I recall an illustration from either Popular Science or Popular Mechanics in the early 1960s that featured, spanning both pages, a vivid battle scene with Soviet tanks and infantry carriers attacking out of the morning mists in Germany. Done in comic book style, the battle raged in the center of the painting, cannon fire, explosions, flashes of bright red and yellow against dark purple and deep blue backgrounds. As expected, nuclear mushroom clouds dominated the distant horizon.

Then, to take the viewer to a more detailed view of the battle, lines radiated out from the central combat to a series of panels on the sides of the pages showing much more detailed views of the battle annotated with captions. The overall title of the article was along the lines of "New Technical Weapons Give US Soldiers Big Advantage if War Breaks Out" and the close up panels seemed ¼ active weapons development, ¼ feasibility projects and ½ US Army meets Tom Swift dream book.

One panel featured robot loaders shown in a cut-away 155 mm howitzer turret. The caption in part  ... robotic loaders and drivers add to artillery power ...", in another panel, infantrymen with individual jet packs were firing as they leap-frogged over astounded Soviet troops. The next panel displayed a small tracked vehicle; turretless, it looked like an infantry carrier but reduced in size by 1/3, hiding in a wood line with the commander making a spot report on an unsuspecting Russian column. The caption, "... using the new M114 reconnaissance vehicle, scouts locate the enemy advance and ...", in the next lower panel ... the robots have a nuclear cannon shell enroute to the Soviet horde. Needless to say, I was impressed!

Interestingly, while the US Army of that era did have active prototype programs for jet packs and one man helicopters and even in today’s budget, programs still fund robotic driver and loader tests, one of the few concepts shown that made it off the artist’s easel and magazine page and into the active Army inventory was the M114 Command and Reconnaissance Vehicle.

It was the only scout specific vehicle developed, tested, funded and widely issued to the active Army in the sixteen year period between the end of World War II until the early 1960s. In many ways, it presaged the M551 Sheridan in both design and fate. The Airborne Command and Reconnaissance Vehicle was built to be fast, stealthy, swim capable and deployable by parachute. It was a blank sheet project integrating new materials and concepts that spanned the designer’s table, the manufacturing floor and Army hardstands in Germany. Prototype and manufacturing milestones were set, then met. The US Army monitored each step and umpired the final acceptance trials. An experienced major corporation managed the program from design to first production vehicle, to final copy off the assemble line. It was an interesting design and a marginal performer with trooper recollections running from "death trap" to "an acceptable performer" .

Thousands were built, about forty were sent to Vietnam where the problems mounted and they were parked and locked. In service in Germany some technical problems were solved but, by trying to retrofit the scout vehicle into a fighting vehicle, old chronic problems mounted. This interesting vehicle was a product of the Cleveland Tank Plant, it was with the 14th Cavalry at Daley Barracks for some ten years with apparently the last ones turned in during the early years of the Eaglehorse in Germany. It was the M114.

To tell the story of the first scout vehicle of the modern Army era, we rely on R. P. Hunnicutt’s excellent, Bradley-A History of American Fighting and Support Vehicles, the historical files of the New York Times, the Cleveland Press, donated images from men of the 2/14 ACR and the memories of those troopers who, had war broken out in central Germany in the 1960s and early 1970s, would have deployed forward in M114s to locate, report and engage the lead echelon of the Soviet attack. BG (Ret) Mike O’Connell, LTC (Ret) Burnis Allardyce and MSG (Ret) Roy Lingle deserve great credit for assisting with this article.

Part 2: ... to the Hands of Troops ...