Fort Irwin Box Tour: It's Even Weirder (and More Fascinating) Than You Imagined
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- Опубликовано: 2 май 2024
- Welcome to Wonderhussy Adventure #792
Date of adventure: 3/29/24
Exploring the bizarre and fascinating Fort Irwin National Training Center -- where soldiers fight fake battles in fake villages peopled with Russian-speaking actors, in preparation for overseas deployment. This was one of the most interesting places I've ever been!
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I spent a year at Ft Irwin and 10 years at Ft Polk in the army doing what you saw. After I retired from the army I spent 15 years at Ft Polk as a Roleplayer so I got to spend 35 years of my life playing army war games. I'm an old man and I never had to grow up.
I trained at Ft. Irwin for war games back in 1985-86 while in the US Army. Fun times! We were camped out in the Mojave. At night you could still hear the Wolfman Jack show and Dick Clark Show on the small portable radio I took with me out there. Crazy thing, I'm from Miami. So, when we first arrived by military trucks the evening was clear and I could see all the stars and meteors shooting above. Well, I decided I would sleep under the stars! I set up my metal cot and lay on top of my sleeping bag. Sometime during my sleep I woke up to a freezing cold temperature! Man, I grabbed my bag jumped in the truck to get out of that cold night! My first lesson that the desert can get pretty cold at night.
Haha yeah for sure I grew up stomping those grounds, lucky you didn't wake up to new friends with you.
You made me laugh aloud! I was expecting you to awaken with a tarantula crawling up to your face!
Thank you for your service!
When I spent time training there, we worried about some inexperienced tank crew driving through our campsite at night.
It sure can. I've lived in the Hi Desert (Lake Los Angeles, CA) for years. Like a piece of Cu. Hotter 'n he__ in Summer, colder'n a welI diggers a$$ in Winter!
Who doesn't love Wonderhussy and a good adventure? ❤
WH and Burning Man????.....
Burning Man bought a building in San Francisco in 2016 for $62 Million
BM just sold that building for only $6 Million...A massive loss.
Is Burning Man going under????
Bidenomics at work???
Other RUclipsrs? 🤓
Sarah Jane, thank you for the tour of Fort Irvin with the 11th Armored cavalry regiment. I served with this unit during the Vietnam war in 1969 and 1970. Is one of the most celebrated regiments in US Army history. I have always wanted to visit Fort Irwin as a veteran of this unit, but never took the opportunity. Thank you so much.
The vehicle which you went into was not a tank, but an armored personnel carrier. I appreciate the view from inside this vehicle as it has totally changed from the M113 vehicle that we use during the war. I have followed you for years and your videos and interviews are the best. Your interview with the squadron commander shows me that you are considered a special lady by the Lt Colonel. Thank you again
Thank you for your service to our country sir!
Hey , what's up brother . I left the FRG in early 70 from where the 11ACR went to after they di di'd from RVN . I was in lll Corp as well , with a Med Det at Tay Ninh , and ended up with the 25th I.D. I won't lie . I was glad that I wasn't assigned to a ACR in Nam and had to drive a 113 . Bad duty . We saw you guys all over RVN and the bode . Stay strong brother , there are less of us by the day . BTW , I left Hersfeld going to RVN via Lewis . doc 68-71
I served with the 14th and 11th cav during the Cold War in Bad Hersfeld W GE 72-74
@@georgegray4891 Wow , that's crazy . I have run across a couple of guys who were in Fulda , but never ran across anybody who was at BH . So , I guess you were 14th one day and 11 ACR the next ? I never thought about it . But did most of the 14th guys stay and slapped on Black Horse patches the next day ? Did the 11th just take over the 14th's equipment ? I have heard that the 11th was allowed to have beer in the barracks . Not in the 14th while I was there . I was HQ Troop and my room looked down on " Old Bill " from the 2nd floor . We didn't have far to stumble to our rooms from the Snack Bar . But it was a long way down from the EM club though . Man ! All those cold nights on the border or at the OP without a shower . Hell , almost any place not in the bush in RVN , we had a way to shower . I personally hated the FRG , and I 10-49 out to go to RVN . I was sick of room inspections , AGI and CMMI , border , graf and flicken , KP , guard and alerts and white walls . Am glad , and sad I went to RVN . Have a good one brother ..
