Threats from the Hartland
This is a Howitzer Tank, we picked it up in Louisville, Kentucky. Actually, if the truth were told, we had to have it towed onto our trailer. The guts were out of it, no engine, nothing. Anyway, we were taking this to Grayling Gunnery Range in Michigan. They were going to use it for target practice. Now, I need to tell you, that just about a week before we hauled it, was when the terrible explosion happened in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. So, if you kept up on the news, you knew tensions were abounding from all parts of the country. Anyway, we were minding our own business going down the road. When sundown came we were close to the 76 Truckstop in Hartland, Michigan with no more time to get any further, we had no choice but to stop for the night. As we pulled into the Truckstop a mans voice came over the CB and said, "Hey, Trism are you ever going to have a good time tonight." Bo came back on the CB and said, "Yeah, well what do you have in mind?" The voice came back, "Just wait and see, you are going to have a real good time tonight." Well, Bo just turned the CB off, figuring it was a kook, seems like every truckstop has a few.
As we pulled into the truckstop parking lot, a little red car followed us. We went to the very back of the lot, (this is where all oversize loads park), when we came to a stop, this red car pulled right in front of us and just sat there. There were two men in the front seats, and they just stared at us, seemed like a long time, (enough of a time that Bo was getting ready to get out and find out what their problem was), then all of a sudden, the car took off and circled our truck and trailer, then sped out of the lot. We didn't think anything of this, just figured a couple of weirdoes, and then again, we have had harmless people that just wanted to look at our loads. Most of our loads were pretty interesting for the average person. Well, we just got our things together to go into the truckstop and take a shower and have some dinner.
As we sat down for dinner, the waitress asked us, "Are you the ones that pulled in here with the Military Tank on your trailer?" We answered, "yes." She proceeded to let us know what had happened in the truckstop the night before. It seems, that a group of the Michigan Militia had taken over the Truckstop the night before, even to the point of throwing out regular, harmless customers, so they could have some sort of meeting. This waitress told us that the meeting they had consisted of threats to the Military of the United States, especially to Grayling Gunnery Range. They made mention of possibly blowing it up. It got out of hand, and the local police, state police, and even the FBI had to be called in to break this up. So, here we sat with a Military Howitzer Tank on our trailer in the middle of all this, with no where to go. No wonder we were such a point of interest to these people as we came into the Truckstop.
Bo called extended service at Trism, (after hours help), and told them what was going on. They told us to call the local police. A police officer was there within 5 minutes of our call. The first thing he asked us was, "Do you have a gun for protection?" Bo answered, "No." Then he asked, "Why not?" Bo answered, "Because its against the law for a commercial vehicle driver to carry one." This officer made the comment, that he thought that was a pretty stupid law for truckdrivers, and we have to admit we think it is too. How in the world would we ever protect ourselves or our load from such extremes like this? Well, Bo asked him if the story was true about the happenings from the night before? And to our horror they were. After much talking about what we were going to do...sit there and pray nothing happened during the night....possibly getting a police escort all the way to Grayling Gunnery Range that night......taking our load to the impound yard for the night....or possibly just not sleeping all night long. The officer suggested that we pull the load under the lights on the fuel island, where it could be watched from the fuel desk and the local police could check on through the night. This we decided to do, but before we opened a door or started the engine, the police did a through job of checking for explosives. And before I laid my head down for the night, I said a prayer, like never before, but we still didn't sleep very well.
The next morning, Bo called Grayling Gunnery Range and told them of what happened the night before. They told him to get in the truck and head out for the Range. Not to stop for anything, not even a flat tire, if some one tries to get you to pull over, run them off the road. DON'T STOP FOR NO ONE!!! When we pulled off the interstate, at our exit, we had a full Military escort waiting to take us all the way into the range. Once there, they towed the tank off our trailer and we got out of there fast!! From what the personal told us, they had numerous threats of blowing them up, they were on total alert.
We went back down the road to a truckstop we had seen, to call in for another load, and this little Truckstop was in a big hubbub also. Seems like there was a few individuals that were in there earlier and just happened to see us pull off the interstate and pick up our Military escort. They apparently voiced their opinion rather loudly about this, then left. Bo made his call to our dispatcher, got another load real quick, but before Bo hung up, he told our dispatcher to warn all other drivers, Trism was going to haul four of these tanks to the Gunnery Range, ours was the first. So, the company worked out a deal with all the other drivers, that if they couldn't get to the Range before night fall, they were to stop at the truckstop in Toledo, Ohio for the night, then proceed to the Gunnery Range the next morning, not stopping for anything once inside of Michigan. They also ran the three other tanks together for each others protection.
I'm not telling this story to scare the average person into believing that all Militias are bad. Matter of fact, Bo and I uphold our Constitution on the, "Right To Bear Arms," and to have a, "Well Formed and Armed Militia." What we don't believe in is the right for anyone to make threats or carry them out on anyone! We were not attacking them, we were no threat to their existence, we were doing our job not bothering anyone. This is were they were wrong! And if any of them that did this to us ever reads this story, I want to point something out to you...Bo and I are your average citizen, doing a job that we know well, (driving a truck), what we haul may not be to your liking, but it is a honorable job, and it puts bread and butter on our table. If you would have succeeded in your efforts to rid yourselves of this Military Tank, (that you thought was a threat to you), you could have harmed us, if this also was your intentions, then I want you to know, that you would have effected numerous other families with this tragedy. Bo at that time had a mother, two sisters, a brother, all with spouses and children. I also, had a mother, sister, two brothers, and a grandmother in a nursing home that depends on me, the two of us together have two daughters, at that time one was in high school, the other is married with two children. So, you see, it wouldn't be just affecting two people, you would have hurt numerous others. So, the next time you think you need to do something like this again, think of the far reaching consequences.