Theodore's World

That was fun. Texas mudholes swallow Buicks, Toyotas, John Deeres and Suburbans. First time I have seen an Abrams stuck in one. I guess Lts. can do anything.

That was great. Poor Lieutenant's take a lot of crap, but then they deserve it.

Tom glad you liked it.

Bob, haha yes they do.

OMG, that's funny. A butterbar in full hull defilade like a warthog.
The way you tell Armored troops from all the rest is when they're naked they are the ones with all the bruises. Tankers probably still have an unwritten rule that everyone on the tank is responsible for getting the tank out of a fix, and more or less not getting it there in the first place. Throw a track and RHIP goes out the window, all crewmen are equal. I once had my CO in a rage because he wanted me to cross a wash at an angle that would have ensured throwing a track on my fully loaded M60A1, I refused, he insisted so I said it's all yours sir, you can cross here if you want, but you'll throw a track. He jumped back into his jeep and left, he knew that if he'd thrown a track he'd be there with the M88, track bars and winches alongside 3 or 4 PO'd crewmen.
God love 'em they're tougher than I and they have a short battlefield life expectancy. It truly is a young mans game.

Jack hahahahhaa I LOVE your stories of your experiences. Thank you!

Hahahahahaha

Jack, I did not know you were a tanker. How neat! I never dealt with armor in any way, but knew some tankers who were as proud of their mounts as I was of my jump wings or aviation wings. And I think you have to be a great story teller to be a tanker, because those guys could entertain for hours.

Thanks TomR, WT knows a bit about me, that's why she's laughing, I've pulled some dumb stunts as a soldier. I started out as a combat engineer(Landing Party Amphibious), playing with neat but noisy toys that break things, when they get ran over or stepped on, we had an M48 tank, some bridge equipment, even a road grader and lots of defunct equipment as part of the TOE, that unit was consolidated due to being understrength and the survivors were sent to other units, I went to Transportation then RVN. After that hitch I joined an Armored unit and worked all the way up from loader to TC in M60's & M60A1's holding my prior E5 rank, I just simulated the lower ranks for the privilege of learning each position, gunner was fun but you're outside the normal crew's chatter loop. I served under a 1st Lt. who was as crazy as I and we got along great, then I became the platoon SGT of as fine a bunch of men as I've ever met, they'd bitch but they were a team and always got the job done in those iron coffins whether it be -25 degrees or +105 degrees. I had a great time in the Armored unit but I was really too old to take all that punishment, I loved it anyway, especially the comraderie and close nit relationships, we were a family, my liver suffered too, how those guys could drink. I volunteered to go to Fort Knox for extended training, they said I was past the age limit for Knox. I left just before Carter took office, right after they'd made me the training NCO then shipped all 25 of our combat ready M60A1's to Israel. Then they had the audacity to tell us we had to train using jeeps as simulated tanks, starting with basic map reading. I was strictly volunteer, on my third enlistment ready for re-enlistment with no binding commitment, no way was I going to play Mickey Mouse games with prior service experiences in different branches behind me, you can't train effectively(Combat Arms) with out the equipment,I got out and into the reserve control group until ETS. BOT(Burst On Target)Jimmah.