The Engineer Bridge-Launcher Incident

During the mid- to late-1960s, the unpleasantness in Southeast Asia was getting serious. The Soviet military was sending war material, advisors and troops to North Vietnam. At that time, the United States was also sending war material, advisors and troops to the South Vietnamese Army.

At the time, the U.S. Army’s Corps of Engineers was interested in the Soviet Scissors Bridge Launcher. This type of vehicle consisted of a folded highway bridge mounted on a track-laying, army tank chassis. Here’s how it worked:

The bridge launcher drove up to a bank on a river. The operator unfolded the hydraulic-assisted scissors