Duck or a DUK - Grapevine, Texas
Posted by: txoilgas
N 32° 57.653 W 097° 04.672
14S E 679650 N 3648590
The "vehicle" is a converted WW2 amphibous landing craft.
Waymark Code: WM5KN1
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 01/19/2009
Views: 21
This craft has been giving tours of Grapevine, Texas and Lake Grapevine for years. The owner is a cacher and at a recent event gave everyone a ride out to an island in the lake so we all could get a 5 terrain without getting wet. Got to love cachers.
In 1942 General Motors designed the amphibious DUKW, better known as a duck. The designed occurred during the 4th year of WW II, hence the D in DUKW. The GMC plants in Pontiac, Michigan and St. Louis, Missouri produced about 21,000 vehicles between 1943 and 1945.
The two Grapevine ducks were manufactured in June of 1945, just one month after the victory in Europe occurred. Even though these ducks were not sent overseas they do have some historical acts of service.
Quack 1 was loaned out to police and fire departments in Chicago while on tour and were used by the US Coast Guard for training.
Quack 2, the younger of the two has seen action during the flood of the Mississippi River in 1993 and in 2005 was shipped down I-10 to New Orleans where it rescued over 67 people from the flood waters of Hurricane Katrina.
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