R/C Truck Gift Saves Lives of 6 Soldiers

[MA-Caver]

If the military used some of it's funding for buying these R/C 4X4 trucks and cars I wouldn't mind, since they could save more lives.

In 2007, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Christopher Fessenden received a gift from his brother Ernie, back home in Rochester, Minnesota: a radio-controlled model truck with a wireless video camera.

Last week, says Fessenden, who's now stationed in Afghanistan after doing tours in Iraq, the gift came in handy. It saved the lives of six of his comrades, he told ABC News.
Fessenden used the toy truck to run ahead of him and his fellow soldiers to scout for roadside bombs when they were on patrol. Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) have been a major source of U.S. casualties in both the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
Fessenden said that last week he had loaned the truck to a group of six soldiers who were going out on a patrol. At one point, it got tangled in a trip wire, setting off a bomb. The soldiers, in a Humvee behind the remote-controlled truck, were unhurt. Had it not been for that model truck, it would have been the real one--the Humvee--that set off the explosive, likely meaning the soldiers would have been killed.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/remote-control-truck-gift-saves-soldiers-lives-173932215.html

But how neat would it be if folks who have old ones sitting in their garages never being used again or slightly broken and collecting dust could get them repaired and sent to the troops.
Hmm, mebbe a collection could be made.

Worth a try.

 

[granfire]

If the military used some of it's funding for buying these R/C 4X4 trucks and cars I wouldn't mind, since they could save more lives.

But how neat would it be if folks who have old ones sitting in their garages never being used again or slightly broken and collecting dust could get them repaired and sent to the troops.
Hmm, mebbe a collection could be made.

Worth a try.

I am guessing the one in the story was one of a series of 'spy toys'
but I suppose in this case the video camera was just incidental to operate it in this manner.

Go Truck Go!!
I might keep an eye out for them in thrift stores and yard sales...