Posted by Paul Cook on Monday, January 05, 2004 at 10:56PM :
In Reply to: NY Times mentions Shovel Brigade posted by Don in Missouri on Monday, January 05, 2004 at 2:24PM :
What a coincidence! I was working at McGuire AFB, NJ, and living at Fort Dix, in 1972 when Executive Order 11644 was issued. Please note that I recalled the number of that EO from memory having been involved with its implementation for many years. McGuire AFB, Fort Dix, and Lakehurst Naval Air Station all shared common boundaries. I was a principal action officer in the formation of a motor sports recreational club at Fort Dix. The club supported a wide variety of motor vehicles used for recreation such as street motorcycles, custom vans, 4x4's, trail motorcycles, and - yes, a group of AMC Gremlin owners. Because of the proximity to McGuire AFB and Lakehurst NAS, their service members were invited to participate.
Neither McGuire nor Lakehurst had any areas on those bases for off-road activity. We did our trail riding on Fort Dix in its extensive basic training area. In coordination with the Fort Dix Chief-of-Staff, we wrote a simple regulation based on EO 11644 that provided for us to use any trails that were not located close to where any training activities were taking place. The single restriction was that all our vehicles had to be street legal. There were several public roads crossing Fort Dix through the training area and the "street legal" requirement resulted from the unclear jurisdiction of non-military law enforcement agencies on the public roads and the training roads that intersected them.
Regrettably, many law enforcement officers who will tell us that "ignorance of the law" is not an excuse turn out to be ignorant of the law. I carried a copy of the Fort Dix regulation in a waterproof bag whenever I was riding on Fort Hood. Many were the times I had to show it to Military Police who were actually off-roading or they wouldn't have been where we were. By the way, did I mention that the Fort Dix Chief-of-Staff rode a trail bike and was with me on several of my encounters with the MP's?
I also rode competitive motorcycle events in the Wharton State Forest - events that were sanctioned and approved.
One aside and then I'll get to the point. It was this motor sports club that hosted a military vehicle rally in June 1976 that got me interested in what finally turned out to be the Kempner POWER WAGON Museum. Oh yes, the Army's wheeled vehicle advanced training was also conducted at Fort Dix and there were many confidence courses - much to the delight of the military vehicle collectors at the rally.
Back to the subject... I did a search on the Internet for E.O. 11644 and found many sites. All had excerpts from the EO but I could find none with the entire text. What I could not find was the introductory or related text that specified that ALL RECREATIONAL INTERESTS MUST BE ACCOMMODATED ON ALL PUBLIC LANDS THAT WERE OPEN TO ANY RECREATIONAL ACTIVITY. If a hunter could hunt... if a fisherman could fish... if a hiker could hike... the land manager must provide for bird watchers and for off-road motor vehicles. Of course, there was an expectation of sanity by both the land manager and the user public. There are areas that have no lakes or streams so the land manager need not provide for fishermen. There are areas where either a lack of game or proximity to human habitations would make hunting inappropriate. This is true for us vehicle owners.
The real issue here is that a POWER WAGON is not an ATV. But the typical land manager deals in stereotypes. Lacking any sense of reality (or any sense at all) they retreat behind the "ALL" concept in their prohibitions. Many of us have ATV's to expand our off-road horizons. This reinforces the land manager's stereotype. If there were no ATV's, our case would be definable in clear terms and we would be able to present a winnable case. John Eichof's fight stems from the "ALL ARE EXCLUDED" instead of the issue of properly registered and insured motor vehicles being operated on legally defined public roads. Note that Personal Water Craft are the ATV's of the waterways and the same issues exist betweem and real sailors.
I moved from McGuire/Dix to Fort Hood, Texas, in 1976. Fort Hood was the home of The Army Competition Motorcycle Team. Fort Hood was also the home of the first Army (recent history) motorcycle scout units who rode the Rokons. I joined the Fort Hood Dirt Riders Club, a Non-Appropriated Fund Instrumentality. That means it was an officially sanctioned and recognized activity that generated its own funds and received no tax dollars. Eventually I became the Fund Custodian. I was appointed on Fort Hood Orders and was the sole individual responsible for compliance by the Club with all applicable regulations and directives. EO 11644 was my Bible, my Farmer's Almanac, and my dictionary. Were there problems for this officially recognized Club? I was called in because someone had hooked a vehicle to some concrete picnic tables and tried to pull them out of the ground. The vehicle left two tire tracks about six inches wide and spaced about (insert the tread width of a pre-Chrysler small, popular, open, military derived 4x4) inches apart. Clearly it was a motorcycle. I presented an offer from every motorcycle dealer in the area to submit their entire inventories for examination to find one motorcycle that could have made these tire tracks. With great reluctance, the accusations against the motorcyclists were reduced to - "you are off the hook this time, but we'll be watching." Good motorcyclists are persecuted because they ask permission and stop when challenged by authorities in the field. Bad motorcyclists can and usually do flee leaving the good guys to take the heat. When I retired from the Army, I no longer had this job.
Fortunately, in my second career as a Civilian with the US Army, I had a little clout. I dealt with various members of the Command Group and had access to some folks whose decisions were seldom challenged. We held two Texas POWER WAGON Reunions on Fort Hood with all land clearances approved. Still, each time I was called in about the event. The first was several weeks after the event was over. Some overzealous, low-ranking civil service employee who was reading a newspaper instead of doing his job sent a memo about our having been trespassing based on an article describing the event. The second time, a mid-level manager who was below the approval process I used resented being bypassed and tried to have the event cancelled. Some months later, based on an initiative I suspect was started by the bypassed guy, Fort Hood was closed to all 4x4 activities because "4x4's tear up the tank maneuver areas" - yes TANK as in Main Battle Tank, M-1. I wouldn't want the General who made that decision leading me to the ice cream shop, let alone in a situation where my life was at risk. To be honest, the General probably was not even consulted and some lackey made that statement on behalf of the General. This General was like the King who was wearing no clothes. If I were a General, I'd have someone to tell me when my bare butt was hanging out even though my lackeys were complimenting me on my attire.
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