Posted on 06/20/2013 5:54:27 AM PDT by JoeProBono
GREAT LAKES, Ill.- Two Vietnam-era vessels docked at the Naval Station Great Lakes north of Chicago, landing craft that can hold 200 people each, are for sale, the U.S. Navy said.
An auction of the two LCM-8s, capable of plowing through surf onto a beach, opening a ramp and unleashing an amphibious assault, began Tuesday and ends Thursday afternoon on the govliquidation.com website, the Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday.
Bids started at $25 but reached $13,300 and $15,500 by late Wednesday afternoon.
The landing craft, each 74 feet long, 21 feet wide and made of welded steel, can carry up to 200 people and one M60 tank, and might be appropriate for cruising Lake Michigan, involvement in Caribbean scuba tours or staging a D-Day invasion, the newspaper noted.
The auction is conducted by Government Liquidation, a private company thousands purchased thousands of unused and obsolete items from the Department of Defense weekly and routinely auctions them, company spokesman Melissa Gieringer said.
Customers can inspect the boats by appointment. Winning bidders have 10 days to remove their merchandise.
The auction of the LCM-8s, also known as Mike Boats, began Tuesday morning and runs through 4 p.m. Thursday on govliquidation.com — search for “Illinois.” Bids started at $25, but had reached $6,000 and $6,150 by Tuesday afternoon. Chicago Tribune(HANDOUT / June 18, 2013)
guess you don’t have to mix the gas with oil.
wonder how she trolls???
That’s the exact boat I’m using in the plot of my next novel.
20K, now
Will look into that later. Love looking at surplus stuff.
I don’t want or need any kind of boat but would like to see it just to see it.
Who are likely buyers?
* DHS for assaults on urban areas. These would be a nice complement to their black helicopters and 2,000 MRAPs. Very handy platform for staging raids on Tea Partiers.
* IRS for raids on Tea Party groups petitioning for 403b status. Perhaps there’s a below-decks brig for interrogations.
* Residents of Islamberg in NY State.
Sure could carry a lot of pot!
When I win the lottery I’ll buy one. At one of the victory celebrations after WWII they had one I think at Grant Park along with a 1000 plane bomber flyby over Chicago.
Any cannon with that thing? Or even a couple of M2’s?
“Mike Boats”
Must have transported the “Mike Forces” I’ve read about with the Montagnards.
And now you can own one! :)
No thanks. I’d rather own it in my imagination.
My Uncle was in the navy during ww2. He told me that after one of the island invasions (dont remember which) he and a couple of his 17 year old friends, took a damaged landing craft, that the ramp would not go up on. As long as you went backwards it would stay afloat. The rode it around the lagoon until it finally sank. Just for fun.
Well... that does keep down the maintenance costs.
Tell me about it. Rust never sleeps.
They make great, albeit slow, dive boats.
You could even put 4 Unimog troop trucks on them, and invade Morocco from the Canaries, in a private commando rescue mission. (In the novel I stopped working on.)
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