Calling my little yellow beast finished.
For those who don't know the background, during the Apollo Program, NASA acquired a number of Army M113 Personnel carriers to use as launch-adjacent emergency rescue and firefighting vehicles. As 'pillboxes on tracks,' it was intended that, in the event of some just-short-of-catastrophic emergency during launch, an escaping crew could enter the empty-and-waiting 'standby' vehicle to evacuate the launch area with some degree of speed and protection. Other vehicles, crewed and ready at a distance from the launch site, could similarly convey fire and rescue crews to the pad area if needed to assist with the crew's recovery.
These vehicles continued to be used throughout the Shuttle program. In fact, each member of each scheduled shuttle crew -- as a required part of their emergency procedures training -- was taught to drive the M113s. This was reportedly one of the favorite parts of the astronauts' training syllabus. The vehicles could regularly be seen careening around the remote tracks and access roads around the Cape, kicking up clouds of sand and debris as each astronaut 'trainee' tried to master the unfamiliar lever controls of the tracked APC.
In this NASA photo, a scheduled crew seems to be enjoying themselves immensely as Chief of Fire Training George Hoggard (with reversed cap, making the 'give her the gas' gesture) supervises the training session.
And here's my own little 'yellow peril.' The 'speckles' scattered around the stripe area on every surface are the mission patches proudly attached by each crew that trained on these vehicles. #3 seems to have been the one 'ceremonially' chosen to receive this decoration, since most photos of vehicles #1 and #2 show them 'clean.'
To display my little box on tracks I made up a little vignette base based on real photos. Though a shuttle-related locale might have been more appropriate, Cape Canaveral's storied Launch Complex 14 had a cool sign! And no small history to go with it: 14 was used for most of the early Space Program launches, including the Atlas Mercury shots. The 'parking spaces' with the Mercury astronauts' names are part of the restored area refurbished in the last decade. Though Complex 14's actual launch structures have been torn down, the gate and gatehouse remain as a tourist-accessible site on the much-visited base.
