A.J. picked up Francis earlier today. Francis, as you recall, is a Vietnam era M-274 mechanical mule. Four-wheel drive, four-wheel steering, it can go just about anywhere, just not very quickly. A.J.’s plan is to strip it down and restore it to its original military look in time for the Baja 1000. It will sit inside his 28-foot U-Haul (nickname AWACs) which will be our rolling command post for all the super secret stuff we’ll be doing for the race this year.
A.J. asked if I would post this shot of him, to demonstrate that he does, in fact, know which end of a plasma torch to hold.
“A.J., when you visit Francis this weekend, get a photo,” I told him.
“Ok,” A.J. said.
This, obviously, isn’t a photo of Francis. It is, however, a photo of the aluminum ramps A.J. scored off Craigslist to get Francis (and our pre-running motorcycles and maybe my ATV) on and off of AWACS, which will be our mobile command center for all future races. The man knows his Craigslist and I defer to his mad skillz.
Something came over A.J. tonight and he decided that he really really really needed an M274 mechanical mule, aka “Carrier, Light Weapons, Infantry, 1/2 ton, 4×4”.
After lengthy consideration, we decided to name it “Francis.”
The M274 Mule was introduced in 1956 to supplement both the 1/4 ton trucks (“Jeeps”) and 3/4 ton trucks (Weapons Carrier Series and M37 series) in airborne and infantry battalions. 11,240 Mules were produced between their introduction and 1970 when production ceased. They were used throughout the Vietnam Conflict and other U.S. military operations until the 1980s as platforms for various weapons and for carrying men, supplies, and weaponry/ammunition. They offered absolutely no protection to the driver yet that was relatively unimportant as they were mainly used as cargo carriers and medium-range infantry support vehicles rather than close-combat anti-infantry vehicles. They were phased out from military usage in the 1980s with the introduction of the HMMWV series vehicles. The HMMWV was however unable to fulfill the role of the Mule so the M-Gator, a military variant of the popular John Deere Gator vehicle, was introduced.
Francis will live in A.J.’s renovated 28′ U-Haul, which we’ve named AWACS because it will have a satellite dish. Francis will go for food, haul spare parts and retrieve 1107 if it breaks down in a particularly technical section of the course.
Here’s a video of someone putting a mule through its paces:
