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......in an M47. The first time I ever got in a tank. I may have posted this before but forgive me. I must be getting old!

My first 'armor' experience was in an M113 at an Armed Forces Day open-house in 1965, Ft Sill Oklahoma.

Hot, humid weather and smelled of gas and funk,.... I loved it!! Ain't been the same since.

I guess that stuck with me in my adult life.

Cool photo TW

Don

My first experience of armour was when, aged 3, My parents were living at the RE camp in Longmoor in the married quarters which surrounded the square on which all the Churchill engineer vehicl;es were parked. One day I wandered off and after it was noticed my parents and an entire armoured engineer squadron spent 14 hours scouring the countryside looking for me.. Eventually someone decided to close down the AFVs for the night and I was discovered quite happily playing commander in a Mk 7 AVRE.

Its still a mystery as to how I managed to get in there...

Howdy 'Weed, Jim, Dontos,
My first experience inside a tank was at Richardson Motor Pool at Fort Knox, age 21, M60A3. I was amazed how big the SOB was from the back. I knew then I had picked the right job in the Army . Retirement will be a sad thing If I can't be involved with tanks anymore . Gotta get a job near a museum or get my own tank .

Joe D

- Joe_D

My first experience inside a tank was at Richardson Motor Pool at Fort Knox, age 21, M60A3.
Joe D

Similar story here. Except for the age (20) and the model I trained on in AIT with D/4/1 (the number on this vehicle is just a coincidence).

Have you ever seen such big stars on a vehicle in your life?

Doug,
Looks like an M48A2C. Reminds me of when the Air Force Air Defense Command was still around with their unique squadron Art. Those F-106's sure looked cool. Only active duty tanks I ever saw painted up pretty was Fox 40 from Berlin. Our Squadron did a gunnery with them at Graf in '86. Shiney OD green with baby oil or wax on them. Was told by some of their guys they would grind off casting numbers and fill the rough marks with bondo. Don't know how true that was but it sure looked that way. BTW, I went through B/3/1 at Knox.

Joe D

- Joe_D

Howdy 'Weed, Jim, Dontos,
My first experience inside a tank was at Richardson Motor Pool at Fort Knox, age 21, M60A3. I was amazed how big the SOB was from the back. I knew then I had picked the right job in the Army . Retirement will be a sad thing If I can't be involved with tanks anymore . Gotta get a job near a museum or get my own tank .
Joe D

Joe

...and why do you think I retired here...?!?
perhaps the best of all worlds. Well, I guess I do need to get a job one of these days.... Been too busy for that lately....

Don

When I was about 6 years old we went to Armed Forces Day at Patrick AFB, Florida. I got to fire blanks through a .30 Cal air-cooled machine gun! I was hooked!

- Joe_D

Only active duty tanks I ever saw painted up pretty was Fox 40 from Berlin. Our Squadron did a gunnery with them at Graf in '86. Shiney OD green with baby oil or wax on them. Was told by some of their guys they would grind off casting numbers and fill the rough marks with bondo. Don't know how true that was but it sure looked that way

Quite true - When I was in Berlin we had Centurions and they were exactly the same. The Tanks never really went anywhere except upto the Olympic Stadium one a month. They were the most perfectly painted vehicles you ever saw. When we got bored we used to take something off a vehicle like a bin - strip it back to the bare metal and then replace all the coats of paints finishing with the deep bronze green and a coat of laquer.

Changing a track was a major event in which practically the entire squadron participated...

We had several exchange visits with the Yanks though then they had M60s - unfortunately I was going through a polaroid phase about then and the images haven't survived the years very well.

Some images attached...

my first armor contact was with an artillery piece. M4 is still there as a matter of fact. funny how time passes...

I got to ride in the co-driver's hatch of an M4A3E8 Sherman with my father. I was maybe 5. My two brothers were in the turret, and it was family day as the Militia unit.

First contact with armor that I remember was back when I was about 7 years old or so. We were driving to visit some family friends North of Baltimore (about 30 -40 minutes from home). Dad pulled off of US-40 down an entrance road and through a gate. As I remember it there was this little thing in the Median. Then there was a Big metal thing with guns sticking out, then another, then another. One right after the other. Soon they atrated looking like ones in the American Heritage book on D-Day that my grandparents had. Then ones like I had seen on 'The Big Picture' on saturday morning.

We went a mile or so, then went out another gate and continued the trip.

That was my introduction to the 'Mile of Tanks' The original one that statrted with the WWI tanks. Later when they rebuilt the main gate everything before the M-5 Stuart was put in storage.

But even today I can remember that first time

ah yes, to be a kid again!!! looking back we were lucky. my parents took us to see alot and exposed us to everything. we traveled alot. saw alot of historical places/battlefields, museums, etc.
we went to ft knox, apg (my grandmother worked there-- to this day when i had gone to visit apg my mom wanted me to look up the house-- not happening)
my father being a modeler of armor and trains, we would stop to look at quite a bit, time permitting. we went to the airshows every summer too.
also pretty cool as a boy to hang out inside the cab of a diesel locomotive!
bob-- you mentioned seeing the 'mile of tanks', now you volunteer there correct?
the first air show i would have seen as a kid, funny, i since having "grown up", have served on that flight line...

Hi all,

I'm a latecomer to this, but here's my story.

My dad was an armor officer so I was probably around tanks most of my life, but my first real memory is of an Armed Forces Day (maybe?) unit display at Ft. Hood in the early 70's. The division? (brigade?) had examples of a lot of their stuff on static display at a post stadium (think high school to get an idea of the extent of the "stadium"). There was a formation for awards I suppose, but my chief memory is the opportunity to climb on several different sorts of tank. These happened every year of the three we were there, and one of those was when I got to climb all over ...and IN!...an M60A2.

Later in that tour I spent about 3 hours on a Saturday, climbing all over an M4 display outside the HQ of the Brigade my dad worked at.

One of my sister's favorite memories is of the time she sat on someone's lap at age about 9 or 10 and 'drove' an M60A1 around at another family day thing in Arizona. She never did anything more military than that, but she'll tell you how cool it was anytime you remind her of it.

C

My first and only contact with a tank was at a state or county fair. I seem to recall the tank being either an M41 or M47 or maybe M48. This would have been sometime in the early to mid 60s. I loved climb all over that thing and even remember peeking into the cupola via the episcopes (periscopes?).

My next close encounter was an old M3A3 or M5 that a junkyard owner had displayed. I took pictures of it with my Pocket Instamatic. It was in Marine Corps livery. The guy actually got it running for the Bicentennial but painted it red, white, and blue like an american flag. I hope he removed that and took it back to its original Corps markings but I don't know.

One of these days, I have to get myself over to the Littlefield Collection and browse.