Modest Proposal. The USMC should donate 5 AAVs to every flood prone city in America!

Modest proposal.  THe USMC should donate 5 AAVs to every flood prone city in America!  Paint them bright red or orange (whatever the color is that the local fire dept uses), slap fire-rescue on the side and when flooding hits and people get trapped the first responders have a viable vehicle to get to them!

I'm sitting here looking slack eyed and silly watching the news covering the MASSIVE flooding in Houston (still haven't even seen a drop of rain...just overcast skies in Central Louisiana).  I'm seeing what some call High Water Rescue trucks being unable to navigate certain streets because the water is too high.

I fear that the lives lost will be much greater than is known at this moment.  I'll skip the discussion about people bugging out and simply respond to the idea that we should be prepared to help.  If Fire Depts had AAVs they could.

Facts...

1.  The USMC has around 400 AAVs in storage.

2.  The USMC is looking to divest itself of AAVs (I'll skip and ignore whether that's a good or bad idea...it just is).

3.  The USMC will soon select an ACV making the AAV redundant to a certain degree.

And finally we once had this capability.  After WW2 the LVTs were used in southern states for flood rescue.  They were also used for wildfire fighting (huge cargo hold could carry a bunch of water to remote regions).

This one makes nothing but sense.  We should do this poste haste.

Note:  I keep making these posts after every flooding event in my region.  The Marine Corps, FEMA, and Dept of Homeland Security refuses to act.  That's a pity.  This is a capability that is sitting on the shelf just waiting to be used.

Note 1:  If giving to cities is unworkable then each state's emergency management center can take ownership.  Even give them to the state national guard but don't let a low density, high demand asset go to waste.  This is workable if they only try!