I always loved the joke by Korean-American comic Henry Cho...
"I always hated playing cowboys & indians... cuz I was always the cook!"
Make sure you Thank OUR Veteran's and Service Men and Women...God Bless, Stay Safe...Thanks, Sarah...
Notwithstanding her childhood, I always am amazed how WH adapts to her surroundings and people. She is a natural Interviewer!
With a dash of extrovert.
Great experience at Ft Irwin...thx Sarah
My son was trained there before Desert Storm, 2 Infinite Justice, after 9-11. We visited him there. He called it the kitty litter box.
Go Army! Thank You for your service! Kudos to you, Wonderhussy for shining the light on these badass warriors.
My brother served 2 years at Fort Irwin from 1988 to 91/92. When he came back to Pennsylvania he said “does the sun ever come out here” when he came to visit from the desert one Christmas time as he was use to constant sunshine.
He would have felt totally lost at Ft. Greely, during the winter. The shortest day was just 15 minutes of sunlight, I went to lunch in the mess hall, in the dark, and it was already dark when I left, 20 minutes later. On the longest day, there was 23 hours & 45 minutes of sunlight.
@@michaelterrell Barrow, AK is like that in the winter, constant darkness. Would need some UV light and supplements to survive it.
@@stephaniepersin4222 I was at Ft. Greely, in the early '70s. I was th e engineer at the AFRTS TV and AM Radio station on base. I also pulled duty as one of the operators at the TV station, so I put in very long days, an average of 70 hours a week. I worked too far from the mess hall to use it while on duty, and the base commissary had very little to choose from after the dependents and retirees hit it as soon as a truck was unloaded so my diet was horrible. I put on 50 pounds, and developed symptoms of Diabetics, but the Army only did health screening for people going overseas so I have no proof.
Those retirees would fill a pickup truck and a trailer every week, then resell the food at trading posts n small villages which I consider theft from those on duty. I had one screaming at me that he 'needed' the tray of 24 cans of Mountain Dew in cans, then added that he 'served it' because he served before I did. I told him to back off, because I was fed up with his crap. Then he found out that I had nocked down multiple fficers, without getting into trouble. The 'friends' that he was threatening me with were among them. :)
As a member of the National Guard, I had to endure five 2 week summer camps at Ft. Irwin from 1969 to 1975. We used to describe it as one valley over from Death Valley. Extremely hot hanging out in an Armor Personnel Carrier. I was in a Scout Platoon and we got to cruise all over that place. My god that was 50 years ago. When you go back to the museum, see if you can get someone to take you to Cave Springs. It's one of the coolest places on Ft. Erwin and really out in the sticks. There were actual springs that were in caves that were dug out by the miners. There used to be loads of old mining shacks in that area. Probably gone now.
I have been to Cave Springs but as a civilian in the early1990's. It had been a primitive gas station and way stop when that was the main road from Barstow to Death Valley before WWII. The wood shacks are gone but stacked stone walls of other ruins still exist. I have old photos of the wood shacks.
Was out there in 1965 for desert strike
I was also in the Army National Guard and went there a few times in the late 70’s and early 80’s. The base was a few older barracks and very few base housing. It had a small PX.
@@jimmcgee3111 Originally Camp Irwin was an anti-aircraft gun firing range during WWII.
@@janblake9468 The type of unit I was in, short range air defense, also Calle anti-air raft.
For the military, practice makes perfect. The training is helpful. As a National Guard soldier I found the train-up I got prior to deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan and then back to Iraq to be very helpful. This vlog brings back memories for me, thanks!
