M213 Ridgerunner-class HTV (Heavy Transport Vehicle)

Hello All.

 

I would like to share some history and stats with you regarding the M213 Ridgerunner-class HTV. The in-story vehicle, the HURON, with CO Captain Jake Billet, is one of these massive beasts, and I thought you'd like some detail on this beautiful American-made monster.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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HISTORY

 

When the H7N9 pandemic first took solid hold, in the U.S., to get vital medicines, personnel and other hard and soft transferrable and transportable goods between infected lands, GDG&M Land Systems LLC (Grusnis, Dietrich, Gilmore & Myszak Land Systems LLC) offered the beleagured

U.S. DoD a new concept in HTV (Heavy Transport Vehicle) design.

 

A combination between a tracked APC (Armored Personnel Carrier) and wheeled HEMTT (Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck), the M213 HTV was offered as a workhorse vehicle that could be up-armored with a variety of small arms and weaponry, including larger turreted weapons like 25mm

chain-fed autocannons.

 

Initially the project was put on hold as there wasn't a need for a juggernaut land vehicle like the M213. Still, the first five vehicles were built at DATP (Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant) in Warren, Michigan. They rolled into service September 2013 as the pandemic worsened.

 

Further vehicle assembly was halted as Detroit filed for bankruptcy in December 2013.

 

With the global and national crisis strangling the United States, Canada bought Detroit and a section of the east side of Michigan, north to Mt Clemens, south to Rockwood, west to South Lyon and Ann Arbor. It was called the Detroit-Windsor Providence starting in May 2014.

 

The already-built and rolled-out M213 transport vehicles stayed in Michigan, stationed first in the Lansing area under the command of Major J. Golczynski and A. "Sonny" Saenz, then the full unit was transferred to Grand Rapids, the second largest city in Michigan. (Detroit had been the

largest.)

 

 

The M213 Ridgerunner-class HTV's were named after the five great lakes: MICHIGAN, SUPERIOR, HURON, ERIE and ONTARIO.

 

With room to seat 24 men, a CO, and supplies in the main body of the vehicle, plus a driver and navigator, it beat out APC's. Typically a commander, front gunner and rear gunner were part of the crew and held topside positions. With four roof-top hatches, these stations could be fully utilized as gun ports.

 

Towing capabilities rival its own weight, the M213 beats the HEMTT and the HET (Heavy Equipment Transport) vehicles when it comes to payload hauling requirements and needs.

 

With wheeled and tracked mobility available on the spot, the M213 is the prime armored transport for any tactical environment.

 

 

STATS

Weight:   72 tons

Length:   32 feet

Width:    14 feet

Height:   12.5 feet (from ground to roofline)

Speed:    Road 52 mph (83km/h) Off-Road: 30 mph (48km/h)

Engine:  Twin Cummins VTA-903T diesel, 1200 hp total

Fuel Capacity:   155 US gal (587 l)

Operational Range:   220 mi (354km)

Transmission (tracked):  XT-1410-5A cross-drive (3 speed forward, 1speed reverse)

                      (wheeled): Allison 4500SP/5_Speed automatic (can be synced with track transmission) 

 

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At the time of this writing, only the ONTARIO and the HURON remain in service.

 

(Illustrations by Tim Holtrop, Jason Conley and Google)

 

 

 

 

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Read about the HURON and her crew in the TRANSPORT Series.

TRANSPORT Book One is available now online and wherever books can be ordered.

 

Kindle

Amazon (paperback)

Barnes & Noble (paperback and Nook)

 

 

TRANSPORT Book One BLOG TOUR

This week, June 23 through June 29, TRANSPORT will be rolling through several blog sites.

 

I will be doing guest posts.

 

There will be TRANSPORT Book One book reviews.

 

There will be discussions on how the whole TRANSPORT storyline came to be, and how the fantastic art, both outside and inside the books, transpired.

 

There is even a CHARACTER post where LCpl. Loutonia Phelps discusses her conversation with Bob the 1950's gas station attendant zombie who appears in Book One.

 

It will be a week of very cool TRANSPORT related shenanigans and info sharing.

 

Links to all blog sites below.

 

And thanks to Stephen Zimmer and crew at Seventh Star Press for making this all happen!

