Skateboarding in the Military

Tomorrow is Veteran's Day, and in celebration and honor of our troops, I thought we could talk a little about the rich history that the military has had with skateboarding.

You might be confused. You should be. But, as you can see by this cool photo, the military did once have in mind to actually use skateboards in combat situations. Click the photo to check out a much larger version of the picture at the Defense Visual Information Center. Here's the caption for the photo:

LCPL Chad Codwell, from Baltimore, Maryland, with Charlie Company 1st Battalion 5th Marines, carries an experimental urban combat skateboard which is being used for maneuvering inside buildings in order to detect tripwires and sniper fire. This mission is in direct support of Urban Warrior '99.

Too bad this plan got cut! Man, can you imagine? Honestly, I can't see how riding a skateboard would actually be useful in a combat situation, but if it was, how sick would that be?! War movies would have looked way different ... I'm impressed that our military thinks so outside the box.

Even though Urban Warrior didn't turn out with skateboards after all (as far as WE know ...), I'm stoked that the military was, and is, not anti skateboards and anti skaters. For example, tomorrow there will be a Veterans Day All Military Skateboard Contest in Coronado, California. The link tells you little more than that it exists, and time and location. I bet it'll be fun.

So here's to our veterans! If you are a veteran and a skater, or if you know of other military skateboarding stories or contests, please post a comment below!