Thanks for the tour. I was stationed there way back in the fall of 1968, there were only a couple hundred soldiers. The training back then was self-propelled artillery howitzers capable of shooting a tactical nuclear round 7 miles. I was guarding the guns with live rounds in my trusty M-14 rifle...think ancient history. I remember the long drive from the main gate to the central fort, and that being just barracks, a mess hall, storage areas and maintenance buildings.
From an Air Force brat to an Army brat, enjoyed your video.
"Lob it at the enemy',spoken like a true soldier at heart. ❤
Was there in August’73 for my two week commitment in the active reserves. Went with a NG Armored unit out of Kearney Mesa. They didn’t know what to do with me so I pulled KP for a day then drove an APC and chauffeured a Captain around in a Jeep all over the desert during the training exercises. Quite an experience, but was hot as hell.
As much as I love dirt and rocks and rusted out mine machinery and abandoned cabins, I must say this change of pace episode is now my favorite.😊❤❤❤
Thank you for highlighting our military. Without them we would not exist. Thank you to our service men and women, active and retired.
I’m a life long California resident and I was fortunate to take the Box Tour 2 separate times the last few years. Definitely would recommend taking the tour also! I’m glad you were finally able to take the tour!
I took a 5 week tour there back in 1993. Had my Thanksgiving meal there in a cold rain with a pack of coyotes begging for a bite. Also got to witness a total lunar eclipse there. They even let me bring home Ft. Irwin's revenge that lasted for the next six months. Ahhh, good times.
May look and sound like fun and games but what they learn is life saving when your surrounded by bad guys wanting to hurt you ! Thank you Hussy for the videos and a BIG THANK YOU to our military and Veterans .......................
I got a ticket at Fort Irwin in 1989. That long long road, there were two tanks flying down the slope next to the road, a 50 mph zone, I was doing 55, the tanks just a little faster as they peeled away. Way up in the distance I saw a flashing red light coming at me so I pulled over and stopped. The MPs did a big sliding u turn and asked "Do you know why we stopped you?" The tanks were...didn't mater, got a ticket for 5 mph over, cost a whopping $8.00, that's like $100.00 today. Then I had a customer named Walden Structures that make the units to make the cities they use at Ft Irwin, small world.
My dad train at Fort Irwin when he was in the Marine Corps in 1990-94 right after desert storm
Thanks for the tour my younger brother finished his military career at Fort Irwin I never knew what he did there but sometimes there are things you just don't ask. He retired in the early 80 s
Fabulous Wonderhussy! You knocked it out of the park with this one! Thank You and our great military‼️
Awesome. They used to hold armed forces day at the local military base and put on displays, blew up things and made awesome food for visitors. Great memories for a kid,....even though it was right as the Vietnam war was just getting started. I realized soon enough,...many of those young people wouldn't be coming home. 😕We attended a few funerals. Hats off to those who serve!
Another good one here. Cheers. 👍
Much admiration to the guys who live in the tank. Dedication to duty! MRE's, some are very tasty. Thanks WH for an awesome adventure.
I flew many times over that area when in Air Force fighters. You did an outstanding job in this short video. You did everyone a super service especially the troops assigned there. They are good people. Not the jerks you read about from UC Berkeley.
Thanks WH.
Thank you to all military service men and women.
THANK YOU VETERANS!!!
Thanks Wonderhussy!! The tour was really the best!!!! (in the middle of nowhere!!)
My husband was a Vietnam veteran. He would have enjoyed this video. Thank you for the tour !
Walking through the crowd was interesting. Training to navigate a combat area and being distracted by all the locals and noise.
The Great Military Industrial Complex!
22:12 I didn't know Tommy Chong was in the witness protection program, man. LOL
shh, don't tell anybody. Funny, not the first time I've been accused of being Tommy Chong. Last time was at Universal Orlando in January. BTW, Dave's not here.