 

 

Tour Schedule and Activities

6/23 The Rage Circus Vs. The Soulless Void     Book Review     www.ragecircus.blogspot.com

6/23 The Tiffany Apan                     Blog Interview     www.tiffanyapanwritingproject.blogspot.com

6/23 Beauty in Ruins                   Guest Post     www.beauty-in-ruins.blogspot.com

6/24 Come Selahway With Me    Character Post     www.selahjanel.wordpress.com

6/25 Deal Sharing Aunt              Book One Excerpt
     www.dealsharingaunt.blogspot.com

6/25 Sheila Deeth               Post on Art of Transport
     www.sheiladeeth.blogspot.com

6/27 Bookishly Me                Book Review     www.bookaddictkim.blogspot.com

6/27 fuonlyknew ~ Laura's ramblins and reviews   Top Ten List
     www.fuonlyknew.com

6/28 Bee's Knees Reviews                          Book Review
     www.beeskneesreviews.blogspot.com

6/28 Alexx Momcat's Gateway Book Blog   Top Ten List
     www.alexxmomcatsgatewaybookblog.blogspot.com
 
6/29 L. Andrew Cooper's Horrific Scribblings Book Review     www.landrewcooper.com

TRANSPORT can be purchased at any online or offline (ye olde walk-in) bookseller venue. Order by name if the store doesn't carry it. :)

 

 

 

 

Heartwell versus Honeywell: Mayor's of Grand Rapids - Fictional and Real

Happy June, folks.

A reader, who is familiar with Grand Rapids (the nonfictional one), noticed the Mayor of Grand Rapids in my TRANSPORT World appears to have a last name that sounds strikingly like the real current Mayor of GR, George Heartwell.



Not a Feral Zombie in the TRANSPORT World, but Mayor George Heartwell of IRL Grand Rapids, Michigan.
 




















Dennis Honeywell is the Mayor of Grand Rapids in my TRANSPORT World.

Honeywell a nod to Heartwell? You bet!

I have not met in person Mayor Heartwell, but I can say he is not a guy who hides in the shadows or behind his other city council members. In fact, he and the rest of city commissioners and elected officials have done wonders for IRL Grand Rapids. (I could tell you horror stories of Grand Rapids in the 1980's, mainly because the town was creepy quiet back then, where-as now...GRAND RAPIDS ROCKS!)

And what about Mayor Honeywell of Grand Rapids circa 2025?

I do not know what kind of challenges Mayor Heartwell endures day-to-day, but I can say Mayor Honeywell, who is a stand-up guy, probably keeps a cabinet of aspirin close by for all the headaches and woe he endures day-in and day-out. His council members are always in an uproar, asking for more in their beleaguered wards, pushing for more security to keep them enclosed and protected within the confines of Grand Rapids city central while complaining they are too boxed in. He is required to endure outside towns and villages coming to the big city asking for assistance or complaining "he" is overreaching his boundaries when it comes to assisting them. (Grand Rapids often sends military transports and aid outside city limits which is met by differing forms of approval, some very negative. Example: Reganshire.)

Most of the Elected Officials of the TRANSPORT World Grand Rapids have either stepped down, left town or succumb to the Viral Blight. The City Treasurer, Rupert Largo, is second-in-command as there is no City Manager, etc. There is no love lost, won or shared by Honeywell and Largo. Honeywell knows the man (Largo) is bucking for his job.

As Heartwell, for real life Grand Rapids, fully supports the great city of Grand Rapids, so does Honeywell.

Heartwell must enjoy his position, as does Honeywell, though...

...In a militarized, post-zombie apoc world, I am thinking Mayor George Heartwell is glad he isn't the one filling Mayor Dennis Honeywell's shoes.

TRANSPORT Book One is available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble online, and at any other fine online or offline (walk-in) bookstore.

What has happened to the Military in the fictional world of TRANSPORT?

A question was posed to me regarding what has happened to the U.S. Government and all the Armed Service departments in the TRANSPORT world.

1. As everything has gone to hell in a hand basket, and everyone has to work together (or, as in reality, it would be great if that happened), the U.S. Armed Services--Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines--have been combined. You have mixed services and service personnel, perhaps not changing when it comes to rank, but sharing skills and training when and where possible.

Example: Captain Jacob Billet (CO of the HURON) comes from the Army sector, while Lance Corporal Loutonia Phelps (the HURON's driver) and Lance Corporal Eddie Mulholland (the HURON's rear gunner) both come from the Marines.

CAPTAIN JAKE BILLET

Art by Tim Holtrop copyright 2014

The Coast Guard and National Guard have also been rolled into this larger lot, though again you will have a mix of personnel with specific training in their respective areas and locales.

It all works well with the national and global catastrophe Humankind now endures.

Or as General Owen Shiffler, an old Texan warhorse, once said (a few weeks prior to collapsing with the virus): "Ya'll get along, I mean, really work together, or I'll put each and everyone of you out in the sticks with nothin' but your LPCs*."                  

* - LPCs, leather personnel carriers, aka, boots.

2. The United States Central Government is still alive and well, though at a reduced capacity. POTUS has issued each state's management responsibilities, except Alask and Hawaii, be their own, offering what military assistance the beleaguered and diminished U.S. Armed Forces can muster. The large cities, where the majority of the military is located, now pay for, and in some cases, totally manage their armed forces units (with the help of the particular units military command). It is basically like each large city with a military garrison has their own little DoD (Department of Defense).

