M114: ... then scattered to their fate.

As late as 1979, the US Army was still washing the M114 out of active inventory. The much anticipated Cavalry Fighting Vehicle was in an endless design and test phase, the M113 would serve as the interim scout vehicle. With so many M114s produced, where did they go?

			Not a few M114s found their way into vehicle museums and onto hard-stands in front of American Legion and VFW buildings.  The vehicle shown here has been fully restored and is currently on display at the Fort Jackson, SC museum.  Either click on the picture or click here to view the other shots of this vehicle.  [All shots taken by Randy Mitchell]

Very little remained of the M114 heritage at Daley Barracks in 1978, except for one often found motor pool artifact. Seemingly every shop and tool truck had several 20mm ammunition boxes recycled into general storage. They were just the right size with convenient handles to live on as holders of "stuff". Elsewhere, beyond the stories of my NCOs, an M114 lived on at the small rec services ski slope at Wildflecken Post. It groomed the slopes and provided snow - cat rescue and maintenance services, probably the last runner in Germany. Stateside seemingly every CONUS post had at least one on a concrete pedestal as a static display. At Fort Polk, the M114 display was hidden away at the very far end of the main avenue, tucked against the fence, no plaque, overgrown with weeds.

At Fort Knox, as with the out of inventory M551s, the M114 was recycled through many test versions, new tracks, new engines, hull and weapon changes. Manufacturers would buff a design up, fresh paint and a fresh concept, and run it before the Armor Board. With passive interest, the comment, "... well, that’s interesting ... what else do you have?".

Apparently some M114s were released to Foreign Sales programs but perhaps its reputation preceded it and the total number seems to be in the low 100s. As expected, the Reserve and National Guard received their share, however, with Federal money pulled out of the repair parts program, the service life of the vehicle was destined to be short. However, once in the hands of the states, many 114s found new life, minus the 20mm cannon, in police blue, the ultimate crowd control toy - urban "attention getter . Many others found their way to local scrap yards and, interestingly, into the hands of private citizens.

The vast majority of the M114s appear to have met their final fate down range as targets for young US Army gunners.  An odd scene on the firing line, tankers and scouts ranging to that small target and taking the final sight picture just as a Soviet gunner would have done.  Not moving and caught in the open, it did not take long to shoot up what remained of the fleet.

BG (Ret) Mike O’Connell

"I recall having the final versions of the M114 when I commanded the squadron at Daley and then we re - flagged to the Blackhorse.  They ran OK, I don't think we had significant problems. My more vivid memory comes a few years later."

"As a Bde Cdr in the 1CAV Div, the BDE + a Bn from the 2dAD + a beefed up DISCOM slice was deployed to Fort Irwin from Aug to Dec 1976 . The purpose of this effort was to conduct the initial test of the National Training Center concept. A Congressman McKeown (?) from NY wanted to make Ft Drum the site for the National Training Center while FORSCOM and the DA staff were set on Ft Irwin."

"Before deciding on a final location they wanted to test the concept. There was agreement on the basic need but what should a BDE do while there on a rotation?? They also wanted to test drawing equipment upon arrival - training with it and then final turn in and all that associated stuff. In this case the tanks were from the Calif NG. We deployed most of our other equip."

"We did an entire series of various exercises from force on force ARTEPs to live fire PLT Battle Runs. The hard targets we used for these battle runs and our other live fire shoots were M114s. These were not just hulls but regular vehicles that had been turned in and placed in storage somewhere. They had engines in them, radios, tracks everything. I recall getting in a tank and blasting the hell out of a couple of those 114s and was happy to do so! After seeing what that old M60 did to a 114 I was glad I never had to fight one of the damn things. I was hoping we would have had some Sheridans to shoot at but no such luck."

M114 Reconsidered

Just how much saber and how much stealth, wheels or tracks, small crew or large crew, tank killer or sneak and peek? These are the questions debated through over forty years of US Army scout vehicle development. The M114 was designed to be an " armored jeep ", scouts would be more mobile and have greater survivability in a small tracked vehicle. It could be bought on a budget and, using off the shelf technology, operated and maintained by a small crew. However, between the first mock up and the first production copy, the program illustrates how compromises, a less than rigorous testing program and "add- ons" can turn an interesting design into a marginal performer. It now seems amazing that the hull-nose issue and the engine performance problems were missed prior to production.

A larger gas engine would have helped solve the chronic power issues, the transmission, running gear issues, and front hull design flaw should have been identified in pre-production testing. Somehow, none of this occurred. The power turret and 20mm cannon, interesting developments in their own right, were not a good match for the M114. Under the added weight, performance was further decreased, the cannon was not a strong performer particularly in rapid fire. In a fight, it could hold its own against Soviet lead echelon scouts and infantry carriers, it could not kill a tank and required a lot of crew maintenance. In Vietnam, that so dominated Army thinking and procurement in the 1960s, the M114 had absolutely no value.

Years later, as the M114 began to wash out of the inventory and consideration was given to fresh designs, civilians, bureaucrats and the active Army looked at hundreds of concepts and mockups in a seemingly never ending first stage competition to identify what would replace the M114 and M113 as the Army’s scout vehicle. For a while, wheels were in vogue, then M113 variants, then blank sheet designs. Everyone knew the M113 was an interim step to buy time but a major decision needed to be made.

Perhaps at Fort Knox, for the men who would make the recommendations, senior grade officers, NCOs and civil servants, coming to work every day past an M114 display on a concrete pad served as a not too subtle reminder. Each day driving in and each night driving home, one could not help but see and consider a concept, design and production scout vehicle that had clearly not worked. The first thought and the final thought of the duty day, "... we must avoid making this mistake a second time ...".

The Army’s new scout vehicle would be big, fast and lethal; there would be much more saber and much less stealth. The legacy of the M114 is of good ideas gone bad and as a silent reminder of what was to be avoided in the future.