I have been in fort Irwin California twice once in 88 and once in 89
What A Fun Day With You And Sis At The Fort !!!!!! Thank You For Sharing !!!!! DRUNK WIVES MATTER !!!!! XXOO V
what an excellent and interesting video
The Army calls it (miles gear) that registers the hit it has those light sensors. It’s bazaar Day in the village. Welcome to Fort Irwin🤓
One of your best videos! 🇺🇸🫡 to all the veterans and current active military members!
What a great video, Thanks Sarah. Always nice to see your Sister interacting with your fine self.😊
Thank you for the views inside the tank (M2 Bradley Infantry Combat Vehicle?), I build models, and being able to see the colours was useful. Good tour of an interesting place. ❤😊👍👍
I was stationed there as OPFOR (Opposing Force) right after we came back from Desert Storm.
long ago, pre MREs -- swapping C-rats..... i/o a la orp with h-1.
What an awesome video!
That was badass Sarah!
Going through that village with those actors was bizarre! Wow!
That would be a lot of fun to do someday.
Thanks for letting us come along with you and your Sis.
Safe travels.
NTC / Fort Irwin is a magical, special place. I had the honor of participating with OPFOR in terrorizing the Army in the late 90’s, using guerrilla warfare tactics, mixed with anti armor.
I went to Ft. Irwin in 1965 to qualify on the main gun of M60 tank. It was my first time in a desert and I was amazed how the temperature swings between night and day.
Great Video, nice to see support for our troops.
In the 80's I was in the California Army National Gaurd, we used to train there on the weekends and some times on our two week summer training.
Fast forward to the 2000's and as a trucker I hauled military equipment to Fort Irwin for units that would go there for training.
I've been on just about every base moving military equipment.
Hi Sarah I spent 20 years in the Navy been in three wars in the gulf I was an aircraft mechanic Jet engine
I could feel my pulse quicken when you were firing those guns. Reason enough right there to take the tour. Thank you Sara, I enjoyed the heck out of this video.
Very good video. Mater of fact it was great.
Awesome video Sarah! Thanks for sharing this with us. And to our soldiers…”Thank You for Your Service”
Thanks!
Hello Wonder hussy. It's your friend Ted from San Antonio Texas. I really wish you would come check out the Alamo sometime. But you probably already been there. Every time I visit the Alamo I feel a somber feeling over me. It's the same feeling I get when I'm in Gettysburg on the battlefields. It definitely looks like you had fun girl, you and your sister I enjoyed the video
Great. Our soldiers are learning how to patrol Russian villages. Just great.
Oh, well. I'm past draft age.
GREAT VIDEO! I always love your work!
I don't know how you keep outdoing yourself......but you do! Amazing. Thank you for your hard work.
You are having too much fun! Love your approach to life!
I really enjoyed this video. Thank you for sharing your tour of Fort Irwin. I'd love to do this myself!
Thank you, Sarah for the walk down memory lane. I actually endured that post for 3 years (91-94). Great video, as usual.
Man, I wish I was in better health and able to travel like this!! I absolutely would be living that life lol.. I stumbled on this channel and it’s pretty interesting and entertaining.. gives good travel ideas for those who wish to do so 😬👍
Ah I’m stationed at Irwin now. I was on the other side of the box that day. Your first Irwin video got me started on your channel.
I worker there in the early 80s and they didnt do this back then.
Fort Polk in Louisiana was the training base for troops heading to Viet Nam. Had hamlets, etc along with fire ranges where gunships did fire support.
Worlds biggest game of laser tag - the live fire range out there is insane too. Got to see it in action in the 90's - pretty incredible training!
I was stationed there as an Observer Controller from 1994-1998, 2 weeks in the field every month except towards the end of my tour when they cut down on the number of player rotations from 12 to 10 a year. Give me a HMMWV and a map I'd still be able to find places, I always navigated by terrain features and never used the GPS they gave me (I was afraid I'd lose it and have to pay for it so it stayed locked up,) That backfired on me one time when snow actually fell and covered all the terrain features (mountains, hills and the like) I used to navigate by but to my suprise I still came with 100 feet of where I needed to be though.
