During this year’s Ironton-Lawrence County Memorial Day Parade, the sheriff’s office made quite the impression on spectators with a new, rather large military vehicle.

Sheriff Jeff Lawless said the department acquired the deuce-and-a-half military truck about three or four months prior, but decided to have the vehicle’s debut during the parade.

“The public was really surprised to see it,” Lawless said. “We had a lot of questions about ‘What are you going to use that vehicle for?’ Everybody that I talked to loved the truck, and of course, we do too. It’s a beast.”

The truck is a 2001 model and came to Lawrence County from the Defense Logistics Agency at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton. Lawless said his department applied for that specific vehicle about a year ago, as well as four humvees.

The sheriff’s office was awarded the humvees as well, but Lawless said there is no set timetable to receive them.

The truck was, however, delivered in good working order.

“This thing is in awesome shape,” Lawless said. “It only had 17,800 miles on it when we first received it. And the power meter only showed 665 hours. The tires are in good shape. Other than putting the sheriff’s marking on it, that’s the only money we’ve had to put in it. And diesel fuel.”

Lawless said the vehicle would be used in natural disaster or SWAT situations. The humvees would be used in the same situations.

“Humvees will go just about anywhere,” Lawless said. “We have a rural county and a lot of roads and areas those could be very helpful on. Those vehicles would get you up and down any hollow you want to go in. And we would also assign one to the SWAT team to keep their equipment stored in and ready to go at all times.”

In the future, Lawless said he would request lighting and generators from the military program to aid after-dark crime scene investigations and emergency situations that need portable power.

For now, Lawless said he was glad to have the military truck at no cost to the country. The truck originally cost the government more than $67,000, he said.

“That’s a pretty expensive piece of equipment to be added to Lawrence County for free,” Lawless said. “We are glad they accepted our request and we can provide a vehicle like this to assist the citizens of the county.”