March 23, 2010
Long time listener

Friends,

I was driving home from work today and did a double take as I rounded the Shuster Park Way bend to Tacoma. On the tracks behind an BNSF train [engine #5394] I saw railcar after railcar of U.S. Military Armored Personnel Vehicles heading southbound towards Oregon. If it wasn't for the Northbound Sounder transit train causing this train to pause, I would have missed it entirely.

Once I realized what I was seeing, I flipped a U-turn and headed to an overpass to get a photograph with my Blackberry. I was less than a mile from my home and was tempted to drive back to retrieve a higher quality digital camera, but knew I likely had limited time to capture what I was seeing. I noted the vehicles were not NEW, but looked reconditioned or used. The top portal on the vehicle was covered and wrapped with heavy plastic [Perhaps an area where the tactical assault weapon mounts --but removed for transport]

I quickly drove over another overpass to get on the other side of the train and pulled into a left-turn-only lane to get a clear shot with my Blackberry set in "movie" mode. I managed to film the entire train from engine to the last railcar carrying the last of many Personnel Vehicles. The video size is about 9MB. The video is about 1 minute and 30 seconds.

I observed a few civilians taking pictures with their phones and most people gawking at the train as it passed by. The video shows a construction vehicle pulling off the road to get a better look. It was obvious to me I wasn’t the only one thinking this was a bit odd.

In all the years I've lived here, I've never seen so many of these types of vehicles commonly used for transporting soldiers, etc.