There is still a Secretary of Defense, and a few under-secretaries, but again, separate departments have now been combined into one.

In Grand Rapids, in current story line, the hierarchy would be (for example):

A. Billet reports to Colonel Jackson

B. Colonel Jackson reports to Grand Rapids Mayor Honeywell and city commission

C. Jackson will also report out to whoever is in the government position of JCS (Joint Chiefs of Staff), as needed.

I hope this answered questions and clarified this particular subject that isn't necessarily spelled outright in the story.

There are no silly questions, feel free to ask any other.

Roll out!

Pete

 

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TRANSPORT (Book One) can be found here:

 

AMAZON

Paperback

Kindle

 

BARNES & NOBLE

 

SCHULER BOOKS

Paperback

TRANSPORT Book One Cover Art Revealed

All right folks. Here we go.

End o' last week, Seventh Star Press released an image of the cover art for TRANSPORT Book One.

Full release here:
http://www.seventhstarpress.com/category/peter-welmerink/

Cover art done by Mr. Jason Conley of the great state of Tennessee.
He did a fantastic job on all three book covers.
(And Tim Holtrop did the black and white interior art for all three books! Cool stuff!)

Book One is due out in May 2014.

Contact Info

Hello Friends.

If you have questions, comments or inquiries about TRANSPORT or any other Peter Welmerink tale out there, feel free to correspond with me at: swordandheavyarmor@gmail.com

Until then.

Best regards.

Pete

9/11 and why I write military fiction

I was on the road traveling the other day, realizing it was the 12th anniversary of that awful day. It was on the news, the big memorial event in New York. I watched it for a while before heading out. Said a little prayer for those lost, the families of the deceased and injured, and remembered our military guys and gals out there fighting the good fight.

I passed Camp McCoy as I drove through northwest Wisconsin.

I drove by the Russell Rd Military Museum while driving home.

Thinking a lot about our military personnel both present and past. Thanks you all. I salute you.

Why do I write military fiction?

Because I love the vehicles, the action and adventure in the old stories transcribed by veterans of all those wars. I know it is a grim world, in a world at war, in the fighting man and woman who has to endure being far from home, possibly smack in the middle of an enemies homeland, under fire, or simply enduring a sandstorm and having to literally take your vehicle apart to get all the grit out.

When I write, about my fictional characters and fictional situations (after all, I am writing about a slightly future flung world, post-zombie apocalypse), I often think if anyone in the military might enjoy this craziness in which I write. I write to entertain, to get the story out. And when writing military fiction, more than say sword and sorcery, I often stop and think about our military folk of today and in the past. I appreciate YOU and what you are doing, and our veterans, what you have done.

The fighting spirit. Perhaps that is really what is enduring. Out there, against the odds, probably more often with the odds against you, and yet you endure. You are strong. You keep pushing forward.

Besides the cool military vehicles and the adventure, that is what I am writing about: the fighting spirit, the push to survive against the odds, fighting the good fight, pushing forward.

Anyway, I thank you, those soldiers of today and those soldiers of yesterday, for inspiring me, to write my crazy adventure tales in this Military Thriller genre. Hopefully it is enjoyed. Hopefully I can throw some light moments in there, maybe get a chuckle from time to time. But will always push the fighting spirit, because, like you, this is what my underlying character story is about, pushing back against the odds, and surviving.

(I know in war, not all survive. It's not always pretty. We don't always win. But we will still go out fighting the good fight.)

Pete

TRANSPORT 2 novella underway...and potential cover art?

Okay. I need to share this.

I have the first TRANSPORT novella completed, and subbed to a publisher.

I started the second TRANSPORT novella (tentatively titled TRANSPORT 2: HUNT FOR THE FALLEN) around May 13th, and about 3/4 done writing it.

I haven't started the third TRANSPORT novella, but have a good idea for the gist and guts of it including the ending.

But I wanted to share with you some very very cool cover art sketches for TRANSPORT 2 penned by the very talented Mr. Tim Holtrop. This is all concept art. Not sure if it will be used or not. (If I self-pub this stuff, hell yes, will be working with Mr. Holtrop for some finished cover art.)

The setup for what you are looking at:

Big ruckus between APC Ridgerunner Huron (the massive armored personnel carrier vehicular star of the stories) and an Abrams tank, churning up and spitting gravel and dust about a gravel pit off Butterworth SW, Grand Rapids, Michigan. A hit from the tank's 120mm cannon would be the end of the Huron so the APC keeps up close and personnel to the Abrams. Spc. Loutonia Phelps decides the only way to end this tracked madness is to make like a pirate and board the Abrams. Perhaps dual .45's shoved down the turret hatch and a "Please cease and desist your actions against us, or I'll let off some hot lead like bouncing bumblebee inside your interior."

