Oshkosh delivers first FMTV to Wis. Guard - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Oshkosh delivers first FMTV to Wis. Guard

OSHKOSH, Wis. — Usually, Oshkosh Corp. sends its vehicles across the country, if not around the world, to reach their final destinations.

M-ATVs went to Afghanistan. Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacements and Heavy Equipment Transporters regularly head to domestic and foreign military bases thousands of miles away.

The first Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles the company produced, in contrast, made three left turns and ended up 3.1 miles away in the hands of at least two people who helped build it.

Oshkosh Corp.’s first FMTV will stay in the city that produced it after being officially delivered Wednesday to the Wisconsin Army National Guard’s 1157th Transportation Company.

Sgts. Dustin Louden and Tiffany Gorges of the 1157th were more than a little familiar with the new vehicle before it arrived. Louden has driven several of the FMTVs around Oshkosh Corp.’s complex in the last year regularly, as he delivers parts for their production as a yard man in his sixth year with the company.

“There are a lot of similarities between this one and the Stewart and Stevenson models we have here,” Louden said. “But this is definitely an upgrade. It handles good. But I never dreamed we’d get the first one.”

Gorges, about to celebrate her seventh year with Oshkosh, is a final painter.

“It will be exciting to train on something we built,” Gorges said.

Members of the Army and Oshkosh Corp. were on hand for the delivery and were joined by community leaders and members of the 1157th to celebrate the unique event. Army National Guard Col. Masaki Kuwana said about 64 percent of the 18,000 trucks ordered by the Defense Department will find their way into armories just like Oshkosh’s in the next two years as the National Guard updates its fleet of 5-ton trucks.

The contract is valued at $2.8 billion.

“We feel very fortunate to partner with Oshkosh Corp. and our tour of their facilities today convinced us we’re getting a good truck,” Kuwana said. “We need these trucks both here and abroad. It couldn’t be clearer to us today that this will be a longstanding vehicle and a longstanding partnership.”

That the ceremony was held less than a year after the contract was finalized is remarkable in its own right, said Oshkosh Defense Vice President for Army Programs Mike Ivey.

The contract was held up when a Texas company that had previously produced FMTVs challenged the award of the contract to Oshkosh Corp.

“This is pretty fast to get a first delivery,” Ivey said. “We continued to work on the product through the protest period [December 2009 and January 2010]. It took a lot of hard work from a lot of people, too. If we’d have stopped, we wouldn’t be here today.”