[1] When an IED (Incendiary Explosive Device) explodes in the proximity of a military vehicle, the vehicle may be left unable to move under its own power. The vehicle crew must dismount from the vehicle, risking their lives, to hook up a tow bar to the vehicle. This makes the vehicle crew highly vulnerable to attack for the period of 5-10 minutes it takes to hook up the tow bar. A preferred embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus, and method for its use, whereby a vehicle may be quickly towed to safety without the initial use of a tow bar, thus reducing the vul¬ nerability of the vehicle crew.

[2] A preferred embodiment provides a "snatch block" 100 that installs onto the front bumper of a humvee or other similar vehicle. Snatch block 100 is molded as a unitary block of high-strength plastic material. Snatch block 100 includes a plurality of ratchet-like teeth 102 on its underside. A hole 112 extends through snatch block 100 to allow snatch block 100 to be connected to the towing connection at the back of the vehicle. Another hole 104 extends through snatch block 100 to allow a safety chain 108 to be threaded through snatch block 100 and connected to the vehicle bumper at attachment rings 110 (one of which is depicted in Figure 1). Safety chain 108 provides an addition level of safety by preventing snatch block 100 from becoming completely separated from the vehicle in tow in the event that the connection to the vehicle at hole 112 fails. A jackscrew (not shown) may be provided to allow adjustments to the position of safety chain 108 once the vehicle is in a safe location. Figure 2 provides an alternative view of a preferred embodiment of the present invention as installed on a suitable military vehicle.

[3] The use of a preferred embodiment of the present invention is relatively straightforward. Once a vehicle goes down during hostile fire, a lead vehicle backs up into the trailing vehicle so as to hit the trailing vehicle's front bumper. This causes the rear bumper of the lead vehicle to catch onto teeth 102 of snatch block 100 in a ratchet- like manner. Once this has occurred, the lead vehicle may simply pull forward, and the trailing vehicle will be pulled along by the lead vehicle. Once the trailing vehicle has been pulled to a safe location away from hostile fire, a conventional tow bar may be connected to the trailing vehicle in order to more securely tow the vehicle.

[4] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the front bumper of the vehicle

(to which snatch block 100 is affixed) may be reinforced by installing an additional steel support behind the bumper. This reinforcement helps keep the bumper from becoming bent in the process of backing a lead vehicle up into the bumper of the trailing vehicle.

[5] An alternative embodiment of the present invention is depicted in Figure 3. This alternative embodiment comprises an upwardly-turned hook-shaped component 300 extending from a rear bumper 310 of a vehicle. Component 300 is attached to a vertical component 302, which fits into a groove in a front mounting component 304 and is mounted to component 304 via mounting bolts 306 and nuts (not depicted). Bumper 310 is sandwiched between front mounting component 304 and a rear mounting component 307. Two pairs of long bolts 308 connect mounting components 304 and 307 to an extent necessary to prevent the apparatus from falling off the bumper, but not so tight as to prevent some range of motion of front mounting component 304 and its connected components 302 and 300. The reason this range of motion is necessary will be apparent upon inspection of Figure 4, which illustrates a preferred mode of operation for this embodiment.

[6] Preferably components 300, 302, 304, and 307 will be constructed from a rigid non-breakable material, such as steel or some other form of metal. Other materials of similar rigidity and strength may be employed in an actual embodiment of the invention, without limitation and without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.

[7] Figure 4 illustrates a preferred mode of operation for the apparatus depicted in

Figure 3. Hook-shaped component 400 is mounted to the rear bumper of a humvee 401 or other similar vehicle in the manner shown in Figure 3. A slanted surface 402 of component 400 is positioned so as to contact the edge of a bumper 404 of a disabled vehicle 403 when moved toward that vehicle. As component 400 is moved toward bumper 404 (by backing up vehicle 401 into disabled vehicle 403), the force of the angled contact that surface 402 makes with bumper 404 causes a rotational moment to come about, which causes component 400 to pivot in the direction of arrow 406, allowing component 400 to slide underneath bumper 404 and catch on hook surface 408 of component 400. Once this has occurred, vehicle 401 may drive forward and thus tow disabled vehicle 403.