Why was a huge ILNG Military Convoy in Big Raipds Michigan Friday June 8th?

I went into town for some business and along with construction, Big Rapids Michigan was end to end with a military convoy holding up traffic. It was the Illinois National Guard. What are they doing in Michigan, all the way up here in Big Rapids? If it was Michigan National Guard, I wouldn't have posted it.

So what gives?

Anyone know why they were there?

Nothing on the national guard website or Google news.



Heck! I miss spelled "Big Rapids" in the title! How can I fix that? Can a mod help me?

Could be just some training exercise.

Nothing new with the military.

Always something.

They were probably on their way to Grayling for a live fire exercise. Do you know what kind of unit it was? Did you get any bumper numbers?

Originally posted by Manhater
Could be just some training exercise.

Nothing new with the military.

Always something.

I wonder if it might have to do with the drones. What type of training requires them to converge on Big Rapids?

reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck
They were heading to Alpena, maybe?

They do it every summer.

(it keep the mosquito population down )

Originally posted by Doc Gator
They were probably on their way to Grayling for a live fire exercise. Do you know what kind of unit it was? Did you get any bumper numbers?

It was mostly trucks and a few other vehicles. military green, with ILNG on some of them. They had numbers, but I was trying to get in and out of the convoy and was irritated that I nearly missed my turns, not really thinking of remembering numbers. The fact they are from Illinois and were from one end of town to the other made me think a little though. Also, why didn't they use US131 to go north instead of Old 131 (Northland)?

reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck


There were some threads posted earlier about explosions being heard in Michigan. Maybe it could be related to that...

Originally posted by beezzer
reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck

 

They were heading to Alpena, maybe?

They do it every summer.

(it keep the mosquito population down

)

Why go through Big Rapids to get to Alpena? It was a big convoy. Does anyone in the MNG know anything?

This is the time of the year for reservists and national guard to do their two week summer training. My guess is that's what it was. Probably training out of Camp Grayling.

Originally posted by usmc0311
This is the time of the year for reservists and national guard to do their two week summer training. My guess is that's what it was. Probably training out of Camp Grayling.

That seems reasonable to me. Does Camp Grayling we have a deal with Illinois to train their guard?

I think I'll give everyone stars for their replies, thanks.

en.wikipedia.org...
This Wiki article pretty much answers all your questions. Either they are doing their annual unit training or they are doing pre-deployment mobilization training.

It's good to be skeptical though. You shouldn't take everything for granted, but I think you can on this one.

reply to post by seeker1963


If I had a nickel for every wild correlation between two unidentical items that I read about on ATS, I'd have a billion dollars. If I paid back a billion dollars for every wild correlation proved correct, I'd still have a billion dollars.

Originally posted by MichiganSwampBuck

Originally posted by usmc0311
This is the time of the year for reservists and national guard to do their two week summer training. My guess is that's what it was. Probably training out of Camp Grayling.

That seems reasonable to me. Does Camp Grayling we have a deal with Illinois to train their guard?

I think I'll give everyone stars for their replies, thanks.

Not sure but I do have some Michigan National guard buddies that go all over the states for training. Right now some of my buddies are out in California doing their two week summer training. I would keep my eye out though, you never know what's going on these days.

Maybe it was this
Nuclear Cover-Up: Explosions, Military Helicopters Filmed Near Blacked Out Radiation Zone

Eyewitnesses on the ground near the media-blacked-out elevated radiation zone near the border of Indiana and Michigan, where radiation levels hundreds of times higher than normal were quickly removed from public viewing by the EPA, are now sending in a large number of photos and videos documenting massive explosions accompanied by unmarked helicopters, A-10 Thunderbolts, and military personnel. These reports come after a Department of Homeland Security hazmat fleet was sent out to the location after ‘years’ of inactivity.

Every summer we get these posts....guys run into these convoys all over, and it gets the curiosity up.....
Other than some kind of nuke incident (indiana i thinks) and a big boom in michigan (maybe at military base there)theres not much reason to get excited,...except if they start rounding up whole towns .....then post....

reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck


Grayling is a live fire area and it is huge. It is one of the few places around that the military can conduct combined arms training (infantry, artillery, A10s and other ground strike air support all maneuvering and firing in support of a larger mission) to get units used to working with each other. So, to answer your question, yes. Many units from different states train in Grayling.

Another big plus for units to train at Camp Grayling is that there is a lot of equipment pre-positioned there. So if an artillery or an armor unit comes in to train, they use the equipment that is already there to train with. They don't have to bring their tanks or SP guns with them.

Perhaps TPTB believe if they deploy national gaurdsmen to an area other than their homeland, it would be easier for them to fire on civilians. There would be less chance of them having to kill friends and family!

Once again, I'd like to thank everyone for their replies, esp. Doc Gator, and wanted to add some more information.

They were headed south on business route 131 (AKA M-20, AKA Northland Drive). North of where M-20 and Northland become the same road was the construction I was avoiding. I picked up the convoy where M-20 converges so they must have been coming from the east on M-20 then going south. I got out of the convoy at Perry Ave and headed east. Then I came back to head south on Northland where I saw more of the convoy heading north into Big Rapids.

(Had a link here to Google maps but it defaulted to the whole U.S. map)

If they are coming from Illinois, then why not come up the most direct route, I-94 E to I-196 E to US-131 N then go east at Cadillac, or take just US-127 N to get to Camp Grayling?

If they were trying to avoid the highway, they could have gone around Big Rapids. Also, why north and south traffic meeting at Big Rapids? This is between 9am and 10am Friday morning and normal traffic was at moderately high volume. These are the thoughts that have crossed my mind about this.

Originally posted by MichiganSwampBuck
Once again, I'd like to thank everyone for their replies, esp. Doc Gator, and wanted to add some more information.

They were headed south on business route 131 (AKA M-20, AKA Northland Drive). North of where M-20 and Northland become the same road was the construction I was avoiding. I picked up the convoy where M-20 converges so they must have been coming from the east on M-20 then going south. I got out of the convoy at Perry Ave and headed east. Then I came back to head south on Northland where I saw more of the convoy heading north into Big Rapids.

(Had a link here to Google maps but it defaulted to the whole U.S. map)

If they are coming from Illinois, then why not come up the most direct route, I-94 E to I-196 E to US-131 N then go east at Cadillac, or take just US-127 N to get to Camp Grayling?

If they were trying to avoid the highway, they could have gone around Big Rapids. Also, why north and south traffic meeting at Big Rapids? This is between 9am and 10am Friday morning and normal traffic was at moderately high volume. These are the thoughts that have crossed my mind about this.

edit on 10-6-2012 by MichiganSwampBuck because: Removed Google maps link.

Another thing to think about is if they are training for an upcoming deployment they could be using their drive to the training facility as a mock convoy operation or something of that nature. Could explain the different route. When we used to have to travel off base at Camp Lejeune to get to other training areas we used to do convoy ops training.

It was the Illinois national guard in Michigan?

Maybe they were on their way to invade Canada?

Must admit, haven't heard much news from Ontario today.