OldTankers Comments - M551 Sheridan

When you mentioned that weapon system, I haven't thought about it in years..

Yes, air droppable (once). Fired it several times with the conventional 152 MM. Prior to issuing the the last part of the fire command (fire) you waited a second so everybody could hold on.

Lifted 6" - 8" inches of the ground. Then after firing 5 rounds had to be driven back to the firing point.

Based on a previous post of your's during Veterans Day, you mentioned you were at Fort Knox in 1974.

Long arm of coincidences so was I, going through AOBC.

Later was assigned to an early deployable Armor Brigade with the 1st Cavalry Division.

Qualified on the M-60 A-1.Radio handle Alpha-26.

You are right again, The Airborne was to secure the airfields and 'we' were to be flown in by C5A's and mix it up with enemy armor (T-62's at the time).

Maybe that's why I like farm tractors (I have a small farm)with a Ford 2000 gas and 861 diesel.

The 861 smokes a little bit (but the mechanic said it doesn't affect compression). As you know on a tank, smoke coming out of the grill doors means an injector is bad and the "pack" would have to be pulled. Not a chore if you have an M-88 handy to lift the engine out of the tank.

But in the 861's case it's kind of reminiscent.

Still remember seems like yesterday..

Marc

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This got me to thinking, It would be interesting to know how many members on here were stationed at the same place during the same time period and never knew each other.

I was assigned to the 225th HEMCO at Ft. Sill, OK
in June of 1969 IIRC. I occasionally drove a 10T tractor and drop bed draggin wagon to haul tanks, SP Artillery, and one time, M551's back and forth between main post and West Range. Loading M551's in the rain and red mud, if you eased up to the ramps they would spin the tracks once you were on the ramp so you had to either hit the ramp with more than SOP speed, or if you could park your draggin wagon in a ditch and load it over the side. Either choice left you with an adrenalin
hangover after you were done. That was my limited exposure to the M551's. I would be surprised if all the ozone generated by Traversing & Elevating the main turret (it was electrical not hydraulic) wouldn't give you a headache if you spent enough time in them.
Were your main gun rounds combustible casing rounds or brass? What was the power plant? Was it
a 6V53T Detroit?
Untitled URL Link

Not members being in the same place and the same time, and not knowing each other, in my case my parents and inlaws.

Father was stationed at Ft Benjamin Harrison, Mom was working civil service at the time. They both were there for about 3 years.

In the meantime my Father in Law surrendered in North Africa, machinist in Italian Army. One of the places my FIL was placed after his surrender was Ft Ben Harrison prior to going to Rock Island Illinois.

Mom and FIL got to talking, found out my FIL would move my Mom's desk on the weekends to open up an area in one of the buildings for the POWS to see movies and have church services.

Marc, I was in basic and AIT at Ft Knox in 74 and was back at Knox from 87-91 1st in the 194th Bde and then as a tactics instructor for AOBC. We too are on the family farm that my dad purchased in 72 after he retired from the Army.

Ft Knox 74 basic AIT
Ft Riley 74-76
Panzer Kasern Germany 76-78
Ft Riley 78-80
Korea 80-81
Ft Bliss 81-83
Baumholder Germany 83-87
Ft Knox 87-91
Bamberg & Mannhiem Germany 91-93
Ft Riley 93-96

Ft Livingroom 96-present

Rick

I was at Fort Knox from April to July in 1969 for basic training
I was at Fort Belvoir Va from July to Dec 1969
Arrived in Germany Jan 1 1970 and was stationed at Danier Kaserne in Kaiserslautern Germany in the 57th engineers from Jan 1970 to Jan 1972.
Stayed in the Army reserves until 1987 and went to different forts all over the states. I was in the 180th trans group in Grand Rapids Mich.
I enjoyed every minute I served had good duty every place I went

Ops forgot to mention the tractors.......8N, IH 1206, IH M (really hate that one) JCB TLB. Looking for a 40-70 hp diesel with good hydraulics, independant PTO too.

Rick

I think believe they were brass, my memory on that is somewhat unclear along with the power pack.

I know that we never got the 'green light to fire' the missile.

Interesting about the missile system, was that the AFV could not be fought in a hull down position, like a 'normal tank', in that when fired, it 'dip' until the gunner acquired control of the missile to fly it into the target.

Fortunately I was assigned to a regular tank unit and did not have to deal with it.

Since you were a tactics instructor, when did they switch from a 5 tank platoon to 4? Found out about that when visiting as a civilian a NJ National Guard unit.

Also after the 1973 war in the middle east tank tactics and gunnery changed.

We manuvered in over watch positions, combat carry 'one in the tube' range preset 1200 meters, aim for the base of the form.

Got to ride in a T-62 they brought back from the Golan Heights. Small, everything reverse from from ours. Appeared to be a 'shot trap' between the hull and the turret. That 120 MM smooth bore with auto loader, which I think they still use, they had to raise the gun tube.

After my platoon / company time was sent to battalion staff as S-3 (Air). Worked on several projects with TRADOC. One was remotely piloted vehicles (RPVS) now they are called "drones" and the BART test the conversion / migration from the M-60 to at the time XM1 of M-1.

Should of stayed in for 20 but my "frau" wasn't with me on that...

Marc

Marc the change over to a 4 tank platoon occured with the "Division 86" and task force concept. It was one of the early changes and the 5th tank went away between 80 and 83 as the changes were implemented with all changes completed by 86, hence Division 86. Basically the TOE for an Infantry Div changed to that of an Armor Div because of the Soviet threat. The 5th tank was transfered to the new Armor units. They also went to 4 companies of tanks and Combat Support Company went away with the scouts and motors going to HHC and Combat Engineer assets (AVLB and CEV) going back to engineer Bns.

Under task force organization units were chopped to each other. In an Infantry Bde the tank Bn would send units to an infantry Bn and receive infantry assets in return. The armor bn would then be set up with one pure armor company, 2 "heavy" companies with 2 tank platoons and 1 inf plt and one lite company with 1 armor plt and 1 inf plts. The sister inf bn would then have 1 pure inf co, 2 lites and one heavy. The only thing that was wrong with that was that armor officers at the time of the change didn't know how to use infantry and infantry offices didn't know how to use armor. That problem was fixed at the advanced courses. The only way they could have made that better would have been to keep the task force set up in garrison. I think it would have worked better if the tankers and grunts had lived and worked together in garrison making them a more cohesive team.

The M551 fired caseless ammo. We would try to get the rubber protective boots from thier ammo to use a muzzel covers for our 105 tubes.

Rick