Thank you for your service soldier. I just missed you. I was a Blackhawk crew chief there, 1999-2002.
@@jbgood7694 Nice. Right back at you. Here's what turns out to be a weird story. One of the Cdrs of Operations Group which was in charge of all the OCs during my tour there was COL Grazioplene he was a big change because usually these battles were relatively quick (in fact the CDR of OPS Group he replaced ended up being the General on the Ground in Operation Iraqi Freedom he definitely trained as he fought they made Baghdad in record time) till he came along. Instead of 3 hour battles, they lasted for like 5 hours or more he wanted the combined arms reserve to deploy, etc. We were not happy campers because some of us after these battles still had a 40 mile trip to get home to Barstow after being out in the field for 3 or 4 days. Here's the weird story it turns out Major General Grazioplene (he got promoted) was court martialed for having sex with his preteen daughter in the late 1980s she reported him years later. He was reduced to 2LT (the last rank they said he served with honor) and since he plead to the charge got time served of 18 months. The Arny couldn't bring charges because the 3 year statute of limitations had long passed so civilian authorities took it up.
@@joewenzel5142 I don't specifically remember that COL but at the time BG Webster was the post commander. He retired as a 4 star General. BG Thurman replaced him. Later he became 4th ID Commander and led the surge in Iraq. He also retired as a 4 star general. During my time there I loved flying as a UH-60 crew chief all over the desert, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. I was in an episode of the History Channel. The recreation of the rescue of a Special Forces team in Iraq during desert storm. Now I work there on the UH-72 Lakotas.
@@jbgood7694 That is so awesome. I probably watched your episode. Just down the road from me lived a Blackhawk pilot who worked at Ft Irwin but their helos were kept at the Daggett Airport. He was transferred to Ft Rucker must have been 10 years ago.
@@jbgood7694 That is awesome, I probably watched your episode. I had a Ft Irwin Blackhawk pilot that lived just down the road from me, they kept their helos at the Daggett Airfield. He got transferred to Ft Rucker I believe must have been over 10 years ago now.
Trained at Fort Irwin years ago. Looks like it hasn't changed much.
The gum is Chiclets, they are great. You can get it online if it is not in the store. If you do get to go to the place again ask if you can see the old miner caves, they are a ways from the front.
The language was probably the "ancient Moldavian" Leslie Nielsen and Mel Brooks used in "Dracula: Dead and Loving It."
Really interesting video.
I was born there 1959
Our military needs to do more of this at all bases!! That looked like hecka fun!!
Did training there for 3 months times 2 in the mid 90s. We used play the OPFOR. Love being the bad guys.
WOW!!! I was stationed there when it was known as CAMP IRWIN. When I was flying down that direction, none of the military information centers at the airports had it on their maps. When I got down to L.A. I was told to take a bus out toward Barstow.. I got to Barstow at midnight and I seen some soldiers and I ask one if he knew where Camp Irwin was...Started laughing and said ya, 32 miles out in the Mojave desert. Told me he was leaving that hell hole. He told me to get on the bus that he just got off of. He said it was the last bus going to the camp. I spent 6 months there before leaving for Vietnam. I worked on tanks and PCs. Got there is April 1967 and left in Sept 1967.
Freaking cool vid sis loved it
You were there before my Summer and weekend trips there while in the National Guard in the early 70's. Remember the swamp coolers in the barracks that lowered the Summer temperature for 95 to 85 indoors. You probably worked on some of the M113's that we explored the desert in.
Thank you for your service to our country
Those vests the actors are wearing are called MILES gear. Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System, basically laser tag for the military.
Very different from most of your videos, Sarah. I loved it. Thanks.
My birthday is May 29th, I’m checking right now if they have May 31st available because this is super cool and would be an awesome bday trip!! It would be well worth the drive from Los Angeles. Thanks for such an informative video!
Awesome knocked outa da park vlog, Wonderhuss'.🤘🏻 Thank you for helping liberate Eastern Europe all the way to Kuwait!!!!
