The Humvee: America’s Workhorse, Forty Years and Counting

Join us on a journey through the Humvee's history - from its inception to its potential future as a drone. Explore its success, challenges, and iconic status, and see what's in store for this versatile vehicle.

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[donwyoming]

Loved the Hummer. It changed so much from 1990-2010. Forced into roles M113s, Bradley's & Strykers were meant for.

[Soulessdeeds]

love Hate relationship here. I was in Iraq for the first rotation in. My unit was one of the first to experience the IEDs effectiveness. The result was 1114's shredded like someone shot paper targets with bird shot. And we lost some of our guys and their commander was relieved of duty. We lost 2 Bradley's and 1 Abrams in that deployment. But it was the 1114's that were the biggest help and failure for us. My 2nd tour I had to go to the boneyard in Kuwait to scrap for parts for 1114's so my unit could convoy up into Iraq from Kuwait. There are 2 times I ever cried openly over there. Once in that boneyard and the other when a friend of mine was suddenly killed by a rocket. I still to this day vividly remember how massive that boneyards collection of destroyed Hummv's was. And most were testaments to fellow soldiers deaths and mutilations from IEDs and RPGs. Before Iraq I had great faith in the Hummv's and happily drove them around performing my duty's. But after Iraq they simply became coffins on wheels. I will never see Hummv's as anything but. I did 3 tours over there and the last was when the Army was just getting the Maxxpro MRAPs. They are incredible vehicles and for once I started to see patrols come back regularly unharmed even after taking the latest and greatest IED's. Something the Hummv's simply could not do anymore.

[CharliMorganMusic]

The humvee gets a lot of flak for being a 'gas guzzler, " but compared to everything else in our arsenal, they're basically compact cars.

[edwardloomis]

It was a huge improvement over M151 jeeps. More stable/less top-heavy, damn near impossible to get stuck. The big downside was how wide it was relative to jeeps. However, you didn't want to get shot at in anything other than the armored MP version until everyone got up-armored. I concur with the person commented on how hard riding long distance was in one, since there were no springs or sufficient cushioning under the seats, you were pretty much sitting on a hard box going over mixed terrain.

[JetS_Gamer]

As an Australian, the thought of the Humvee, has brought me to think about the Bushmaster military truck that is produced here in Australia, and wouldn't mind if you may do a video about that in future

[ItsSeanTheProducer]

I remember sitting at my desk at Fort Dix in early 1986, and reading the Army Times article about the troops' reactions to the HMMWVs that they were putting through initial field tests. The article said that the troops immediately loved the HMMWV... and that they were calling them "Hum-Vees".

[BlackEpyon]

The HMMWV's reputation for "bad mileage" was because of the earlier iterations of the 6.5L Detroit engine block which didn't come with a turbocharger. These are the surplus models which usually find their way onto the civilian market. WITH the turbocharger, as in the later versions, the 6.5 is actually a fairly fuel efficient engine. I know this because I have two Chevy pickups with that same block that I daily use for towing. It may not be the most powerful V8 diesel for it's generation, but it was economical, and was marketed as such.

[steviesteve]

A very fair assessment. In my 20 years in the Army, I adored it. With my H1 that I have owned 10 years, I adore it. It's a great truck... unless you're running over IEDs. I was always thankful to ride in a JLTV in Afghanistan.

[benjamincardenas]

Fallijah Iraq 2006, the armor was new and every truck had a different kit and door, I had to learn to open the door on every truck bc they were so mixed, sandbags supplemented the gaps in armor. I took 5 IEDs during my tour, I was lucky. We stopped using them and went back on foot bc it was safer. IEDs stood no match to the osh kosh 7 ton, I felt warm and cozy in the 7ton humvees not so much. Cool video.

[SgtBones]

Got our first M998's in germany in the late 80's, the damn things were almost too wide for the border road! Then got to take M998's to war, in 90-91, we had soft tops, no ballistic glass (we took that out before we crossed the berm) and yes, we were jealous of the armored marine hummers (one hit a mine and was left behind, one of the backseaters in my scout platoon stole the armored doors off it!) ahhh, yes, those were the days! Kind of miss the things!

[Thebustedknuckelmodelworks]

I was an HMMWV mechanic in the early 90s in the Army. I loved my trucks they were great.

[robertp]

Every time I got into a Humvee, I always thought for such a large vehicle it has so little interior space.

[banditboy-ktep]

Hard day at work.. come home to a megaproject video.. YES!! Kick back and relax now

[MikoyanGurevichMiG]

Since you did do it on the Humvee, the next natural step would be covering the Jeep(both the Willys Jeep and the Ford GPW) and the Soviet equivalent to the Jeep- the UAZ 469, which to this day continues to be the workhorse 4x4 for the Russian and many post Soviet militaries.

[klonkimo]

I drowned one in Egypt, a MRC-145. Chief told me to go, and I went into the water. 90° nose plant to the sea floor. We had the new MAK kits (1st gen armor kits 2005, don't remember what it stands for) and the water filled to the roof. I was able to swim out of the tiny window. Man I miss that 30" waist of mine.

[ignitionfrn]

1:00 - Chapter 1 - Design & development
4:45 - Chapter 2 - Deployed
7:50 - Chapter 3 - Challenge & evolution
12:50 - Chapter 4 - Retirement & future
15:40 - Chapter 5 - Conclusion

[ronaldschoolcraft]

The engine was produced by General Motors until the end of 2000. In 2001, the production was sold to General Engine Products which was a subsidiary of AM General set up specifically for this purpose.

[eieghn]

Having been a small part of of the Humvee's development in the early 1980's from the engine development of engines, to the chassis', I can say that it is one of the best vehicles developed for the U.S. Armed Forces.

Good

[markholub]

There’s one inaccuracy in this video I wanted to point out. In Vietnam, the NVA attacked supply convoys. This led to soldiers armoring their M35s and making the first modern gun truck. The designers of the HMMWV knew of this but still built an unarmored supply truck. They knew what they were doing.

[defresurrection]

40 years... time flies when you get older.