, U.S. generals and even Obama facing investigation and War Crimes trials by International Criminal Courts 

DICK CHENEY AFRAID OF CANADIANS

2011: THE HUNT FOR WAR CRIMINALS BUSH JR & BLAIR, AFRICAN COUNTRIES REFUSE TO ARREST, FEARFUL OF LOSING U.S. TAXPAYER FUNDING

Bush Jr & Blair found Guilty of War Crimes by International Court!

CANADA BEING URGED TO ARREST GEORGE BUSH JR

False Flag: I-45 shutdown! Van explosions!

13 June 2015 (11:58 UTC-07 Tango 01)/23 Kordad 1394/25 Sha’ban 1436/27 Ren-Wu (4th month) 4713

Interstate 45 is backed up for what seems like miles, due to the situation in Hutchins, Texas.

It appears the police got the doors open on the suspect’s van, using two controlled explosions.  The police used water charge bombs (Boot Banger, originally created by the British), bombs backed with water to reduce the effects of the backblast.  However, they still aren’t confident enough to get into the van. Personnel and the robot have backed off again.

Fox4’s Sky4 chopper and CBS11’s Chopper11  returning to DFW.  NBC5’s Chopper5 still hanging around.

Chopper 5 & 11 on scene!

False Flag: Chopper 5 & 11 on scene! Robot back to work!

13 June 2015 (11:06 UTC-07 Tango 01)/23 Kordad 1394/25 Sha’ban 1436/27 Ren-Wu (4th month) 4713

Apparently I’m confusing the helicopter video source.  I’m watching NBCDFW live shots, but for some reason I was picking up chatter from Fox4’s Sky4 chopper.  NBCDFW (aka NBC5) uses Chopper5.

Chopper 5 is still on scene, and that’s the source of the video I’ve been watching.  The police robot has been in action again, focusing on the passenger side door.  Personnel are also inspecting the van, again.

CBSDFW (aka CBS11) Chopper11 has just arrived live on scene.

Wind speed & more fire trucks!

False Flag: Wind speed & more fire trucks!

13 June 2015 (10:27 UTC-07 Tango 01)/23 Kordad 1394/25 Sha’ban 1436/27 Ren-Wu (4th month) 4713

WFAA has discontinued their live coverage.

Fox4’s Sky 4 is still hovering in place despite being told to leave by 11:00 hours, Texas time.  Sky 4 crew reports they are low on fuel.  Video shows more fire fighting vehicles being staged around the area.  Sky 4 crew reports that questions have been asked about wind speed.

Other reports say the seven explosions heard earlier were tiny explosions used to test the suspect’s van.  The suspect told police he rigged the van with C4.

personnel have placed “something on the van.”

False Flag: Personnel inspecting van! Bomb planted?

13 June 2015 (10:01 UTC-07 Tango 01)/23 Kordad 1394/25 Sha’ban 1436/27 Ren-Wu (4th month) 4713

Via live NBC5 video: Police cars have evacuated the Jack in the Box parking lot, a MRAP style police vehicle (looks like a BearCat) has entered the parking lot.  The police robot has backed way off from the suspect’s MRAP style van.

At least three or four law enforcement personnel are inspecting the suspect’s van.  They are focusing on the rear of the van.  Fox4’s Sky 4 crew says personnel have placed “something on the van.”

What I thought was movement in the rear window of the van might have been the robot moving around the rear of the van.

Fire department called in!

False Flag: Fire department called in! Police exit Jack in the Box parking lot!

13 June 2015 (09:41 UTC-07 Tango 01)/23 Kordad 1394/25 Sha’ban 1436/27 Ren-Wu (4th month) 4713

Live video from NBCDFW (NBC5) helicopter shows Hutchins Fire Department vehicles arriving on scene.  Video also shows police presence across the street at a Dairy Queen.

Fox4’s Sky 4 chopper has been told to stay in area until 11:00 hours Texas time.

NBC5 video also shows police robot occasionally going up to MRAP up-armored style van, and then backing away.  I also see what looks like movement in one of the van’s rear windows, furthering my suspicions that the suspect might be alive.  However, Fox4’s Sky 4 crew speculating that ATF is getting ready to blow up entire van, or bring in APC (armored personnel carrier) to “pop open the vehicle”.  Police vehicles are exiting the Jack in the Box parking lot.

Robot continues to move around armored van.

Live video shows no evidence of explosions!

False Flag: Live video shows no evidence of explosions! Are snipers still firing .50 cal?

13 June 2015 (09:18 UTC-07 Tango 01)/23 Kordad 1394/25 Sha’ban 1436/27 Ren-Wu (4th month) 4713

“The suspect has told our negotiators that we took his child and we accused him of being a terrorist and that he’s going to blow us up.”-David Brown, Dallas police chief

Live video from NBCDFW helicopter shows no evidence of controlled explosions on suspects MRAP van in Hutchins, Texas.  I’m suspecting that what WFAA reporters on the ground heard was actually .50 cal gunshots, fired by SWAT snipers.  Is suspect still alive?

WFAA has ceased their live reporting for the moment.  Showing only live video of locked down Dallas police HQ.

I found reports that indicate the police have indeed been harassing, if not observing, the suspect for a long time.

Seven more explosions, MRAP van untouched!

False Flag: Seven more explosions, MRAP van untouched! ATF involved!

13 June 2015 (08:44 UTC-07 Tango 01)/23 Kordad 1394/25 Sha’ban 1436/27 Ren-Wu (4th month) 4713

WFAA reports seven more explosions in Hutchins, Texas.  They claim they’re controlled explosions against the suspect’s van, however, live video shows the suspect’s van still intact in the Jack in the Box parking lot.

Explosions are small, and might be used to blow open the doors.

WFAA says ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) now on scene in Hutchins, and they are the ones setting off controlled explosions.

Live reporter says federal and state government vehicles racing up and down the locked down Interstate 45.

Suspect’s van was sold on ebay by a sheriff’s department.  It is a van that was up-armored MRAP style.

ebay involved! TV station threatened after suspect was killed?

False Flag: Explosion in Hutchins! ebay involved! TV station threatened after suspect was killed?

13 June 2015 (08:28 UTC-07 Tango 01)/23 Kordad 1394/25 Sha’ban 1436/27 Ren-Wu (4th month) 4713

Fives minutes after the press conference an explosion took place in Hutchins, Texas.  Live reporter with WFAA says he saw a door “pop off” of the suspect’s van.  Says police are prepping to detonate another bomb.  Law enforcers are patrolling the streets with APCs and telling residents to leave.

WFAA reports that the suspect’s van was purchased on the internet through ebay, just a few days ago.   WFAA confirms they received a phone call from somebody making a bomb threat.

WFAA says suspect was arrested in 2013 for assaulting his mother and uncle.  Suspect’s mother says he was upset about Korea and various religions, and attacked her after she countered his complaints about Christianity and Judaism.  His uncle was attacked when he tried to calm the suspect down.  Suspect’s mother admitted she hit her son with a laptop computer.

Also in 2013, brother of suspect says he showed up at his house and and stole his guns.

Police snipped suspect, will blow up van, FBI involved!