At Fort Knox Armor and Engineer Board, a prototype remote fighting vehicle called the C.S. Spalding Invention was created from scrap military hardware using an M114 Command and Reconnaissance Carrier, a lightweight, low-silhouette, Vietnam War-era tracked armored fighting vehicle retired from service in 1973. Constructed of aluminum, weighing 13,100 pounds, and originally carrying a three-man crew, the M114 had been designed for speed, stealth, amphibious movement, air transport, and parachute delivery. Converted at a cost of $4,700, the vehicle became an important early step in military technology by allowing a single remote operator to maneuver a tracked vehicle and fire its weapon systems at the same time to explore new areas, hold land, and protect observers without exposing personnel to direct fire. The remote fighting vehicle was named for co-creator Charles S. Spalding of Elizabethtown, a World War Two Marine veteran and twenty-seven-year employee of the Fort Knox Armor and Engineer Board, and its developers also included Major Manfred Petzinger, Sergeant First Class Kenneth W. Davis, Sergeant J.J. Reinke, Burnice J. Booth of Elizabethtown, Raymond L. Delk of Elizabethtown, Steven R. New of Vine Grove, and Raymond P. English of Brandenburg. In July 1981 at Wilcox Range, military officials first saw the vehicle in operation as a remote operator guided it by television screen using two video cameras strapped to it, and while moving it placed forty-eight of fifty rounds into a target. Equipped with a machine gun on the turret, grenade and smoke launchers at each corner, and a self-destruct device, the modified Army vehicle was developed during a time of peace, placed at American Legion Park, and dedicated on May 8, 1982.