Marine Corps League’s new parade float taking shape | Sequim Gazette

The Mount Olympus detachment of the Marine Corps League is working on a project to give themselves a new and interesting presence at parades in the future: a replica of an LVTH-6A1 amphibious armored fighting vehicle.

Inspired by a smaller wooden replica tank made and brought by a VFW group from out of the area a year ago, Mount Olympus members decided to not just make their own version of that, but to make something bigger and that could move under its own power.

Former detachment commandant Mark Schildknecht said the idea started to come together in December 2018, and they’ve been hard at work since then to make their idea into reality.

While the Mount Olympus detachment used to have access to a collector-owned M-37 weapons carrier from the Korean War, that vehicle is no longer available to use. Needing a replacement, members were inspired to build the replica of another Korean War-era vehicle.

The LVTH-6A1 is a variant on an amphibious landing vehicle used in the 1950s that instead of carrying Marines was designed to bring fire support ashore in the form of a turret-mounted, 105mm Howitzer cannon.