You have to be a special kind of nuts to take a tracked vehicle from the United States military on a joyride. Every last military vehicle in the inventory is, by most people’s definition, large. You aren’t hiding in one. And you will scare the general public half-to-death when they see tons of tracked vehicle running up on them when they least expect it. But that is exactly what happened in Richmond, Virginia two days ago, when a 29-year-old officer took an M577 armored command vehicle on a strange trip that led police on a two-hour chase into downtown Richmond. The officer, First Lieutenant Joshua P. Yabut, was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of drugs, felony eluding, felony unauthorized use of a vehicle, and that’s just the civilian side of the house…Major General Timothy Williams, the Adjutant General of Virginia, has already come out and said that they are investigating as well and “will determine appropriate actions once the investigation is complete.”
The obvious question on everybody’s mind has to be about what Yabut was seriously contemplating when he left a training activity on Fort Pickett and proceeded to head into town at 40 MPH. We aren’t about to start speculating on that…that’s for the military and the state of Virginia to figure out. What we do know is that we’re glad that nobody was hurt in this incident, that the only offensive actions taken were against Yabut (he met the business end of a Taser and a police K-9 officer) and that nothing got crushed on the trip.
Military vehicle thefts like this are rare. In 1986, a Marine Lance Corporal “borrowed” an A-4 Skyhawk for an aerobatic flight after an aerial embolism ended any chance of military flying in his career. In that incident, nothing was hurt or destroyed. The same couldn’t be said for the actions of Shawn Nelson, who stole an M60 Patton tank from the California National Guard and went on a 23-minute rampage, crushing cars, toppling over lightpoles, and even attempting to knock down a bridge in San Diego back in 1995.
What’s even rarer: an M557 running at 40 MPH for two hours without blowing up. Mechanics, take a bow.
Those are some serious drugs somebody is cooking up in Virginia!
The 1st LT’s deployment will be to Leavenworth.
Naw, he’s an officer. He’ll get a promotion and a bronze star.
You can find on you tube the guy who stole a tank down near San Diego maybe 20 years? ago and drove all over knocking down light poles, street lights, and flattening parked cars. That guy was crazy!
I agree, the mechanics should get an ARCOM. A NATIONAL GUARD 577 DRIVING 60 MILES!!!!!! That is what’s crazy. Didn’t even have a class III leak anywhere! Seriously that’s rarer than some idiot joy riding a military vehicle.