Why Birds Need To Go

Journal Entry 402
May 22, 2025
Captain Jacob Billet
GRCC Transport Regiment 1

Bird shit everywhere.

I step out on my little balcony terrace and I am assaulted by a metal railing painted white and splatterings on the deck floor. I ain't touching it and it takes me a while to clean up before I feel like sitting out there and enjoying the view. After all, I enjoy a good mug of joe in the morning while looking out over the zombie-infested west side of town.

We need to use more birds for target practice. Get the big 30 and 50-cal machine guns warmed out and just start blasting the annoying winged monstrocities out of the sky.

Today marks the 12th anniversary of what the world now lovingly calls the day the zombie apocalypse began. Some kids, reading too many of those old Horror novels, think the Zee blight began after some satanic ritual was done, making the undead rise, and those that weren't dead, die and become the walking dead. Some uneducated think the dead just rose up and started their consumption of the living populace, you know, just rose up, no reason. Some say the wars in the Middle East and with North Korea, the detonation of "dirty bombs," terrorist attacks, started it all. Some think the government had something to do with it, an experiment gone awry or a means to reduce the population; always conspiracy theorists and theories trying to spread their black gospel.

Meh. Whatever.

It was the birds. Birds. BIRDS!

So today marks the 12th anniversary of when Influenza A virus subtype H7N9, originally reported  to be afflicting China and Taiwan, came into being. W.H.O. (World Health Organization) reported there had been no migratory birds infected, or that the strain would be so severe as initial reports of people affected and dying from it initially were very low.

WRONG. Have wings, will travel.

As I glance out from my perch from the rooftop balcony of the old Grand Plaza Tower, looking west across the Grand River, into the west side of Grand Rapids, where at least three thousand undead residents reside and shamble about...the W.H.O. (better to have been left one of the greatest rock bands than a group overseeing the world's health) was wrong. What the countries with the initial outbreak didn't report (and I couldn't have blamed them at the time) was that the poor folks who'd fallen to the virus, got back up and had to be put back down by force, ie, the roar of a pistol or rifle point-blank in the ole brain box.

Someone fires from another window a few floors below me. A pigeon flying by turns into a cloud of feathers. Heh. Other than the Colonel will hand their ass to them for using a firearm inside the barracks, someone's got the right idea.

The Human Race, the surviving, breathing, heart-beating living ones, has always endured calamities. This is no different I suppose. Those of us who stay on this side of the dirt keep pushing onward. You either survive or succumb.

Yeah, I have had my setbacks, and on some days they want to drag me to that Give Up state, and I sometimes think about letting it all bring me down and consume me (possibly in a literal sense if I were to just walk OUT THERE into our friendly neighborhood face-eaters). May sound a bit cliche here, but, yeah, my daddy and momma didn't raise no quitter. Though I've lost a lot, there are still people who need me, things to do, actions needing to be done to keep our heads above water...and the rot of the undead.

White wash cleaned off my little perch above my world, I step out with steaming cup of joe in one hand. Black and white Canadian honker just so happens to fly by. BOOM! The barrel of my .44 smokes. A pile of black feathers tumbles down, down, down.

"Keep on comin' ya flying plague bearers," I mumble.

As long as we got bullets, birds and Zees beware.

TRANSPORT done and ready to roll

I finished up TRANSPORT in early March and sent it out for a professional work-out to lose some fat and shape it up. Tyson Mauermann did a great job and whipping the story into shape and helping me get it ready to roll in whatever direction I so desired.

It is a novella-sized piece, almost 37,000 words. I don't think I could stretch it out or crunch it down any further to make it better than it is. I am going to try the traditional publisher route first before considering to do it myself. Pros and Cons of both, but I figure until I can build my brand and my own following, if that is how things will come to roll, then I figure I should put it under the noses of traditional publishers who can hopefully offer to reach a wider audience than little ole me trying to wave my own flag. (Though, even with traditional publishing you, as the author, still need to help SELL IT. No problem there.)

Anyway, here is a teaser AND an awesome sketch by Mr Tim Holtrop who, though he offers only this sketch, does some great finished work also.

Will keep you informed.

(Also, have started a new story, takes place in same time/place as TRANSPORT, including some rough ideas for a TRANSPORT 2 story featuring APC Ridgerunner Huron and her misfit crew.)

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The year is 2025.  

When Commissioner Wilhelm DeGage's helicopter goes down in hostile territory, it is up to Captain Jacob "Jake" Billet and his crew to bring the official home. With only an armored personnel carrier, Jake and his crew brave the infected lands, pushed to the limits of their honor in order to rescue DeGage despite the horror of his past transgressions. 

And then there are the zombies. 

Getting from Point A to Point B has never been so dangerous.