Freaky Friday, Military Edition: How Did a Scottish Ambulance Get to Aleppo?

It’s Friday, but it’s also Veterans Day. North of the border, it’s Remembrance Day — something I was reminded of when a pair of CF-18s buzzed this writer’s home at 11:11 this morning.

Because of the solemn date, our weekly look at odd automotive news will take on a camo green tinge. Sure, we’d love to regale you with stories of Allied forces turning their jeeps and 6×6 trucks into mobile gun platforms in the mud of western Europe, but that’s in the past.

Today, we look at a Syrian mystery vehicle, militants with wood, and a city terrorized by a bland color.

Far From Home

In Britain’s Independent, foreign correspondent Robert Fisk made a strange discovery in the rubble of Aleppo, the Syrian city at the heart of a murky, maddening and apocalyptic conflict.

Fisk, who (as per tradition) criticizes Israel before tackling the subject of the article, writes of the discovery of an ambulance in a bombed-out weapons factory in the besieged city. A right-hand-drive model, the vehicle certainly didn’t look local. The writing inside? English, with a message alerting everyone of its ownership by the Scottish Ambulance Service.

So, how did the vehicle find its way into the heart of the world’s bloodiest conflict? Was it donated in order to help relief efforts, or purchased without humanitarian help in mind? The vehicle’s VIN number was sent to the SAS, who have yet to respond.

One Scottish Reddit user has a likely explanation. The SAS auctions off ambulances that have been pulled from service, the user claims, with most of the vehicles bought by private ambulance services. That particular generation of Ford Transit models is notorious for its 3.2-liter diesel five-cylinder “going pop,” the user added.

Still, lifesaving equipment is normally stripped from the vehicles before a sale to private buyers, but the Aleppo rig still had it in place.

Have Wood, Will Travel

From the digital pages of the Daily Mail comes plenty of bikini-clad celebs and this tale of a comical discovery by Iraqi soldiers engaged in fighting near Mosul.

It turns out that ISIS militants might not have all the resources they desire.

After pushing insurgents from the outskirts of the ISIS-held city, troops discovered a partially assembled wooden vehicle sporting Flintstones-like tires and a body that closely resembles a U.S. Humvee. Depending on the thickness of the lumber used, it’s not likely the vehicle could take much small arms fire. Also, it would be hard for a small group of men to propel the thing with their feet.

Much more likely is that the wooden vehicle’s role was to serve as a decoy. Fake military vehicles have “served” armies for at least a century, usually in wooden form, but sometimes inflatable. The inflatable vehicles posses an even greater vulnerability to small arms fire. Never take shelter behind one.

Vehicles in the Color of a Rain Cloud Terrorize City

Okay, this isn’t a military story, per se, but bear with us.

Northwest of Rochester, New York, the residents of the small hamlet of Toronto have something evil in their midst.

That quaint village’s police force recently decided to equip its cruisers with a stealthy paint job designed to blend in to its surroundings and not raise suspicion. The trouble is, everyone’s terrified, and the force will soon have to revert back to a mainly white paint job.

The reason for the fear and complaints, which compelled city council to vote to stop the roll-out? Grey paint. Pending further review, the Toronto Police Service will now order the duty vehicles in their traditional paint scheme.

According to Global News, the council motion “put forth by Coun. Michael Thompson and seconded by Coun. Pam McConnell, asked police to retain the traditional vehicle colour scheme due to ‘growing public concern’ about the ‘military style stealth grey police cruisers.'”

Canada, which, according to itself, is “back,” has recently placed renewed emphasis on its tradition of peacekeeping, because the Boer War, World War I, World War II, Korea, the First Gulf War, Kosovo Air War, Afghanistan, Libya, and the early rounds of anti-ISIS airstrikes were flukes.

Maybe that explains Toronto residents’ fear of grey Ford sedans driven by people they pay through their property taxes.

On a related note, here’s a photo of this writer’s military vehicle during a road trip in 2009:

[Steve Corey/ Flickr ( CC BY-NC 2.0); Michael Curi/ Flickr ( CC BY 2.0); Mike Mozart/ Flickr (CC BY 2.0); Toronto Police Service/Handout]