The Experimental Motorized Forces were United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 units formed to use post-World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 military transportation tactics.

The first was assembled on July 1, 1928, at Fort Leonard Wood near Baltimore, Maryland, and deployed on July 17 for United States Department of War

United States Department of War

The United States Department of War, also called the War Department , was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army...

 officers. It formed a 42 mi (67.6 km) convoy 8 mi (12.9 km) long with 240 vehicles and 1,100 men to Upper Marlboro, Maryland

Upper Marlboro, Maryland

Upper Marlboro is a town in and the county seat of Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The live-in population of the town core proper was only 648 at the 2000 census, although Greater Upper Marlboro is many times larger....

. Subsequent convoys from the Fort included one 6 mi (9.7 km) long that camped on the Gettysburg Battlefield

Gettysburg Battlefield camps after the American Civil War

Gettysburg Battlefield camps after the American Civil War were used by the Pennsylvania National Guard, Civil War veterans, the United States Marine Corps, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the United States Army, and the Youth Conservation Corps....

 on July 31; one with 300 men and 96 vehicles to Tobyhanna Artillery Range via Pottstown, Pennsylvania

Pottstown, Pennsylvania

Pottstown is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States northwest of Philadelphia and southeast of Reading, on the Schuylkill River. Pottstown was laid out in 1752–53 and named Pottsgrove in honor of its founder, John Potts. The old name was abandoned at the time of the...

, on August 14, and another to Gettysburg on October 11.

The Experimental Motorized Force to Tobyhanna included a gasoline-electric bus

Hybrid electric vehicle

A hybrid electric vehicle is a type of hybrid vehicle and electric vehicle which combines a conventional internal combustion engine propulsion system with an electric propulsion system. The presence of the electric powertrain is intended to achieve either better fuel economy than a conventional...

 and 1,050 men and 45 officers with "the first armored troop (cavalry); one rifle company of infantry; one machine gun company of infantry; one battery of field artillery and detachments of engineers, ordnance and signal troops. They will be in light armored cars, trucks, passenger cars, cross-country cars and light tank trucks. On its way north the armored car units will engage in a tactical reconnaissance, splitting into four sections and reconnoitering to the front and flanks of the column along different routes."

The majority of the Experimental Motorized Force vehicles were obsolete, and the convoys were conducted nearly a decade after the Transcontinental Motor Convoy

Transcontinental Motor Convoy

The Transcontinental Motor Convoys were early 20th century vehicle convoys, including three US Army truck trains, that crossed the United States to the west coast...

s of the Air Service and the Motor Transport Corps such as the 1919 Motor Transport Corps convoy.