My nieces' husband was stationed there in 2000. Eva n Charres w 8 kids. I remember the black stallion on the shield ensigna.
Are you out of w/h stickers? U need 2 slap 1 on the tank. "Where do you🚽?!?"
They jump out n scoop out a hole in the sand!😅 hey, the museum director looked like Tommy Chong, heehee. And I thought the gum were earplugs.
The shots of machine gun was too fast! More of you, rippin' off hot incoming pissed off bees! Hope you vlog more on that. Even in the museum, it's like you're a kid tugging on my shirt sleeve sayin', "Lookit dis!Lookit dis!LookLookLook!"😅😉😉slow your roll, dude. Oh,,,those mre's,,,girl, ya need Fritos!!!! For the chili n mac hahaha crunch up a bag of fritos for your next tour. I do have a military field can opener, the P-38, or P-51, but no mre's🥙🍱🥞🍵
Holy Crap! That looks SO dang cool! :) Thank you so much.
I always thought I'd have nightmares later in life about Ft Irwin but actually I look back at it with fond memories. Some excellent training and good people. It feels weird, but I miss the place.
seems you missed Palo Duro Canyon - 2nd largest canyon in the US and just minutes from where you were in Texas it's simply superlative
The Box... Great memories! You got the best MRE there is!
Sweet vlog young lady! Always very entertaining no matter what the subject is! Bravo! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Well a BADASS episode. Hat's off to our military and for sharing Wonderhussy! Can't believe the Army let you film that. But maybe there's not much of a Secret anymore?🍀
I've never imagined or wanted to go to Ft. Irwin, California again, until now. LOL Here's to 1/4 Infantry. Hoenfels, Germany's version of the "Box". The Fiddler's Green is where we'll meet again.
Awesome 👏 W.H.
I trained there in the 90’s , right before our tour in the East.
I trained in FT. Irwin in 1979 with a Hawk Missile Battery, spent 23 days in August, what fun? Wouldn't like to do it now. As the Army use to say great training... I remember cooking an egg on a Deuce and Half truck in only 5 minutes, great training?... Thumbs Up my Lady!...
I am very sure that by visiting the Fort and doing the tour,,, you have an understanding of what our young Army soldiers go through. Since you went to school on a base in Germany, you know a gooddeal already. Yet things have greatly changed even in a few yearstime.
Yeah, we used to do that in Naperville, Illinois when I was a volunteer first responder. We'd get a few old junk cars brought in and the fire department would use the "jaws" to cut them open to get the volunteer "victims" out of their "wrecked" vehicles. Then the junk yard would haul them away and finish scrapping them. Laxative gum?!? HAHA!
I've had chances to fire full auto weapons. They are fun, but sure burn through bushels of ammo pretty quick. Makes for a short range visit. Anyway, I'm glad you two had fun at Fort Irwin. I certainly had fun watching the video. Much love to you two ladies.
Bless you for the respect you had for those soldiers!
In the Army we called it a post, not a base.
This episode was among your best ever, imo!
Reminds me when I was a "Civil War" Ren-actor(1860's to 1865)
Thanks. Another enjoyable video. Very interesting.
We were MOB'ed there for 2 years, 2004-2006 to take over the OPFOR mission for the 11th, who were going to Iraq. It was hell on earth. I would rather spend another year in Afghanistan any day.
Huell Howser would be very proud of you, Sarah.
He’ll was a nice guy but Sarah asks better questions
I was stationed at Ft. Ord but flew helicopters to Ft. Irwin and usually got stranded a few days due to high winds. I was there for the grand opening of the bowling alley. This was back in the early 80s. Was not much there back then, but was even interesting back then.
Looks a lot nicer than when I was a 'filler' for the California Army National Guard back in 1972. As I remember it was the hottest place I had ever been in my life.
Great episode. Our soldiers are awesome.
It's come a long way since I worked there in the late 80s.
That was great! For a moment I felt like you were in a different country.