BRING BACK THE DUKW

Is it too much to ask that in a country beset with hurricanes and floods, the armed forces trouble themselves with amphibious vehicles?  Apart from forcibly delivering Democracy to the Arabs, the US Army and National Guard are charged with rescuing us from time to time from these aforesaid disasters.  So why don't they have amphibious vehicles to do so?

This is all the harder to understand since the US Army was once rich in such vehicles.  The primary but not only such vehicle was called the DUKW, pictured above.  Using their usual practical approach, our WWII era ancestors simply decreed that a certain percentage of all the two and a half ton trucks being made by the thousands be constructed with a water tight hulls and a simple propulsion system.  There was also an amphibious jeep.  They worked very well and old refurbished ones still operate as amphibious tour buses to this day.

So why are there none today?  Somewhere along the line, our need to overcoming foreigners overcame the need to assist our citizens.  The mystery is why no one mentions or even notices the absence of amphibious vehicles to help us poor devils who pay for it all.